17 June 2007
By Ephraim Aguilar
Tiwi, Albay
NATURALLY EN-dowed with an abundant and distinct kind of clay, Putsan village, the cradle of pottery in Tiwi town in Albay, hopes to crack the export market now that technology has improved its age-old ceramics industry.
Putsan is a coastal village, about 7 kilometers from Tiwi proper, with about 280 households that mainly rely on pottery and fishing for a living.
Ceramics as the pride of Tiwi town is included in the town’s official seal.
Improvement
The elastic quality of Putsan’s clay has given hope to emerging entrepreneurs in the village that the unique raw material in their hands can have varied designs and flexible uses.
With the goal of improving Putsan’s traditional pottery, the government established the Philippine Ceramics Arts and Crafts Center (Philceramics) in 1998.
A state-of-the-art terra-cotta production center in the Bicol region, Philceramics is a project of the Department of Trade and Industry and was allocated P15.7 million under the General Appropriations Act of 1994. It started operating in January 2001.
Before the service facility was put up in Putsan, the locals focused on making simple pots and jars while others engaged in fishing.
In the 1950s, these unadorned clay products were transported through sailboats traversing the Lagonoy and Albay gulfs and traded to markets in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Putsan potters also made figurines that were thick and unsophisticated, the most popular of which were coin banks shaped like a cat, dog or pig and children’s toys like guns and miniature kitchenware.
But with the new Philceramics service facility and its modern technology, Putsan claymakers have enjoyed the advantage of producing thinner ornaments which could be cut or shaped without breaking.
As the clay used is elastic, ceramic products from Putsan are more refined yet less brittle.
Challenges
It was not easy, however, to introduce new technology to the village, says Rodrigo Aguilar, provincial director of DTI-Albay and concurrent assistant regional director of DTI-Bicol.
“At first, the people in Putsan were resistant. No one was willing to start because of some misconceptions. They thought it was the government that was going to operate the plant and that they would simply be employees at the production center,” Aguilar says.
It took time for the villagers to understand that the DTI had no plans of taking over the plant because the agency believed the government should not compete with, but should rather support, the private sector.
“We explained to the people that while they would use the technology provided by the government, they were still to retain their individual business,” Aguilar says.
He added that they started to convince one person first, which became the project’s turning point.
Other villagers realized that items made out of machine-processed clay were also saleable.
The village then formed a cooperative, the Putsan Ceramics Manufacturers’ Association, whose role was to process clay through the Philceramics facility and to sell them to the entrepreneurs.
“The common service facility is a big help, especially since the villagers could not individually buy modern equipment,” Aguilar says.
Breakthroughs
New products were introduced in the form of decorative chimes, candle holders, elegant jars, vases and lamps.
Some ceramics-made accessories were also fashioned into accents for bags, curtains and blinds.
The ceramics from Tiwi, because of its improved quality and design, is now gradually being introduced to the world of fashion and interior design.
The Philceramics, which has been identified as a tourist destination by the Department of Tourism, has developed 25 new entrepreneurs in Putsan who are active users of the service facility.
Hector Torrente, 44, one of the villagers using the Philcermics service facility, was an elevator technician in Manila for four years before he engaged full-time in ceramics production in February 2001.
Torrente, owner of the Bikol Ceramika, one of the leading ceramics businesses in Putsan, says they first concentrated on local buyers while they continuously sought ways to improve their products for export.
“We have to upgrade our products because they have great potentials. We have a vision to export, maybe in two years’ time,” says Torrente, who is also the president of the PCMA, now composed of 57 members.
Bikol Ceramika’s first market was a company that needed ceramic accents for its wall frame products and some walk-in buyers to its outlet in Putsan.
Torrente sought exposure for his crafts in regional trade fairs and has been a regular exhibitor in the National Trade Fair.
He used these events as opportunities to expose his products to potential buyers.
Communal enterprise
The villagers, who are traditionally gifted in making pottery, found livelihood in Bicol Ceramika by becoming its “parahurma,” the local term for “potter.”
Torrente distributed processed clay to the parahurma in the village for them to mold right inside their homes. This made modern pottery a communal enterprise in Putsan.
The parahurma delivered back to Torrente items such as candleholders, vases and ceramic accents that looked like cookies, which were then heated in Philceramica’s petroleum gas-powered ovens.
The products were then prepared to be shaped into decorative chimes like butterflies and flowers or miniature jars cut and holed to become candleholders and aroma therapy burners.
Product prices vary depending on size and design but do not exceed P500.
Ceramic accents, which could be used for bags and curtains and could be turned into chimes, are sold at P1 each. Candleholders range from P50 to P65 while vases are from P50 to P250.
Torrente says the products are mainly for local consumption since bringing them to Manila would be expensive due to the costly freight services from Bicol.
Bikol Ceramika produces an average of 20 to 40 kilos of clay daily. The peak season of the industry is from December to March.
Standard of living
Modern pottery is also seen to have uplifted the people’s standard of living.
Aguilar says they had not yet conducted a concrete study on the effects of Philceramics on the economic status of the villagers but they had seen indicators of progress in the impoverished village.
“Before, no one in the village owned a mobile phone but now many can afford to have one. There are now five households who own motorcycles and three who were able to put up their own display centers of their products,” Aguilar says.
He also told a story about a family in Putsan that relied on fishing for a living. However, the irregularity of the catch and low income prompted them to engage in ceramics.
Traditions kept
Realizing it would provide bigger opportunities and higher income, they shifted to pottery full time.
Despite technological advancements brought by the DTI through the Philceramics to Putsan, many potters still chose to abide by the traditional method of pottery.
Torrente said that while some of the locals were not yet ready to adapt to the modern processes, there was never a competition between the traditional and modern potters.
“The two groups have different markets. The traditional potters produce pots and big jars while the modern potters invest on decorative items,” he says.
He adds that of the 80 percent of households in Putsan that were into pottery, 20 percent used the Philceramics service facility while 60 percent stuck to the traditional methods of production.
Traditional potters dry clay and molded pots under the sun on roadsides and in front of their houses. They use the conventional way of baking by burning piles of hay and chaff on their yards with molded items underneath.
Tiwi Mayor Jaime C. Villanueva says the local government is extending a big financial help to the industry because of the long-term goal to penetrate the export market.
“Now that we have a production center, we plan to establish a training center so that our products will improve. We also have to develop our packaging and marketing,” Villanueva says.
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