Mabilón Jiménez Quispe survives in one of Lima's poorest areas thanks to his handicraft -- making retablos -- a folk art derived from traditional Catholic church art. Mabilón sells his work in Peru and overseas. But the earnings from this time-consuming craft are meager, and many other retablo-makers have abandoned the craft to take up other work. Today, only around 50 families in Lima make retablos, just half of them working by hand as Mabilón does.

"Nowadays, most of us don’t think there are people just sitting in their house making thousands of pieces of art."