Pearl Seas is proud to introduce our Ifugao Collection of wood carvings, bracelets, bowls, jewellery boxes and other assorted artefacts, all handcrafted by the indigenous population of a former headhunting tribe, known as the Ifugao, who live in the breathtakingly beautiful tropical cloud forests of the Cordillera Central mountain range in the northern Philippines.
Apart from their exceptional artistic talent for carving and weaving that dates back perhaps many thousands of years, the Ifugao are also well known for their construction of the most extensive rice terrace system on earth – designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, and referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by many. Feel free to follow the links to learn more about the people and culture, the place, and their crafts.
Designs in this collection are available for sale in limited quantities, and will not be identical to those illustrated in our catelogue since these are pieces are truely hand-crafted. We regret that wholesale orders of individual Ifugao collection items are unavailable due to the limited availability and uniqueness of these handcrafted pieces.
Many popular Ifugao designs are being copied en mass within city factory environments for the tourist and export trade. Although many of these manufacturing facilities may employ Ifugao craftsmen for such purposes, we find it distressing that many budding artists feel pressure to leave their native homeland in an attempt to support their families; the “lucky” ones finding employment with manufacturers where uniformity and production output are the primary concerns to the detriment of individual innovation and artistic development.
By sourcing and purchasing the crafts we feature directly from Ifugao within Ifugao Province, we believe the artisans receive fairer compensation, work in a better environment, have more freedom to develop their skills as true artisans if they choose, and pressure to leave their families in order to support them is relieved. We win by being able to offer the widest selection of genuine Ifugao-made crafts and art outside the Philippines, including one-of-a-kind pieces of which only one will ever exist. Many of our customers appreciate the fact that no two items of a single design are exactly alike either; each is unique because the strict uniformity demanded in a factory environment isn’t imposed.
Besides, we at Pearl Seas find it a lot more fun to visit remote, beautiful places in person, learning about local cultures directly from the indigenous people who live there in our quest of discovering new product sources. We definitely have a lot more adventures this way than sourcing by visiting trade shows or browsing exporter websites!
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