MANILA, Philippines - Proud Pinoy Stitchers (PPS), along with DMC Philippines and Mandy Navasero host their first “Karayom Masterpieces” exhibit featuring the timeless artworks of Fernando Amorsolo and Manuel Baldemor. These thread paintings are on view at the LRI Design Plaza gallery from Nov. 5 to 11. The show opens on Nov. 5, 6 p.m., and parts of the proceeds will be given to the Philippine Society of Orphan Disorders (PSOD).
The PPS is composed of cross-stitching aficionados. It was started three years ago by a group of people who met during one of DMC Philippines’ cross-stitch exhibits. Finding out that they shared a common hobby, they started meeting every Friday — just to chat and hang out with people who understood the fixation of thread and needle.
Soon enough, one of them came up with the idea of using social media to gather the few Filipinos who engage in cross-stitching. In 2011, Margaret Tipton founded the Facebook group “Proud Pinoy Stitchers”; and with the other original members — Rene Millare, Yeya Albano, Honey Refe and Dicky Huang — as co-admins, they gathered stitching friends and created activities, challenges and monthly meets.
The PPS aims to bring back the glory days of this serene and lovable hobby. And as the thirst for new patterns grew, so did the thirst for uniquely Filipino ones. DMC Philippines created masterpiece patterns from the works of National Artists such as Amorsolo.
In partnership with the Amorsolo Foundation, DMC has created 24 patterns from the master’s paintings, as well as four from the works of Manuel Baldemor. Every Amorsolo cross-stitch masterpiece comes with a certificate from the Amorsolo Foundation, and every Baldemor cross-stitch masterpiece gets signed by the artist himself, making each piece truly valuable.
The PPS got in touch with Dr. Lyn Silao of the Philippine Society of Orphan Disorders (PSOD) to see how the members can help the PSOD, which was created by various doctors, nurses and staff of PGH who wanted to help children who cannot survive without lifelong help. These are children who are not technically orphaned by their parents, but orphaned by society because they cannot afford the treatments and medicines they would need to survive.