Some Things to See in Santa Ignacia

Some days ago, Ms. Winea of the local government unit of Santa Ignacia approached me needing help with some frames required of the municipality by the provincial government of Tarlac.  Nine frames in total, I was asked to do layouts for seven of them.

With express permission from Ms. Winea, here are the seven photos I did for Santa Ignacia:

"The Pikkan Falls at Brgy. Calipayan. Thinly veiled by lush greenery within rolling fields and hills of Barangay Calipayan lies Santa Ignacia's secret, unlocked only by the seasons." Source photo from Carmela Prado.

"Brgy. Calipayan. Barangay Calipayan is a stretch of green abundance, situated at the western area of the municipality.  Its wood and farm lands are speckled with pools, ponds and creeks, both natural and man made, reflecting the serenity of the Santa Ignacia sky." 

"Woodinspirations Crafts. Magic happens in Barangay Poblacion East with an enterprise transforming second hand wood and bamboo into little trinkets and souvenirs for homes, offices, and gifts.  Woodinspirations does not only create memories from discardables, it also betters the lives of farmers, women and out of school youth."

"Pottery in Santa Ignacia. Some patches of soil in Santa Ignacia have been found to be suitable for pottery.  Local craftsmen have mastered the art of making paso (planters), traditional palayoks (cooking pots) dalikan (stoves) and eventually jars for indoor and outdoor aesthetics."

"Pascasio's Pottery. In Barangay Baldios, Pascasio's Pottery has set up a kiln and with it, batch upon batch of freshly fired ceramics of terra cotta clay.  In the yard are many different varieties of plants and landscaping accessories the visiting gardener can lay his eyes on."

"Kabyawan at Barangays San Francisco, Cabaruan and Taguiporo.  Sugarcane is traditionally milled in Barangay San Francisco, Cabaruan and Taguiporo from the months of December to May.  A kalabaw goes around the machine, squeezing the extracts from the stalks.  The sweet juice is later used to prepare local delicacies like the patupat (rice cakes wrapped in buri leaves) and kalti (cassava or papaya boiled in sugar) among others as it has always been since ages past." Source photo from Ms. Winea of LGU Santa Ignacia.

"Santa Ignacia's Patupat. Subtly sweet sticky rice wrapped in silag (buri) leaves, Santa Ignacia's patupat is cooked by boiling it in sugarcane juice.  A common sight in the public market, these along with local specialties such as kinalti, tupig, suman, iniruban, and other rice cakes make popular pasalubongs for the indulgent traveler."  Source photo from Ms. Winea of LGU Santa Ignacia.

Santa Ignacia, like the rest of Tarlac, has its understated charms, rarely known to everyone.

These frames, along with the rest of the municipalities' of the province will be available for viewing at the Museo de Tarlac.

A Trip to San Antonio Zambales

February 7-8, was my third time teaching in Zambales.  The scenic route was of course, a welcome sight to behold, riding the bus before daybreak and seeing the West Philippine Sea covering a good amount of the horizon.

Nostalgia. I remember family vacations in La Union when I see any huge body of water right outside the vehicle window.

My client this time was the local government unit of San Antonio.  A quaint coastal town. The kind you'd want to live in, with business during weekdays and bike trips to the beach on Saturdays.

Stayed in a place called Nora's Beach Resort. I had very little time with my gracious hosts, but the hospitality is of course, Filipino first class. 

Walking around the vicinity of Nora's Beach Resort, you'll see brick walls and huts made of wood, nipa and bamboo. A splendid beach paradise, indeed.

This is the view just outside Nora's Beach Resort.  Sun, sea, sand and some mountains too.

In the distance, Capones Island. According to Paul, the LGU coordinator, the island is where they shot Marimar's dwelling from the latest Marimar incarnation of GMA 7, starring Marian Rivera.

Took a walk at the beach at around 5 am and watched the sun rise too. Pundaquit Beach sort of looks like a budding Boracay of  Central Luzon.

Apparently, with Anawangin Cove, Capones Island, Pundaquit Beach and a plethora of tourist destinations there's a scarcity of souvenirs (the few souvenirs sold according to some people were made of shells, but they don't make good souvenirs cause shell hunting for profit is never good for the environment).

Found these at the beach too, but I had to throw them back in the water. Shells and corals don't belong anywhere else!

But beyond the sights of sea and sand, the agenda was to teach the 4H Club, youth from the second-class municipality, how to manufacture key chains, refrigerator magnets and other little trinkets.

Funny I was teaching kids in a Senior Citizen's Center.

Ms. Vanj of DTI Zambales giving her welcome to our workshop participants.

Mr. Cantil, the municipal administrator pep talking the participants for the project's sustainability.

It's a two day activity, practically split into three sections namely raw material preparation, processing, and finally finished off with a pricing and costing lecture.

Nice seeing everyone busy.

Pre-processing parts that will eventually become souvenirs. 

A manong making bamboo amplifiers.

We processed the parts by the batch.

Finished them all simultaneously too.

The participants were awesome.  I firmly believe that in any workshop I teach, a bit of local flavor is needed, as it's this sense of independence is what will actually put character into the product they've been wanting to develop. Teach the basics, and let them do what they want. And indeed, they were very much enthusiastic about adding some personal flair into their creations.

Their innovations: use of macrame, graphics, and shapes like surfboards.

Detail of knotting made by one participant.

One participant decided to color the edges black.

Another participant used abaca twine to decorate his bamboo amplifier.

A participant decided to put legs on his amplifiers to prevent it from rolling sideways.

