Filipina jewelry designer invited to New York, Paris to promote Filipino creativity

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipina jewelry designer has been invited to go to New York and Paris this year to promote Filipino craftsmanship to the rest of the world.

Self-taught jewelry designer Tim Tam Ong revealed in a recent interview with Philstar.com how happy she is for being invited to showcase her creations that root from her deep love of the Philippines and its people.

“There was always happiness and excitement in me every time I would open my grandmother’s antique jewelry box. I had a grand time touching and feeling the precious stones,” said Tim Tam, who was named after a brand of chocolates.

Her passion for jewelry making began when her husband brought her an intricate stone from Burma. Since she did not know what to do with it, she sketched designs until she came up with her first necklace.

Since then, family and friends have been calling her to buy her designs. Thus, from a hobby, jewelry making has become her bread and butter. She eventually found herself artisans and goldsmiths from Bulacan and Laguna and established an atelier in LRI Plaza in Makati City.

To complement her skills, she recently took up a course at the Gemology Institute of America. Today, Tim Tam’s designs reach as far as New York, Singapore and the Middle East.

Based on her experience, semi-precious stones like rubies and tanzanite are getting harder to mine, and therefore, are becoming collectors’ items.

She feels that gemstones will become lesser and lesser in the long run, and as the rules of economics go, the lower the supply, the higher the price.

Depending on the quality, jades, rubies and sapphires most especially, can be more expensive than silver and gold, she said.

It is not only the stones’ quality that dictates its price, it is also hard to cut stones, so some cuts are more expensive than others. Tim Tam gives as an example stones from Madagascar, the only place in the world that does the so-called “pineapple cut.”

“Every stone requires a different kind of cut, otherwise, its value is diminished, so the stone should come from the place specializing on such cutting,” she explained.

Besides cut and quality, she picks her stones based on the powers they emit—jade, for example, is not only good for collecting and investing but also for the well-being. It is believed to usher in health, prosperity, peace of mind and wealth.

“It’s also a good heirloom piece because its power can be transferred,” Tim Tam said.

Rubies, jade, and handmade carved stones are aplenty in Ong’s latest collection, “Wonderland,” which, as its name suggests, are inspired by happy and vibrant colors.

Featuring precious and semi-precious stones from travels in Australia, India, Myanmar, Russia, and Madagascar, and emeralds from Colombia, the “Wonderland” jewelry collection aims to bring one to a happy place when all seems gloomy—including the weather.

“It is inevitable to face challenges and disappointments in life,” Tim Tam explains in a statement. “It’s important to have a safe place that one can turn to when things get tough.”

This concept of a “haven” is beautifully and poignantly explained in a short narration that inspired the collection. The story tells the account of a little girl who followed a golden butterfly to a place called “Wonderland.” Here, she finds happiness and courage—knowing that she could always go back to this place. The enchanting collection brings to life the spellbinding place that the little girl went to, containing images of a butterfly, flowers and leaves. The gemstones, on the other hand, mimic the colors that were swirling in Wonderland’s sky.

“It’s a collection filled with wonder and imagination.” Tim Tam enthuses in a statement. “It captures the imagination, hope and peacefulness that a child possesses. It also captures the beauty of inner peace. I hope that the pieces give its wearers the same happiness—or even more—that it gives me.”

Tim Tam and her team of artisans worked on making these images come alive by paying attention to the characteristics and movement of nature.

“We worked extra hard to capture the detail,” the designer explains in a report. “So for example, when we made the butterfly, we weren’t simply trying to create a semblance of a butterfly, we wanted to bring the butterfly to life.”

The designer also stresses the wearability of the pieces, pointing out that creativity, relatability and versatility are characteristics consciously incorporated when designing the pieces— traits that are also used to best describe the picture of Filipinos to the world.

Pieces from Tim Tam Ong's "Wonderland" collection