We don't create them. We channel them.

A house we built 'stick by stick'... in Ciudad del Plata, Uruguay. Yes, it was a fairly precarious cabin... but we loved it. It was the result of our love, our hope, and what we thought we had. We started from the greatest difficulties (Could it have been worse? Undoubtedly... but... was it easy? NO.)... it all happened at once: we lost our jobs, had no close family, were pregnant with twins and a small girl... the house half-finished... and medical tests impossible to afford for a high-risk pregnancy. Music lovers... we had to part with almost all the material possessions we had worked so hard to get: guitars, piano, microphone, amplifiers... phones, computers... everything. To be able to eat... yes, just like that. One day in conversation... we decided we had to make Guardians... we don't know why... but we had to do it... with my huge belly, the 5 of us went to downtown Montevideo on a winter odyssey to look for materials (we didn't even know what we needed, and the reality is we were going to spend the little money we had left on those materials). In short... no molds, no training, no plan. Only Gabriel's hands and mine — at that time I also dabbled in sculpting our first Guardians — we began. The first Guardian was born without anyone asking, and the second... and the third... One day we decided to open a Facebook page to show them. We did a mega photo production (low-cost, obviously, we didn't have a buck... but we put effort and love into it). We chose the name that would represent us... and to our surprise... that same day... almost all the Guardians we had made sold out... at that time they were tender little buns because we still had a long way to go to reach what we are today. Gabriel makes Guardians non-stop, seeking to improve daily, and starts practicing with the faces of real people he gets from the internet.

We began to understand more and more that every piece arrived with a name, a story, and a purpose. We weren't creating them — we were channeling them. And that... was a huge responsibility. We had to improve in every aspect. It wasn't easy... this was getting big and no one prepares you for that. Gabriel keeps practicing Guardian faces, improving them.

The world stopped, you know with what. We locked ourselves in to create with more intensity than ever. What for many was a brake, for us was the year that confirmed this path has no turning back... but again the same: we kept growing nonstop, more and more orders... but we were two young guys trying to make it, without experience... it was hard to do everything alone... parents of 3, and everything seemed very difficult... and it was, until we understood what was happening... we realized autism was part of our lives, so we didn't have the load of a typical family... everything was much harder for us. Grocery shopping seemed impossible between the kids' tears or crises. We didn't sleep even though they were no longer babies. And there came the tears... Was this always going to be like this? The day we're gone, what will become of them? What if something happens to them?... AUTISM. Add to that we got depressed, it was the pandemic, we couldn't get all the materials to work and the work had skyrocketed so much we had 300 shipments backed up waiting to see how we'd handle them... WhatsApp wouldn't stop ringing, and our heads were about to explode. Year-end arrived... and the cherry on top was that at an agency, we went to do 100 Christmas shipments, and they lost 60 packages... What else could happen? Oh yes... the back neighbor was stealing our electricity and the bill came outrageously high, and amid complaints and lawyers, we managed to move (by then we were already in Colonia del Sacramento)... something we didn't expect awaited us... Los Pinos, such a calm area of Uruguay, brought us back to balance, allowed us to catch up on shipments while calming the nervous system... a bit. And yes, Gabriel keeps practicing faces to improve them.

Having lived in Punta del Este... which we love and is beautiful, but a walk where we discovered a dreamy sunset in Piriápolis... invited us to look for a home around here. And as always, everything came together perfectly... because it had to be that way. We found a house in the area, started with a different vibe, and began dreaming of stopping the made-to-order creation of our Guardians... because we didn't mention it, but until then we only worked to order, with months-long waiting lists... and although it was nice, it was too demanding... because at first the client says the wait is fine but after days pass... anxiety kicks in and everything stops being so okay... ha. We dreamed of creating one-of-a-kind beings. But how would we do it? We don't come from a wealthy background, and we didn't find a briefcase full of dollars in the street either... so... we started manifesting, full on. But of course, it began happening little by little — there's no way to do what we do at multinational speed. So, slowly, the idea of stock was materializing... but sometimes things sold very fast... not a complaint, NEVER... but we couldn't keep up. And we realized more changes were needed and we had to flow... that things would come gradually. Meanwhile... we worked on improving ourselves and improving the kids of the household, changing diet, supplementing, researching as much as possible... until we learned so much, so much in general. It wasn't just dropping sugar... we had to resolve inherited traumas, the health of one and the other, live, pay bills, philosophize, work, create Guardians, content... we won't deny it... several times we asked the cosmic siblings for help, to see if a ship would come down to lend us a hand... and they did help, but without having to come down in person, ha. Anyway, the house got small, we're cramped, it's beautiful with a divine view, but we bump into each other constantly. Again... time to look for a home in another space. Obviously Gabriel keeps practicing to improve faces... yes.

In short, by manifesting we found the house we wanted… and it happened, as always, in perfect timing and in a magical way... we always had to push ourselves at 1000% every time we wanted to do something, this time would be no different. We did half the move in our truck, making about 15 trips with the kids in the car back and forth, 1 or 2 days before my birthday, in the middle of June, winter, rain, chaos. And one or two days before our oldest girl's 15th birthday... yes, she has her birthday a day after mine. After settling in, we decided it was a huge, spacious house we could keep beautiful and tidy, and also turn part of it into a shop. "What? A shop?" Our past selves wouldn't believe it... a space at home to receive people... wow, incredible. And we did it, as always, in a big way... we started with a base idea that we kept expanding... and behold, a shop. But still, a year later we'd disable it for walk-in visits because the reality is WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO ATTEND IT. Every person who comes requires a lot of time, attention, and we have a different reality at home, where autism keeps doing its thing and we keep discovering new things. Then... it happened: One of our Guardians landed in Madrid. Another in New York. Another in Tokyo. Tracked international shipping became our bridge to the world. More than 15,000 Guardians adopted in 45+ countries. Interview on national TV. A community of almost half a million people who feel the same accompany us on our social media. And there we realized again that it's never going backward — that when you pay attention to the signs, everything is moving forward, being where you need to be to reach where you need to go. Although we no longer open the shop to the public as often, it's still here. We use it as our base studio and it's our sacred space where we create elementals, content, and pack to ship worldwide 🌎.

"To the whole world." Yes, now we ship worldwide... Mariana and Gabriel from 2015 wouldn't believe it. Our boy talks, understands, communicates, progresses. The girls are perfect... we keep growing as people, and finally, we made it. No more "made to order"; now everything is one-of-a-kind, doesn't repeat, our goal was achieved... nothing was luck, everything was choice... some very hard, others painful, others that made us grow internally. Learning to set boundaries was something we both came to work on in this life, and now that I realize... it's something we learned as a couple, together, supporting each other when others didn't understand that our priority was our children, our family life and unity... because if they ask us "What is Duendes del Uruguay?" it's impossible to summarize in 3 words, we have to elaborate, and a lot. We are change, conscious vibration... learning, effort, ideas, creativity, honesty. A long road walked learning from art, nurturing ourselves from it, from nature, exchanging with it, because for us, this isn't decoration... this is an exchange of energy, of souls, collaboration, love, family, community. Learning marketing, logistics, graphic design, web... searching from the inside out, and never copying others (another day we'll tell you how much they copy us, hehe). Thank you for being part of this journey.