Celebrate a Vow of Love, Happiness, and Hope

"I wanted to create an opportunity to employ, train, and educate these artists as we grow and expand our website and our mission. This is where PJ and I decided to partner up; our shared vision of creating jobs and giving back to the community is the start of creating our global marketplace called palamutishop.com. "- Michelle M. Denisoff

This coming October marks the first wedding anniversary of Michael and Michelle Denisoff. More than loving Filipino handcrafted works wearable art, Michelle is an avid supporter of Filipino women artisans. As a Filipino who migrated to the United States, Michelle understands the arid economic conditions of her native Philippines, which is why she invested in a website Palamutishop.com, to help showcase Filipino handmade designs to a global audience. Last year, we had an opportunity to design Michelle's accessories for her wedding. Our artisans customized handmade accessories for most of her bridal entourage, such as; the wedding hairpiece, the flower girl's hairpiece and her bridesmaid's jewelry.

Michelle is one of Palamuti's main supporters. She eventually became one of our main business partners as well. After a 2006 volunteer trip in the Philippines, she made a promise to herself that she will come  come back to help in whichever way she can, to make a difference.  It was in 2011, when we were featured on The Filipino Channel that Michelle learned about us and a fruitful partnership has been born.

 

"I didn't how at that time and it wasn't until I watched a TFC (The Filipino Channel) segment were Filipino talents are featured with their work. I had a vision then to create an e-commerce website where Filipino artisans are able to showcase their talents in handmade products. These artists who have no means of introducing their products to the world."- Michelle M. Denisoff

                   

Among our favorite designs that we made, that has made into our list of mainstay products, is the bridesmaid set consisting of a necklace and a bracelet made of semi-precious stones, rhinestones and crystals. We based the set's design on Michelle's aesthetics and the theme of her bridesmaids' attire. Thus, the yellow Citrine semi-precious stone jewelry, served as a harmonious accent to the bridesmaids' navy blue cocktail dresses. A hand-loomed  fabric called Abel ti Iloko, which originated from Ilocos Norte, one of the northernmost Philippine provinces, was used to create the accompanying tote bags. The fabric itself was a product of a centuries-old tradition of native Filipino, proving that art has always been in the Filipino blood, before any western influence. We decided to use this material to honor Michelle's heritage and fashion sensibilities.   

We named the collection "Panata"; which ,when translated to English, means "Vow".  The collection has since taken on many forms; all varying on different elements, such as the use of colors and stones. These pieces will soon be available on our website. They will also be sold in upcoming trade shows in the US. 

Second Sunday in Main: August 10, 2014 
American & Bead Jewelry Shows: August 16-17, 2014

It was a privilege to create these accessories for Michelle. Her support and belief in the quality and beauty of our work, has been very instrumental for us in reaching out to a global market, It's also been a great opportunity for Filipino women artisans, who are willing to learn and improve, to continue striving to create something meaningful with their own hands. Through women with style and substance such as Michelle, the dream of helping underprivileged women, becomes a little bit closer to reality. 

Keeping it real.- PJV

Woman of Style and Substance: Tina Ortiz

Tina Ortiz, one of our valued clients and supporters, is someone we truly enjoy creating and making statement necklaces for.  Unique projects spring from her sophisticated fashion palate . Her concepts and ideas give us the freedom to tap our artistic side.  It's also a challenging venture to design for her; as a great deal of harmonizing knowledge in materials and fundamental techniques, to bring her visualized designs to life. For these reasons, we love it when she speaks her mind on what she wants aesthetically. I personally look forward to having clients with a refined sense of style and a unique personality.

Outfits inspired by the Tina Zitro Collection during an intimate dinner with colleagues in Sofitel (L-R: Lara, Tina, Kim)

As well as being a woman with great taste, she's also a person with a big heart. Her recently commissioned pieces are handmade by some of our most talented Filipino women artisans. The “Clustered Flowers” and “Butterfly” were hand embroidered by a mother we've trained from an urban poor community in Metro Manila. She has been beading for Palamuti for five years. With constant practice, and the desire to produce exquisite wearable art, she continues to expand her artistic abilities, while giving an additional source of income for her family. With the benevolence of people like Tina Ortiz, we are able to reach out to more women artisans with similar life situations.

