Yes, only the Baguio climate is hospitable to an outdoor weekend event like the recent Arts and Crafts Fair, now on its tenth year. Can you imagine something similar happening in Mega Manila with temperature in the high 30s? Maybe, just maybe, it is possible to hold such a fair if it is open in the late afternoon until midnight when there is the hint of a breeze. But it doesn’t feel the same way, especially if held inside a mall’s atrium area.
The Baguio Arts and Crafts Fair was again hosted on the grounds of No. 1 Yangco Road, across from Brent School. This used to be the former address of the loved Mt. Cloud Bookshop. Spread on the garden were tables offering what people called in the vernacular mga anik-anik or odds and ends. The fair attracted sellers who believe in limited editions, in the handmade, in the virtue of small enterprise.
But the crafts people and artists were not just locals or from the city. There were those who came from as far north as the Ilocos provinces and south as Quezon City and Antipolo City. Furthermore, the items sold were within a working person’s capacity to pay. Each thing boasted of its own uniqueness, the kind that will be cherished for a long time.
There were a lot of paper ephemera like vinyl stickers, postcards, frameable art prints, bookmarks, notebooks and zines. Their continuing manufacture attests to the return of the analog as people increasingly tire of the digital. It was possible to buy an item each from each seller or table and not break the bank.
Which is what this shopper did, moving unhurriedly from table to table on a sunny Sunday afternoon, then sitting down for a snack and to review what was left of one’s budget. The next day, it was time to bring out one’s pens and write on postcards to persons near and far. In these stressful times of rising fuel prices and calls to conserve energy, returning to low-cost leisurely and soulful activities is the way.
Perhaps, the more expensive wares are the recycled furniture and found objects of Resurrection, some in four figures. But they’re built to last like a witty mirror with the words “Ang Cute Ko” printed on it to sort of assure the person looking at his/her image that yes, you’re all right and can face the world.
A quilting lady offered in her Patched Pieces squares of machine-sewn cloths in different patterns that could be inserted on the corner of a book page and served as bookmarks. Ingenious! The same lady sews soft bags, pencil cases, tablecloths with assorted patterns. They are tempting to touch for their softness.
Mako Micro-press preferred to mix cuteness with its environmental and nutritional advocacies. One sticker read: “Decolonize. Earth is not a thing you can claim and own.” Another read: “May we return to our roots so violently destroyed by imperialists, colonizers and fascists.” A tote bag preached in Filipino: “Mahal kita. Kumain ka ng masarap at masustansya.” And, of course, that politically charged call: “Stay angry.”
Jane Gaspar, artist, teacher, printmaker and industrial designer, staffed solo the table named Laklakutit ni Jane that offered, among other stuff, stickers of assorted food. They are actually miniature artworks, still lifes of tea kettles and cups, a vegetable dish topped with halved hardboiled eggs and other precious designs.
Laklakutit, by the way, is an Ilokano word that “describes someone who cherishes mundane everyday stuff, sometimes with less or no monetary value.”
Duds Maranan of Pinsel tie-dyed line of clothing and accessories renewed her earlier tiny business of designing and selling postcards at 50 pesos each while tending to her youngest baby.
Artist Dani Go, apart from her paper products, offered to sketch visitors’ fur babies whether live or based on photographs of these pets. She used color pencils on postcard-size paper and accomplished the portraits in just or under an hour.
The Ligalig table had, among other wares, bookmarks that combined stitchery, paper and twine, a different combination.
The Ioridori table combined the cutest pottery and colorful postcards, including one showing a dog enjoying a birthday party with fellow canines as guests. It was based on a real story that happened to Ioridori.
The ceramic pins by Neshois showed heads of cats and rabbits retailing at 100 pesos each.
This buyer skipped the chance to buy a black and purple bag with the message “Find Magic in the Mundane.”
The message was an exhortation to look beyond gas prices and the rising cost of living and find solace in the small but beautiful.
Most, if not all, of the exhibitors and sellers can be found in Instagram.
