How to decorate your wall

Last week I met the owner of a small shop situated near the centre of Naga City. She gets a lot of passing trade and soon the Peñafrancia festival will begin, bringing thousands of out of town visitors to the City and many new and some older buyers to see her. Her shop is adorned with lots of novelties and souvenirs including hand made baskets, wall tapestries and other gift merchandise. Here you can see a picture, neatly made with a bamboo frame to which is attached with cord a picture of a local Jeepney, the means of transport all over the Philippines for millions of local Filipinos. Other attractive pictures can be seen including some of fish with colourful beads and they add a lovely touch to any home wall interior.

Bags and more bags

I was privileged to spend the day yesterday visiting two workshops in a town not far from mine and seeing local workers making bags out of native materials, the names of which are probably as unfamiliar to most western people as they were to me. Materials such as abaca, sabutan, ticog and jute among others were being used to make a wide assortment of beautiful and very decorative carry bags, handbags, hats, wallets, purses, slippers and many other items.

Cotton macrame bags (see picture above on the right), which are entirely made with natural cotton and without any added dies or colours featured among the range of items being made principally for the local market. My aim is to encourage exports and find suitable channels for some of these goods. The workshops were not fully occupied but the producers were ready to step over backwards to be of assistance. Even custom made product is possible for just a few hundred pieces, from selected materials, colour dies, stitching patterns - almost everything is negotiable without any significant price additions. The principle here is to keep the workers occupied and to keep the customers satisfied.

Bamboo surprises

Being a tropical country there are a lot of bamboo plants growing here and a lot of local manufacture using bamboo as its main material. One of the first items I saw during my first trip here was in a yard just off a main street where two young men were working diligently to produce bamboo furniture. These items included a bunk bed with wider than usual top bunk and a double sized bottom bed. The bamboo was of large diameter and had been varnished to give it a good quality finish. I asked them a few questions and learned that it took them just four days to make one of these beds to order. The bed was sturdy and well made and for the price unbeatable value. Here is another suppliers offering of an attractive bamboo lamp. This has small different shaped coloured glass pieces embedded in the side of the lamp so that the light
shines through them when lit - quite beautiful and very decorative.