Palamuti by PJ Valenciano: One Day At A Time

Last February 20, 2015, we joined Joy Mendiola in celebrating Occasions of Joy through an outreach program with children ages 12 years old. Novie assisted Steph Lopez, our Featured Artist in a Fashion Jewelry Art Workshop. Read the full blog at Occasions of Joy.

I view Novie as a personification of what Palamuti is all about. More than designing and selling jewellery, I founded this business on the basis of providing opportunities, and more importantly empowering women. She is a representation of what Palamuti is: creating with our hands, exploring forms of art and most importantly being an enterprise with a cause. I have retold Novie's story to so many other people; our clients and trainees alike. Change is inevitable, and the only thing you can truly do is to try and become a better person. With this simple goal, Novie and I have come a long way.

We want Novie to maximize her potential so we encourage her to interact with other artists as well. Novie observes Steph Lopez of Flow creating wire-art jewelry.

I taught Novie everything that I've learned about creating handmade "art-fashion" costume jewelry. I make it a point to bring her to my meetings with clients. We want her to learn more about the world and how diverse it truly is, and to expose her to different people, with varying ideas. My reasoning is if she wants to grow as a person, coming from a rural poor community may be viewed as a start from a disadvantageous position, but it is definitely not an excuse to trying to become a better human being in general.

Oftentimes, it is human nature to defer to the mindset of "playing the victim". With poverty becoming a natural environment, having a hopeless outlook in life easily manifests itself to reality. A person's mindset is difficult to change, especially if it becomes ingrained through establishing society. I have always believed that one should be happy with the work they choose. Of course, we cannot negate the need for money needed to address basic needs, but self actualization should not become a sort of "luxury commodity". We should always remember that we did not play a part in where we began, but we definitely have a role in where we are going.

Novie learns a crash course in Adobe Premierre with Cherry Cular, the designer for our Kaanyag Bags.

In university, I learned about Karl Marx's theory of alienation. He states that one type of alienation is the way a person views his or her relationship, or connectedness, to the type of work they do. In a capitalist society, it's so easy to feel treated as instruments of cost efficiency and profit, specially when we speak strictly in terms of numbers and figures. Something in which you poured your heart and soul into, can always be boiled down to a number in a graph.

What we try to accomplish in establishing Palamuti is to have a place for artisans to become connected to their work, rather than solely being a means for financial gain. I've seen friends, colleagues and loved ones who are so unhappy, turning to fill a void through material things that they've attained. (Or even sadder, failed to attain.)

"Let us suppose that we had carried out production as human beings. Each of us would have, in two ways, affirmed himself, and the other person. (1) In my production I would have objectified my individuality, its specific character, and, therefore, enjoyed not only an individual manifestation of my life during the activity, but also, when looking at the object, I would have the individual pleasure of knowing my personality to be objective, visible to the senses, and, hence, a power beyond all doubt. (2) In your enjoyment, or use, of my product I would have the direct enjoyment both of being conscious of having satisfied a human need by my work, that is, of having objectified man’s essential nature, and of having thus created an object corresponding to the need of another man’s essential nature... Our products would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature.^[1]"

^{- Karl Marx}

Who Novie is today is a far cry from the very timid girl I met five years ago. I saw her potential back then, and her desire to become a better person has allowed her to grow. She was hesitant to be my apprentice in jewelry making, as she claims she was not artistic enough to create wearable art pieces. But we instilled in her a belief that with sincere work, she'll be able to learn to open her mind to the world of creativity and imagination. The most important reason for this was she knew, in her heart and mind, that for whatever dreams she may pursue, she would never forget her roots and that her gains will always come from a desire to help others and not to pull anyone down.

Teacher Nikki teaches Novie basic drawing to give her confidence in fashion illustration. We hope we can send Novie to take more classes with Nikki In the future.

We have seen our share of peaks and valleys, and she's been with me all the way. Novie is now a teacher, a designer and most importantly an empowered young woman. I couldn't be more proud of her. I am proud that she sees herself more than just as a mere beader, who's my employee, but a family member bonded to me by love for art, hope, beauty; and more importantly, one who treats work as an investment towards individuality.

Teacher Kerin is Novie's former English Tutor. teacher Kerin shows her support for Palamuti by being one of our Style Advocates.

P.S. You can show your support for Novie by purchasing her collection on our website. Share this opportunity to help others to your family, friends and loved ones! Let's work together to empower women through art, hope, beauty and change!