Another piece that we designed for Tina is the “Under-the-Sea” concept necklace, which has proven to be a challenge for us in designing and crafting. As artisans, we've been thoroughly engaged with the process of creating this piece, constantly making adjustments on colors and shapes. This bead embroidered necklace is both a product of her unique ideas and our artisans' passion to execute the design, while meeting her expectations.

 "Lovely! Thank you PJ and Kim for this gorgeous necklace. "- Tina 

We are reminded of sea life as a play and harmony of colours and texture. As such, we've opted to elevate the use of materials by fusing it with our core technique; handmade bead embroidery. We used a variety of shells to capture the texture present in marine life. We used two icons to represent the concept: “Starfish” & “Sea Horse”.  By fusing different materials with seed and cut beads as the main components, we were able to reach a level of vibrancy for this concept piece. 

In honor of Tina's support for our artisans, we've decided to name our latest collection after her. The “Tina Zitro Collection” highlights all of the statement pieces we've made for the woman who inspired us to craft these handmade bead jewelry necklaces. 

Timeless Pieces and Rainy Day Fashion

While it's summer in other parts of the world, here in the Philippines, where our main production site is located, we are now experiencing the rainy season. During these months, the archipelago shifts from it's warm, sunny, and dry climate into the wet season. In addition to the yearly monsoon, the Philippines expects a steady stream of tropical storms and typhoons consisting of heavy rain and strong winds. 

"It's a gloomy Tuesday! I took advantage of the weather by wearing my favorite embellished scarf over a simple white tunic top then grabbed a blazer to keep me warm. I want it to be casual so I completed the ensemble by wearing my fave blue jeans, then I picked my open toe heels to complete my outfit for the day."- Kim Basa, Amaya 

And so our style advocate, and proud owner of Amaya , took the wet weather as an advantage to wear her favorite embellished scarves from Palamuti. Though the Philippines is considered as a hot and humid climate, when the wind and rain arrives in force, people still experience the cold because the country gets drenched. 

As a working mom who works in a corporate office,  Kim's sense of style generally revolves around her everyday office attires. Her choice of ensemble springs from her fashion intuition and love for dressing up. She keeps a collection of staple outfits in-hand, while adding a twist, by incorporating carefully selected accessories. Styling is also another form of creativity, and she uses her sense of style to give life to her rainy day outfits; while most simply cope with another tedious day of pouring rain. Draping an original, handmade scarf around her neck during these days shows her ability to balance fashion intuition and practical use. 

As such, Amaya and Palamuti have teamed up in creating new and exciting scarf necklaces. We can't wait to see the outcome of this partnership with Kim. We are privileged to be working with someone who has so many wonderful ideas on how to elevate a simple scarf to a unique, one-of-a-kind piece that every woman should have. 

Seeds of Hope: Handmade Accessories Training Workshop

The “Sampaguita” inspired mother and daughter necklaces was made by a collaborative effort between two participants from Barangay Masagana: Lila and RJ. 

Lila, aged 10, is home schooled by her parents. She wanted to join the workshop, together with her mother, because she was eager to learn our style of handcrafting. We allowed her to join the group because we saw the excitement in her eyes upon seeing an array of colorful beads right in front of her. The “Sampaguita” necklace is her first project, and  although it took her a week to finish, she accomplished it with pride. The seeds of a new found interest in creating handmade art was also able to bloom. According to her mother, Lila continues to design new pieces inspired by the local flora in El Nido. Her latest design concepts are: “Wildflower” and “Basil Leaves”.

