Renowned jeweler to talk about her book on Philippine heritage jewelry
Maria Angelica Santos-Bermejo: Passionate advocate for Philippine heritage through jewelry
MANILA — Maria Angelica Santos-Bermejo, a renowned self-taught jeweler and passionate advocate for heritage preservation, will give a talk about her seminal book ‘Alahas: Philippine Heritage Jewelry’ on July 25 at 6 p.m. at Tesoros in Makati.
It took Santos-Bermejo more than three decades of collecting and three years of research to write Alahas, which recently garnered the Red Award for Image Making from the Department of Trade and Industry-Design Center Philippines.
The award was given during the 2024 Good Design Award Philippines, a national design excellence recognition system that aims to enhance the country’s global competitiveness and innovation quotient through design.
The award was the result of “countless hours of hard work, creativity, and resilience” from the book’s team, which includes the author’s own daughter Kara Bermejo and her son-in-law Tomás de Cárcer, who acted as designers of the book.
The book “Alahas”
The 362-page book uses jewelry as a way to trace the Philippines’ history, from the indigenous period that had stone tools and gold jewels to the art nouveau and art deco designs of the turn of the century, all the way to the contemporary period of the year 2000 and beyond.
Bermejo’s credentials definitely made her the perfect person to write Alahas, as she is a jewelry preservationist whose Filipiniana jewelry heritage creations have been featured in Marahuyo, the Department of Trade and Industry’s first luxury shop, as well as the Ayala Museum shop. She was also a featured designer at the 2020 Dubai World Expo.
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
