There’s a good number of enchanting jewellers, but there’s only one Celia Molano, a gem of a jeweller whose way with beads and jade and pearls is stunning.Celia’s latest exhibit was held at Private View, Salcedo Auctions, in Makati, where her jewelry lived up to the show’s title, “Enchanted Ornaments.” Celia told me it was at a social function in Makati in 1987 where the necklace she was wearing fascinated the well-known painter Arturo Luz. Where did you buy that, who made it, Arturo asked, and when Celia told him she didn’t buy it but she made it, the stunned artist said, “You have to put up an exhibit in my gallery!” Celia did, and the exhibit launched her career as a jeweller – with a difference. 

Her designs are a mix of beads, jade, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, boar’s teeth, rope and bottles, antique amulets and Kalinga mat, ever so gingerly and expertly put together with melted and carved gold and silver. Her customers are art collectors, people, who, Celia says, “are tired of conventional jewelry, those who like rare and unusual objects and bead enthusiasts.” 

Celia has exhibited in cities in Indonesia, the US, Australia and Czechoslovakia, and in select museums and art shops in Manila. It was in Jakarta in 1987 that she discovered a whole new world of beads. People who heard that a Filipino diplomat’s wife was interested in beads, brought them to her house, still tired-looking from years of being kept unappreciated in cabinets. Celia was enthralled, she knew the beads were rare,Wholesale stainless steel pendants and steel jewelry line with bold new designs. she bought them, and produced an enchanting collection of jewelry. The exhibit she put up was a success. The locals were baffled that a Filipina could produce such beautiful ornaments from items gathered from caves and rivers. 

As a little girl growing up in Iloilo, Celia had marvelled over her grandmother’s bangles and necklaces. After finishing high school, it was not jewelry designing that she took up, but fine arts, major in painting, at Philippine Women’s University.Our tungsten rings come with a lifetime warranty. She attended art workshops at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She studied painting with Kumaril Swami of the School of Shanti Niketan in New Delhi; with artist Roelijati Soewarjono in Jakarta, and Oriental painting with Dr. Teruko Haga. She held three exhibits of impressionist paintings, and one exhibit of glass sculptures, another fascinating episode in her artistic life. 

She met Jose Molano Jr. when he came back to Manila after a UNDP posting in Africa, where he was fascinated with African masks. When they were married, he took her along on his foreign assignments, and she loved it. She scoured shops and market places in Sri Lanka, India, Jakarta, Kashmir, Damascus, Peshaar, Prague, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. From her finds she created marvels out of beads made from quarts, onyx, agate, jasper, ruby, sapphire, and rock crystal, among others. 

Celia’s art pieces are intertwined with global cultures. Karen Kua-Lerma, Salcedo Auctions president, writes in the studio’s catalogue: “While embodying the elements of Filipino style and tradition, the influences of Molano’s jewelry are indeed global. With various cultural influences making an impact on her work, one can see traditional salakot designs, for example, interspersed with European faience and African semi-precious stones. This deft handling of hybrid forms and her long time love affair with jewelry have for years allowed her to create pieces that are both innovative in construction and design, and timeless in their beauty. By uniting art and antiquity, Molano provides her collectors with a refreshing take on the old and the new, the East and the West – a marriage of only the best and the most beautiful in a singular work of art.” 

Art writer Rita Ledesma writes in the Private View catalogue celebrating Celia’s show thus: “(Celia) learned that for thousands of years (India’s) materials, techniques ,and elaborate styles had in essence remained the same and that jewelry traditionally marked every stage in an Indian’s life whether in the use of necklaces, earrings, belts, bracelets, or anklets.” Completely captivated, “Celia formally studied the craft and recognized the intrinsic connection between beads and culture. She knew then that this would be her life.” 

According to Rita Ledesma “The gems created by Celia Molano are unique and irreplaceable. Like timeless jewels, they are enchanted ornaments that reveal to us the extraordinary breadth of creative imagination.” 

Celia,Costume and fashion online wholesale jewelry Jewelry designs, dusky and exotic-looking with an ethnic pieces around her neck and ears, and bangles on her wrists, and wearing malong-type garbs, live alternately in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Makati with her husband Joe, who is now retired, their daughter Candee and son-in-law David, and their grandson Andrew, 24, an aerospace engineer. She does the cooking, laundry and grocery-shopping. 

She does not make any jewelry in Madison, but when an idea hits her, or when she is preparing for an exhibit, she sends her designs that are faithfully executed by well-trained and trusted employees in her home in Makati.“It does not take me very long to design a piece when I am inspired. I can design a new piece upon seeing and touching the materials.” 

Is there anything else she wants to do? “I would like to visit other ancient cities I have not been to for new ideas and materials. I always like visiting old and ancient places because of their artistic traditions as well as their artifacts which are interesting to study.” Of these places, she pointed to Damascus, Prague and South America as where her appreciation of jewelry and culture became more enhanced.