Heavy metal

“When you meet clients who are happy with your products, it brings a different kind of joy,” Strozzi Abecel Rosende, an artist from Liloan, Cebu, shared to DAILY TRIBUNE what keeps her going — despite that her art, metalsmithing, is full of risks — from boredom to her constant use of fire and sharp objects.

“It’s not rice, it’s a basic necessity, but… If you meet people who are happy with your work, especially if you’re an artist, it’s not always for the money,” she stressed.

Although already creating accessories since after college, the Interior Design graduate from University of San Carlos in Cebu initially worked as a visual artist. From painting, she tried furniture design, then became a scholar of Cebu Fame for metalsmithing. According to her, the international metalsmithing workshop taught by a German artist had some Russian and American students, and she was among the very few Filipinos who finished it.

After this short course, Strozzi founded her namesake accessories brand in 2018 using handcrafted metalsmithing from scratch. She first draws her concepts into paper, then goes straight into creating the finished product — no trials or prototypes.

“It’s not like other accessories that are made of components then assembled,” she said, adding that she uses metal, scrap shells and stones all from Cebu. It takes her a week to complete a necklace, for instance.

“Its luxury also lies in its slow process… But later on, the fire becomes your friend and you also get used to working with the right temperature. The fire’s role is only to stick the metal together, but not to mold it. It’s really for smoldering. So you have to know the right timing to catch the blue fire, red fire… the right pressure,” she explained in Filipino.

“At the same time, what’s challenging is to stay motivated to finish every artwork. If you get bored, you’d not have the energy to move forward. Art is big on timing. If you don’t feel it anymore, you’d not finish it.”

She started with summer, tropical, animal and fruits motifs, and then experimented on bahay kubo and jeepney designs, which quickly became a hit, prompting her friend Neil Felipp, whose Sirena or mermaid minaudière famously made it to the Hollywood film Crazy Rich Asians, to suggest that she makes the fiesta theme the trademark look for her brand.

“So my works are always happy, very fiesta, so very colorful. That has become my concept. Since then, I’ve been known for bahay kubo, coconut trees, jeepneys, it’s like Halo-halo, a mix of festivities…” she said.

“Bibo naman ang Pinoy (Filipinos are maximalists)… Filipinos are scared of emptiness. So our identity is like a jeepney. It’s scared of emptiness so if you’d see a jeepney, it’s got stickers everywhere — tassels, horse figurines, paintings, curtains — more is more.”

‘U.S. ambassador’s favorite’

From being a one-man-team, Rosende later on assembled her own group by training out-of-school youth from Camotes Island. According to her, the children cannot speak well and did not want to go to school no matter how hard they tried. Thus, to be productive, she trains them in co-creating her accessories at home — making these ornaments both “handmade” and “homemade.”

Her hard work in giving jobs to out-of-school youth, however, has not gone futile as her clients include dignitaries like Her Excellency MaryKay Carlson, United States Ambassador to the Philippines.

According to Strozzi, Carlson told her that her brand was the ambassador’s favorite, even modeling a scarf she painted for an event.

“The reason why I also ventured into making scarves is because Hermes is so expensive… So I told myself, ‘I have a talent in painting, so why not (make my own scarf)?’ So I researched the concept behind a scarf. I was really challenged. So based on my research, once you paint a scarf, every inch should be visually entertaining, so every inch must have a color or pattern. So that no matter how you fold it, it would become a visual treat,” Rosende shared.

Thus began her barrio fiesta scarf — painted in watercolor then digitally printed — that is now sold-out.

Although her day job is as a creative consultant at their municipal hall, her accessories label is now her bread and butter. She is now preparing for her Christmas collection that includes parol (star lantern) earrings and possibly, a sarimanok-inspired Asean Summit collection for January.

“I met many foreign clients and they told me how much they love the Philippines — but only a few utilized the Filipino branding. For me, it’s a waste if you’re talented and you love what you do but you’re not proud of where you came from… it’s sad if you’re a painter and you’d just paint about anger and poverty,” she pointed out.

“I’m an interior designer and a painting is worth at least P30,000, you’d think I’d want to display ‘anger’ into a home? So why not paint something that could inspire a family? Or inspire a relationship? Or can inspire the youth? Life is too short, so why not do something that could bring something positive to your family? Because you’d just your money buying a painting that could only inspire hate, sadness, poverty. Don’t make trash – because a painting is so hard and long to do.”

According to her, while negativity is part of life, an artist like her should instead encourage a culture of good vibes and positivity.

“You’ll really be discouraged often, so you really need to be passionate about what you do. At least, if you’re bored or you have an emotional downtime, in the end, if you’re passionate with what you do, you’d be happy.”