I've heard from them that they've attended some trainings on making bamboo items like lamps, but their module didn't include finishing. Luckily, I teach finishing with the processing modules.

A participant even decided to make earrings (shown lying flat on the shelf), among ref magnets and tags.

A participant etched the silhouette of the Capones Island onto his pen holder.

I would say the town of San Antonio is blessed for having a very supportive local government unit. The youth, through the 4H Club is also quite active.  With a booming tourism industry and plans properly executed, a bright future lies ahead of them.

Mandatory selfie with participants. 😜

Talked About Marketing Library Services with Arts & Crafts

February 3, 2016.  I never thought I'd be adjusting my usual marketing modules to suit the needs of some clients this way. I'm used to teaching marketing to fellow entrepreneurs and frankly, I was surprised. Librarians. They're kind of different, but not really. Since it's another opportunity to educate people about visual communication,  I gladly took on the job.

I arrived pretty early!

The talk's called "Promoting Library Services through Arts & Crafts" organized by Culture & Events Library, a division of E4E Business Ventures Phils. Inc., a company based in Pampanga. It was part of a three-day event called "National Training-Workshop on Storytelling, Arts and Crafts and New Library Services" and was held at the Manila Grand Opera Hotel.

We tried to address an existing problem which is getting libraries to showcase their services through arts and crafts, with the trending decline of library goers and book borrowers.  It's getting these libraries to stay relevant in a market that's been distracted with a lot of tech.

As it is with most communication models, there's the source (Their respective libraries), the message and the receiver (for them to identify).  It is through understanding these elements that anyone would be able to effectively come up with a solution.

Going about discussing how it's a communication problem. Image found at Culture & Events Library's Facebook page.

I've categorized these media according to where they manifest, non-digital (print and ambient) and digital (Images, moving pictures, software & application, virtual & augmented realities).  This is so that the participants would find it easier to choose which they would utilize in informing their market of their services.

I also strongly suggested bringing life to their libraries' online presence, like starting a page like Bulaon Community Library's too.

The talk lasted for about an hour, with 90 slides, mostly visuals, and is actually a tweaked version of the introduction of a three-part series on marketing and branding.

Mandatory post-talk groupfie.

For more information on seminars, workshops and events by E4E Business Ventures Inc., you can message them on their Facebook page.

That Time I Went to Zambales to Teach Souvenir Making

I got invited to teach some peeps in Zambales, how to make souvenir items out of bamboo back in 2015.

The workshop participants are indigenous peoples from all over their province.  They've got traditional folk crafts like bamboo pipes, bird calls, whistles, flutes, bows and arrows, but they also wanted to produce souvenir items like key chains, refrigerator magnets and the like.

Traditional bamboo crafts from Zambales. Image taken from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/pinay-solo-backpacker/jungle-survival-pamulaklakin-forest-trail-075027297.html

Yours truly cooperated with Ms. Jaravata of DTI Zambales. It was a two day seminar on bamboo processing, with really awesome results.

I'm sharing some pics here:

Earrings by Ms. Jaravata.

Some bangles in the foreground.

Pen holders styled like mugs.

Refrigerator magnets!

More pen holders.

Assorted cuts and some letter openers at the upper left hand side of the photo.

They even exhibited some works in Likha ng Central Luzon 2015, which I failed to take pictures of. Sad :(

I'll be going back to Zambales soon, and hopefully more fresh stuff to post too!

Procuring Bamboo in Santa Ignacia

Some weeks back, we were looking for a supplier of bamboo poles.

The long and winding road!

You see, the family business processes these raw materials and turns them into handicrafts, of course with the help of local craftsmen.

From pieces for burning, to pretty pieces for home and office.

Typically, these things are made into place mats, fencing materials, a variety of native baskets like the bakke and bilao.  I've heard some years back that there's a guy somewhere in town who still makes tiklis (in Ilocano; in Tagalog they're known as kaing) baskets.

A bilao with lumpia wrappers. Image found in http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/marketmans-quest-for-the-thinnest-lumpia-wrappers

The sad truth is that it's a fading tradition.  The government has made efforts to address the revival of folk crafts in the form of livelihood training seminars. One example is that conducted in the neighboring town of Mayantoc some years ago by the Department of Trade and Industry Tarlac.

There's a guy somewhere in town who used to make place mats for us.

Place mats sold by Woodinspirations Crafts back in Likha ng Central Luzon 2015.

Now on to Santa Ignacia's kawayan.  This place, most especially the barrios, is actually littered with clumps of kawayan. Locals know where to get these, and there's widespread belief that rabong is easily pilfered by neighbors. LOL

The trouble with procuring kawayan for commercial use is that it's usually planted in ancestral lands of families, meaning it's shared property.  You wouldn't know who to pay upon purchasing good ones.  A harvester told us that there are lands within the municipality that's really abundant with bamboo, and he couldn't harvest cause the land owners will probably just fight over the payment. This made it hard for us to find kawayan to use.

Eventually, we got a referral from one of our workers and we managed to get some good poles.  We purchased them for about 25 pesos for every 3 meters. It's about a hundred pesos for every pole, from base to tip.

From the Calipayan-San Jose road, it's a left turn onto a dirt road. The very same path we took on our way to Pikkan Falls a few years back.

Here are some photos on our way to order the kawayan:

It was a sunny morning.

We stopped by this area before a creek/pond.

Walked a bit.

Over the hills, and far away...

...Teletubbies come to play. LOLJK

Oh diba pang Teletubbies nga. Haha.

If only these kawayan were more accessible then processing them would be a whole lot easier. Oh if only.  Hopefully, they'll be easier to procure within the next few years.