 

"BASILIA- Basil Leaves"

"I want to try new experiences. I enjoy beading because it fascinates me to visualize and create a beautiful handmade design from simple beads, thread, and fabrics"- Buwan Lila

RJ on the other hand, was the only male participant in our bead embroidery training workshop. He is an 18 year old out-of-school youth.  He accomplished the daughter part of “Sampaguita” necklace, which is his second beadwork project. And although he joined the workshop to pass the time, while awaiting summons from his employers in Aborlan, Palawan, he shows the potential to grow as an handmade artisan, if he is willing to devote himself to it.

After the 3 week training, we were able to come up with a short list of participants who had the right attitude, and exhibited the skills needed to continue training as bead embroidery artisans. To date, they continue to practice techniques and concepts they've learned from the training. Those who wanted to continue to learn more about handmade bead embroidery, have made designing and beading a part of their daily routine. 

Part of our plan is to go back to El Nido to provide further training for women we've selected from our first batch of participants. We hope that by further increasing their skills and knowledge, they will be able to handle the responsibilities of passing on their knowledge to new participants and the next generations of Filipino women artisans.

We hope that we can be able to continue these workshops by forming partnerships with local businesses.  Several souvenir shops have already offered to carry products made by the mothers we've trained in El Nido. In addition, we will also be selling their handmade creations on our website. As fruits of their labors, six of their designs from the training seminar will be showcased in trade shows in Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio this coming July and August, through our US partner. 

Through these channels, Palamuti hopes to provide an additional source of livelihood for more Filipino women, namely unemployed mothers,and out of school youth.  

Statement Concept Piece: Requiron Necklace

"As a mother, I was never able to develop my artistic side because I had to take care of my family first. As a Palamuti artisan , I am now able to do both; designing and creating while earning income to support my family."- Tes

This necklace was made by Tes Dulce, a native of Bicol, Philippines. She is one of our trained mother- artisans who has been with us for four years.   

Our core technique, bead embroidery, is our greatest strength when it comes to handmade designs. It's best expressed in making concept pieces. As a designer translating concepts to reality is a challenge to creativity and knowledge of techniques and materials. My philosophy in crafting is being able to manage the client's expectations, and at the same time, making the final piece a reflection aesthetics for the client and myself. 

Throughout the years we have made quite a number of concept pieces. As a philosophy, we only make one of each design. This is primarily due to the difficult task of beading and hand stitching. Once these products are sold, we mark them for customization, and new clients can purchase these statement pieces on a made-to-order basis. 

The decision of making only a singular piece for each design concerns both the business aspect, and more importantly, the creative process for every artisan. Every handmade artisan should be bound into making quality pieces, rather than prioritizing quantity. We want our clients to respect and appreciate the process of making these wearable art pieces, so that every stitching of cut or seed beads into the felt cloth truly is a soulful experience both for the designer and the beader. 

The "Requiron" necklace was designed in 2012. We made two versions of this necklace, each time improving the techniques and use of materials. Thus no two pieces are ever the same. The core design of the original piece is there to influence, but fusing elements of techniques and material knowledge, changes the look of the design. 

After a year, we decided to make another one. By using new materials, we were able to improve the beauty of this necklace, whose story will continue to be passed on to the wearer of our ever-evolving handcrafted designs. 

Customized Pieces: Flowers & Butterflies

A client of ours, who loves to accessorize and collect original handmade jewellery, recently asked us to customize statement necklace for her. The design’s theme revolved around clustered flowers and butterflies. She also specified us to use, predominantly; the colors red, yellow, peach, and pink for the florwers while royal blue, magenta, fuchsia, yellow and apple green for the butterfly.  After several sketches, we were finally able to design two pieces:  

A challenge that we always face in bead embroidery design is how to give the piece texture. It’s an element of design that stops our creations from getting a “flat” look. Along with maintaining a proper balance between color combinations and texture; we always make sure that our pieces “come to life” in accordance with what our client wants.

