Bling Bling!!!

I was eager to get up eary in the morning to have a short trip to Paco, Manila.

My jewelry needed some cleaning and I was in need of someone who can polish my bling blings professionally for me. About a stone's throw from my house, Paco is a market/commercial area which has been grabbing attention nowadays. Just this morning President Arroyo was in the area overseeing the clean-up drive of Estero de Paco that leads out to the Pasig River.


All it took for me to get there was 10 minutes... a little less, maybe, if you consider how long my strides are.

Near the corner of Pedro Gil and Dart Street, in one of the alley ways, one will find a row of plateros or jewelry makers who can custom make any jewelry design for you. I simply came to check it out and have 2 of my rings and rosary cleaned and re-polished. I ventured into one of the little stalls and inquired how much to have my jewelry polished.

Twenty Pesos!!! Gawd!!! Twenty Pesos!!! I was happy all day just looking at my rosary ring and my cocktail ring, and of course, my gold rosary bracelet with coral beads. It made me realize how not very long ago we had a very lucrative jewelry making industry in Bulacan. Baguio and Benguet has a fine silver industry which was recognized by the Spanish friars that moved up north. It has all but died, no thanks to the big diamond conglomerates that control most of the flow of diamonds worldwide. Jewelry in the Philippines isn't just a status symbol. Nor is it just an investment... It is also a family heirloom which is passed on from one generation to the next. This is particularly

When my gradnmother passed on most of the women in my family; my mom and sister and my aunts and cousins recieved one form of jewelry or another. This was just like a coming of age for my cousins and sister as they were each entrusted with jewelry that they were in turn to pass on to their descendants.

When my mom and dad passed away. I recieved a few rings. Most of mom's jewelry I gave to my sister as she has two lovely daughters in England where she's been living for years. I inquired from the platero if they can re-set some of the stones I recieved as inheritance. They can do it but I'll have to save up to have it done. They can't tell you the cost until they've seen how big the stone to be set is and what kind of design it will entail.

Jewelry has always occupied a special place in each and every family's history. Gold and platinum as well as silver were intricately worked as symbols of power, personal ornamentation and even as send-off gifts for the dead. Artifacts dug in Butuan, Boljoon and even close by Sta. Ana showed a sophistication in design and aesthetics that it astounded the early colonizers when they landed in Cebu and later on in Manila. As evidence of this, the Ayala Museum has a brilliant collection of gold jewelry and artifacts that can leave you awe-struck.

The jewelry trade isn't as lively as it used to be but you can still find plateros in areas like the Quinta Market, Sta. Cruz, Quiapo, Paco and Bulacan. In my younger years I would accompany my lola as she shuttled from one platero to another and on the way back we would stop by the Master Hopia factory in Villalobos and get a few brown bags of freshly-cooked piping-hot hopia to bring back home. That was all it took to make me happy when I was a kid...

Now when I'm a little down i just look at my fingers... hee! =)