Beads Of Promise

MANILA, Philippines – Can one put one’s heart on a string? There is this necklace with a thumb-sized rose quartz pendant. Strung together in between knots are a red garnet, a loop of six Japanese glass beads, followed by another loop of four fresh water pearls, then a single smaller rose quartz and a leopard skin jasper. The pattern continues to form a mini lariat or lasso.

Lariats do not have clasps or hooks; to wear it one has to loop the lasso at the end of the chain, giving it a twist and a unique look.

This elegant neckpiece from Dam Good Stuff’s Talaga collection, displayed at the recent Manila FAME International trade fair, can only be the handiwork of a woman; its intricacy, a product of patient labor; the design, a creative play of pink, red and brown, exudes distinct feminine grace.

Fifteen women belonging to the Agno Artisan Cooperative in San Manuel, Pangasinan have made it their life’s calling to string beads – though not simple beads and threads but elaborate knotting and crafting that define what is good and beautiful about Filipino handicraft.

Mart Zosa, operations manager of Dam Good Stuff Inc., says that Filipino-made fashion accessories are very popular in the world market. And even with the influx of competition from China and other countries that can offer more competitive prices, Filipino-made fashion accessories are still a standout.

“Our competitive edge is in the design,” Zosa says. 

The neckpiece has a matching set of earrings and bracelets as well as a much simpler necklace which use the same materials and color combination. Admittedly, the price range for the set is higher than those commonly found in local malls, stores and tiangges, but Zosa explains that this is because the materials used – imported semi-precious stones – are of premium quality and thus more expensive.

Yet, the overseas market is enamored with these Filipino-made fashion accessories that even in these lean times, the company still exports a good volume of their products overseas, mainly to the US, UK and Japan, with sales of approximately $20,000 to $50,000 per year per client.

There is this client from the United States, Zosa says, who stumbled on Dam Good Stuff’s accessories at a Manila F.A.M.E exhibit many years ago. That client remains a customer and has since referred the company to other traders and importers.

“Our products are showcases in themselves and our company grew over the years simply by word-of-mouth,” Zosa says. “Other countries may be able to offer their products at much cheaper prices but we still have the edge in design which are unique and hard to copy.”

At the company’s Makati showroom, hundreds of samples of necklaces, lariats, mini-lariats, bracelets, and earrings – each one unique and distinctly beautiful – are on display.

Annalyn Blardony, business manager of Dam Good Stuff, says that wives of expatriates working at the San Roque Multi-purpose project in the towns of San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan, where Dam Good Stuff had its beginnings, were the company’s initial clients. The fashion accessories were also first sold in bazaars, particularly those organized by the American Women’s Club.

Today, wives and friends of ambassadors, diplomats, dignitaries and foreign businessmen, as well as a growing clientele of local residents, come to the showroom to buy the now famous Dam Good Stuff accessories either to take home to their countries as gifts or as items to be sold to friends. Traders and importers also go to the showroom to look at new designs, though the company has a catalogue on its website for buyers. The accessories are now sold in selected bazaars and gifts shops of hotels.

The accessories have traveled a long way from a far-off town in the northern Philippines to the high fashion circles in Asia, America and Europe, a long journey for a business venture that literally started with a dam.

The founders of Dam Good Stuff Inc., Raymond and Carol Cunningham, were engineers at the San Roque Dam project, known as the San Roque Multi-purpose Project (SRMP), built by the San Roque Power Corp. and the National Power Corp. from 1998 to 2003.

Because of the project, hundreds of households in San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan and in Itogon, Benguet were relocated to several resettlement communities. Thousands of other families living near the construction site were also affected.

To help the settlers establish themselves in their new communities, cooperatives were formed to create livelihood opportunities to supplement agricultural income. 

One of these social entrepreneurship ventures is Dam Good Stuff Inc., which buys, sells, distributes and markets goods, commodities, wares and merchandise made by families in the communities.

At the start, says Blardony, the families were also into sewing, weaving cloth and making quilts, garments and bags, but it is in the area of making jewelry and fashion accessories that the residents have made a name.

According to the company website, Carol Cunningham, who had served as deputy project coordinator of the SRMP, “relishes creating handicraft and artistic products and helping others learn how to make them.”

Zosa says that the cooperative now employs 15 of its women members full time to make the accessories. These women were rigorously trained in the art of beadwork so the accessories they make are of the highest quality and meet international standards.

The women, in groups of two or three, regularly come to Manila for training and exposure to its Manila operations. At the time of our interview, two women from the Lagpan Resettlement in San Manuel town were doing beadwork at the Dam Good Stuff showroom in Makati.

Armida Mones, 29, and Evelyn Serquina, 23, have been doing beadwork for Dam Good Stuff since 2005 and 2003, respectively. They say that their work is hardly boring because the designs are always so beautiful that it is a joy working on them.

Armida says that a complicated design such as a three-strand lariat will normally take an hour to complete, even with their years of experience, because they have to follow strict processes and standards in making each product.

The work of these two women could be the envy of many women as they spend their working day caressing stones that are always close to a woman’s heart – pearls, agates, amethysts, turquoises, crystals, jaspers and quartz, to name only a few.

Zosa says that by purchasing Dam Good Stuff accessories, people help give these women a sustainable source of livelihood that help supplement family income and help the resettlement communities in general.

At this time, she discloses that 75 percent of gross sales is generated from exports, while 25 percent is from local sales.

“We hope to eventually tap more customers to be able to grow the business and employ more people,” Zosa says, adding that the company is currently only running at 30 percent capacity so there is plenty of room for growth and expansion. Many more women who have been trained in beadwork from the cooperative are waiting to be tapped for work once the volume of orders grows.

“It is just a matter of making people aware that these beautiful accessories are made in the Philippines and are proudly made by Filipino women,” she says.

Almost a twin of the pink mini-lariat from the Talaga collection is a purple and yellow set that uses Brazilian agate, olive stones, river shells, fresh water pearls and Japanese glass beads. In this set, however, the bracelet is more stunning with the three Brazillian agates as centerpiece and dotted by loops of olive stones and pearls.

Retailed for only P500, the 7.5-inch bracelet is not really that expensive, especially since it is hand made by a woman from a resettlement community trying to make the best of opportunities that come her way.

Visit Dam Good Stuff at 3/F One Corporate Plaza, 845 Arnaiz Avenue, Makati City or log on to www.damgoodstuff.com