To give the flower cluster piece texture, I decided to use flower brooches. First, I removed the pins from the original stock of brooches. I then used the flower part of the brooch to embellish the handmade statement necklace. This is a very tedious process, especially if you’re sewing the brooches, individually, by hand. However, we were very pleased with what came out:

For the butterfly-inspired statement pieces, we went back to the basics, in that we used simple craft beads as the main component for the necklace. The challenge in using craft beads meanwhile is how to make the piece glamorous, while using base materials. We achieved by subtly placing a few pieces of crystals to the entire piece. This slight addition greatly enhances the effect of the craft beads:

Lastly, we improved our finishing by using faux leather instead of the usual satin or suede/ felt cloth, to cover the back.

It’s a difficult task to envision and design a piece that’s supposed to adhere to another person’s aesthetics and style. It’s even more difficult to execute. Finding the right material, colors, and blending them together is a painful process in itself. Even with all that effort, at the end of the day, your client might even reject it. However, we view this entire process as a form of collaborating and learning. We believe that experience is life’s best teacher; and it’s always a soulful experience to see beauty through the eyes of another.

Keeping it real. - PJV 

Filipino Style Advocate: Cayetano Legacy Collection

Palamuti  is a proud supplier for Cayetano Legacy Collection. We hold similar views, in which the Filipino artist can proudly display their creations globally. We recently provided them with several handmade statement necklaces, designed and crafted by Filipino women artisans trained by Palamuti.

Cayetano Legacy Collection was founded by three first generation Filipino American sisters. After recognizing a need for women’s jewelry and handbags, showcasing beautifully sourced materials from the Philippines, they wanted to bring worldwide attention to the beautiful handcrafted creations coming from their native country, while also giving back to the nation that has given them their heritage.

As a bi-coastal fashion lifestyle company, providing classic designs of women's accessories in a modern setting, they actively support Filipino programs that train its citizens to source and manufacture these products.  They are very active in promoting and selling these products through their website, cayetanolegacy.com, and in trunk shows in various parts of the United States.

Among the designs they have chosen to include in their next collection are our Pangarap ni Esperanza, Bastet in Brown and Aurora. All of these necklaces show our artisans' command of beading, primarily using cut and seed beads.

                   


It is through companies, like Cayetano Legacy Collection Inc. who believe, not only in our products but the stories behind them, that keeps us doing what we love to do: creating stories of beauty and empowerment through handcrafted jewelry.

Here are some of Cayetano Legacy Collection’s upcoming events from July to September 2014:  

July

7/1 - 7/31

7/12

BEAUTIQUE DAY SPA & SALON

Beautique Day Spa & Salon - Rice Village , 

2507 Times Blvd , Houston, TX

August

8/1 - 8/30

MAGPIE NYC

Magpie NYC, 

488 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY

8/9

EXHALE SPA

Exhale Spa - Bridgehampton , 

2415 Main Street, Bridgehampton, NY

8/24

WILD RUFFLE POP-UP

Wild Ruffle Pop Up Market, 

Main Ave, Prior Lake, MN

September

9/13 - 9/14

BLOOMINGDALE’S

Bloomingdale's - SoHo, 

504 Broadway, New York, NY

9/13 - 9/14

BLOOMINGDALE’S

Bloomingdale's - Glendale Galleria, 

103 South Brand Blvd. , Glendale

Palamuti Travel Advisory: El Nido, Philippines

We recently wrote about our trip to El Nido, Palawan, Philippines. One of the main reasons on why we decided to visit was to be able to find talented women artisans willing to share in our vision of creating beautiful handmade pieces. After a three-week training period conducted by one of our in-house designers, the women of El Nido were able to come up with these pieces:

 Some of their handmade creations will be displayed this coming August 2014, at the grand opening of Islandfront's Souvenir Shop! Located at brgy. Corong-corong, El Nido, the resort features affordable beachfront rooms at one of the most beautiful beach locations in Southeast Asia.

