#kinamay

The idea of encouraging vanity has always made me cringe. I suppose this is why I've never devoted a lot of energy to this.

Ear to Ear, Rice Pearl, Go Fish, or whatever I called it back then. I like pretty things, I know I can make them... but did i really want to encourage people to want and have and own excessively? NO. It's so contradictory to what I've chosen as my first line of work (JeepneED).  

I've never been sincerely dedicated to it, jewelry, because I've been searching for the the grander idea in it all. I don't want to just do something to make money. It's important. But it doesn't make me excited. For a while, I tried to incorporate a personal story, to make a better connection with customers. But, It all sounded cheesy and inauthentic, and exotic and plain icky. Now, I think I have it. Why did I begin making jewelry in high school? Because I needed to pay for dance classes. Why did I keep doing it in College? to support myself. Why not a regular job? because it allows me the time flexibility to do my currently unpaid work and gives me a creative outlet at the end of a high stress day. AHA!!!

I'm a woman owned shop, that loves the fact that I make everything myself without outsourcing, and in the process, cut out the middle men. I work with my cousin Kate, who makes the roses, and that in large part, is because I love supporting other people in their own initiatives, to make money, to do what they love, and to live. Now I know why they call it craft. And that is why we called it Kinamay, which, in tagalog means you used your hands.