Teaching Beyond Walls

We believe in starting with something small so that we can make more meaningful changes along the way. Novie is our first in-house artisan and apprentice. Since coming to Manila from a rural community in the northern Philippines, she has already mastered most of our basic beading techniques. With every handmade piece of costume jewelry, she grows her skills in designing and beading. The best thing about teaching artisans such as her is that she is now capable of transferring the knowledge she gained by teaching other potential women artisans. For the past years, we have been invited to conduct small scale workshops, mostly for participants from poor communities, on how to make handmade accessories. As our chief apprentice she has played a significant role as an instructor for these workshops. The opportunity to teach others a skill in which they can use to help their livelihood, has helped her improve her skills as an artist. These workshops have also given us a sense of direction and fulfilment; that small scale efforts will someday amount to become relevant.

Our El Nido workshop for this year, was her most challenging livelihood training workshop. In this assignment, she was the main resource person who taught the participants. She was in charge of a group of women, ranging from teenage girls, mothers and grandmothers. After that, when we got back to Manila, our neighbour (who is also our current seamstress for our scarves) suggested that we teach her household help in beading, so that she can earn much needed extra income. Lyn-Lyn, who hails from Northern Samar, and has nine siblings she helps support financially, decided that her free time after household chores were best spent learning a new skill to help her earn money. Now, that we see Novie's maturity and equipped to handle an apprentice of her own, she started teaching Len-Len. She and Novie would spend entire afternoons, beading in our "kubo". On other days, Novie would be the one to go to Lyn's house and they would do their respective projects together there. The way Novie goes about to teach Len-Len is how I taught her all those years back. Teaching and learning should be a serious process, but without the absence of fun and positive reinforcement. In most of our blogs, we always reiterate that designing is more than being able to draw and sketch, it is to able to envision the process for the idea to take form. This however is not something that is done over a night or over a few courses. It is a lifetime commitment and devotion to your craft.  I continue to learn new techniques everyday, by allowing myself to work on several personal projects as part of my daily routine. 

We have always believed in the potential of communities to be able to help one another.  Caring for the people within  your immediate vicinity is always a good place to start, and we have tried to weave this into our advocacy. It is very hard to find women who will commit to a 6 month training of bead embroidery. In these hard times, opportunities to earn money are limited, especially to those who are experiencing life beneath the poverty line. I have always shared to my family and friends, even with our apprentice, Novie, that the end goal of what we are doing is not only to make money, but to empower and change the mindset of people when it comes to work. 

Beyond that, we want to place value in our craft, wherein our clients understand the process of making, creating and producing finished products. This ensures that hard work coupled with passion, are rewarded. 

Keeping it real.- PJV