For their next lesson, our artisans based in El Nido will be sent these sketches as a teaching guide for their next bead embroidered pieces:

Filipino Women Artisans- Handmade Movement

One of Palamuti’s visions when we started to make handcrafted accessories and costume jewellery was to be able to find a platform for the female Filipino artisan to showcase their own brand of handmade products. A few years ago, we were able to put up a website, which allowed us to display our creations to a global audience. Throughout the years, as we continue to develop new designs and techniques, we have kept our eyes open and have found new artists who are also passionate about creating with their hands and improving their craft. At some level, all artists are kindred spirits; people whose creations stem from experiences that have touched their heart and soul.

Rated PG

As a major in Fine Arts and Painting, Paola Germar utilized her knowledge of the visual arts to create her brand of edgy handmade products. Also a graduate of dress making and knitting,, she has a command of using different mediums and materials, which she uses to enhance her creations. She came up with her brand name, Rated PaolaGermar, after the “parental guidance” tag that’s attached to rate certain television shows, because it struck her that her initials were always mentioned on TV! As an artist, she is a combination of wide-eyed youthful perspective and quirky ideas. Her latest collection of handcrafted bags entitled “Flash Bullb Dreams”, are inspired by fragments of her memories. For example, one of her bags was embellished with quartz. She encapsulated the feeling of the freezing cold which she experienced in Japan, translating them into a handmade bag worthy of an exhibit space in a museum. As she describes them; her creations are detailed snapshots of her memory. And it is her hope that as she shares her memories and experiences with you through art, she’s simply trying to make you smile.

Amaya

Kim started Amaya due to her fondness in accessorizing with the use of uniquely handcrafted necklaces.  It started when she got pregnant with her second child, a girl, who she wanted to share her affinity and passion for dressing up. As a manager for a telecommunications company which required her to wear a smart, business-casual dress code, she started matching her outfits with handmade statement pieces she purchased. She wore these custom-made necklaces to work every single day, and soon some of her officemates noticed. They asked where her where she purchased them, and from there, after entertaining orders one by one, she saw a business opportunity out of the demands of her colleagues.

Encouraged by the thought of realizing a dream, she named her brand of unique handmade accessories after her daughter, Amaya. As she continues to pursuing this vision of providing unique handcrafted accessories to moms like her, who share the same love for handmade accessories, she’s thankful that she found the wisdom and inspiration, despite the many challenges facing entrepreneurs and artists, through one significant life event --- being a mother to a daughter named Amaya.

Flow Jewelry andCrafts

While many jewelry businesses start from the love of jewelry, Flow started the other way – it first came about as a way for Steph Lopez to supplement her income as a sculptor and visual artist. This eventually cultivated her love for jewellery-making as an art form in itself, thus serving as an impetus to create pieces that make a woman feel as special and unique as she truly is. She started to learn how to make jewellery in 2012 and establishing her brand Flow, soon followed. Her unique style of handmade jewellery pieces and other trinkets has evolved gradually since then.  In the past year, she has been focused on making more ornate pieces that incorporate a lot of wirework – an element of design she lifted from her experience in making most of her sculptures.

The name “Flow” came to her as she was taking a vacation by the sea. Her love for the beach and water inspired her brand name and the process of how she works when it comes to making “trinkets”.  As an artist, she subscribes to a very spontaneous and “flowing” process. Usually, she simply compiles her materials in front of her, and allows her creativity to flow. Rarely does she draw or plan on how most pieces will look once they’re done.

Palamuti greatly admires these Filipino women artisans, who are dedicated to improving their craft through a process of assimilating life’s experiences. We share a common goal, which is to follow one’s dreams and passions, and to take paths that have opened up, no matter how unconventional, daunting, and uncharted these paths seem. We hope that these artisans continue to be inspired through their artistic journey, as they serve as inspirations for Palamuti’s vision that Filipino artists come to realize their niche in the world of unique, handmade creations and sustainable fashion movement.