Glittering prize

Over the last few months, as I’ve featured young women entrepreneurs, people have asked me how I “unearth” these ladies. To be honest, it’s a combination of persistence, keeping my ears and eyes close to the ground, recognizing talent/ability/dedication and a good dose of luck. In the case of emerging jeweler Janina Garcia, I was at an event and approached friends Myx VJ Bianca Roque and STAR columnist JR Isaac, and Bianca’s friend, Janina, was with them. A willowy, dusky beauty, Janina mentioned how she was launching her Maja collection of jewelry, semi-precious stones mounted on brass and silver, at the Skye Rooftop of the W Building, BGC. Amidst my commitments to attend SMX’s Fashion Week, I made it to the launch and was floored by the beauty, workmanship and design standard of the glittering collection. An enviably select crowd was in attendance, and I was happy to see my great friend, Renna Hechanova Angeles, who, it turns out, is very close to Janina’s mother, jeweler Mary Jo Mabanta-Garcia. Janina’s father is Court of Appeals Justice Ramon Garcia. It came as no surprise to see the pieces rapidly being wrapped and placed in pouches, as the entire collection was sold out that night.

For someone so new to the “game,” this was a heady accomplishment; evidence of truly innate talent and the wonders of osmosis — growing up under the shadow of her mother? An Integrated Marketing Communications graduate, Janina dabbled in mobile marketing for three years, her work taking her to KL and Singapore. She then had her “Eureka” moment, took jewelry design courses at the Gemological Institute of America, and classes this year in Making a Collection and Jewelry Design at the FIT in New York, and followed that up with a stint at the Instituto di Moda Burgo in Milan. At the GIA, her design copped the “Student’s Choice Award.”

A closeup of Janina’s Venezia bangle.

Her design philosophy is centered on nature, inspired by plants and branches. She loves playing with texture — smooth, rough, gnarled, embedded, encrusted; and creatively utilizes shapes — preferring irregular, free-flowing designs to those that are linear or too ordered. What this results in is a touch of modernity and being contemporary, while maintaining a foundation that is still classic and traditional — artistry that’s hard to beat! She discusses sketches and samples with a workforce of “plateros” that have been working with her mother for decades, and that has been a godsend. Her one-of-a-kind pieces recognize how her clientele do not want to show up at a party and see an identical piece adorned on someone else. One can call 0917-8435283 for appointments; and she’s open to you bringing your own stones, and she’ll customize a design.

Truly then, Janina is her parents’ “glittering prize.” And wouldn’t you know it, without prodding from her parents, younger sister Jessica is in law school; that’s an inordinate amount of serendipity for Mary Jo and Ramon. And lucky us, being witness as Janina embarks on a career path, that’s paved in gold... or rather, gemstones and silver.

Death can be proud

Death rears its ugly head in these three novels, and from tragedy comes sublime writing and literature. Wright passed away in 2006, and this is his masterpiece, reflecting on the act of reading itself. As for Teule’s novel, death becomes the source of mirth and guilty humor, and never has tragedy been so ridden with laughter. With Duffy’s “biography,” the poet adored by the likes of Bob Dylan and the Doors’ Jim Morrison, comes vividly back to life.

Tony and Susan by Austin Wright (available at National Bookstore): Although written in 1993, and the author passed away in 2006, critics have been hailing this as one of the unsung and ignored masterpieces of contemporary literature. The plot revolves around Susan being asked to read a manuscript written by her ex, Edward. In the manuscript, the lead character, mathematics professor Tony endures a harrowing experience that leads to the deaths of his wife and daughter at the hands of three backwoods type of persons, and then follows his ambivalent quest for revenge. What distinguishes this double helix narrative is how we are thrust into Susan’s life and the process of reading, her reactions, and how it impacts on her current marriage and life. We discover what life between Susan and Edward was like, and this all makes the book more than its parts.

The Suicide Shop by Jean Teule (available at National Bookstore): Author Teule is a filmmaker in his native France, and this is a pitch perfect black comedy that starts off dripping with delicious irony, and then switches midstream to become sweet, but without being cloying. The Tuvache family business is at the core of this slight novel, and the Suicide Shop is exactly as advertised. It’s been the family business for generations and it’s the shop to go to if one is contemplating suicide and wishes to be equipped with the best for success. This is not a repeat business, and so the family enters a crisis of sorts when their youngest son is born with a smile on his face, and grows up as the personification of cheerfulness and optimism. He subverts the family tradition, and they are at wits’ end on what to do — with hilarious, side-splitting results.

Disaster Was My God by Bruce Duffy (available at National Bookstore): The iconoclast poet enfant terrible Arthur Rimbaud is the subject of this fictitious biography. From the barest of facts known about Rimbaud, his homosexual relationship with Verlaine, his dictatorial mother, his abrupt cessation of writing, and the sudden departure for Africa where he excelled as a trader of firearms and munitions, to his tragic return to France to die at a still young age — these become fodder in the hands of author Duffy for a mesmerizing treatment of Rimbaud’s life. With excerpts from his poems riddling the text, Duffy does a masterful job of making us understand the psyche of this rebel poet, and just why he broke all conventions and traditions of poetry-writing in his time. This may be fiction, but given the research made, it reads like a credible bio.