When I was a little girl, my sisters and I would spend summers at my Tita Mcna’s house in Laguna. Her house was a wonderful mishmash of antiques, books, plants and tons and tons of  jewelry and accessories. Her bedroom was like this huge dress-up closet to me and I would spend hours in there looking at her lovely things. My favorite things to play with were her expansive collection of earrings (she favored big hoops or big dangly earrings because they were dramatic and she mostly styled her hair simply). I remember making her promise to me at the tender age of 9 or 10 that I would inherit that collection one day. I think that started my love affair with old jewelry. I always fancied owning pieces that I could pass down to a long line of daughters in the family. I have a daughter now and I have some to pass down. I would like to share 2 that mean a lot to me. The earrings above where my maternal grandmother’s. It’s gold with that characteristic ornate scroll work of old filipino jewelry. Tita Mcna gave it to me last year and she joked that I was getting my inheritance early.

The ring above was my mom’s when she was in college. It’s a costume piece but I love the design very much. I wear this ring almost everyday. There’s also something empowering about wearing something of my mom’s when she was younger. She’s a very strong and graceful woman and when I wear this ring it makes me feel that I have a little bit of that in me. I think I will give this to Mayumi when she starts her first year of college.

Heirloom jewelry are precious enough as they are because they are antiques. But what makes them priceless are the stories of the people that wore them. When I design jewelry, I often think about who might be wearing them and the designs always come out like they have a story to tell