Artisan Beads, straight from the Philippines

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of "e-meeting" a wonderful couple from the Philippines, in a city called Cebu. He shared with me the details of their family business, established in 1985, and I was truly intrigued. 

These beautiful artisan made beads begin with a vision, as with any piece of art. Oscar and his wife dream up and draw out the designs, and then the skilled artisans work their magic to bring them to life, one little detail at a time. 

Each bead starts it journey from a raw wood log, and is then cut down, shaped, sanded, and waxed before being buffed out by hand. Now the magic happens.......a hole is made and the shell is hand set in place. As you could imagine, this is a very tedious process and takes the skills, and patience, of a true artisan.

Aside from the glorious quality of the Ebony wood and the Paua, Abalone, and Makabibi shell, what I loved the most is that these beads are true artisan made beads, and help support their other community members by providing jobs. As a fellow artisan myself, I'm really happy to have the chance to help support Oscar, his family, and their community!

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