A blind Filipina designer creates eye-catching jewelry to rival those from the biggest jewelry houses
By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter
“SEEING, as we think of it, doesn’t happen in the eyes, but in the brain. In one way, to see flamboyantly, in detail, we don’t need the eyes at all. We often remember scenes from days or even years earlier, viewing them in our mind’s eye… we see in surprising detail when we dream,” wrote Diane Ackerman in A Natural History of the Senses. Ana Cristina Zuluaga, a jewelry designer, and her husband Daniel Bautista, a gemologist, work together to create pieces that seem to be plucked straight out of dreams, made tangible and solid through Ms. Zuluaga’s inner vision.
We had first encountered Ms. Zuluaga’s brand, The Collection, when she unveiled a necklace made out of 2,500 diamonds. The gems are set to resemble a peacock feather curled around a person’s neck, a single 80-carat Paraiba tourmaline forming the feather’s eye. Its name? Pride — based on one of the seven cardinal sins. Another one is Greed, a serpent of diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds, wrapping itself around a sapphire. Other esoteric pieces are based on unconventional muses like Morticia Adams and Dracula’s Mina Harker; or else the bloodier, dirtier parts of Filipino history (such as a collar made out of gold and a leather strap, based on a bloody incident between the Tausugs and American colonizers).
“Most of [the pieces] are unconventional — maybe because of the way I am. I’m really quite different. I see things differently. I process things differently too,” said Ms. Zuluaga in an interview with BusinessWorld.
You see, Ms. Zuluaga is in the spectrum of blindness. There are different ways to be blind: there’s the loss of one’s peripheral vision or else color-blindness, and, in her case, she had lost her central vision, meaning she cannot see the things right in front of her. She relies on the peripheral vision of her left eye, showing us in a video that she works with a tablet set on a stand at an angle by her left eye. “Otherwise, I won’t be able to see it. I read this way, and then I design this way. That’s how I navigate through life too,” she said.
Beethoven was deaf, and several great artists like Cezanne and Van Gogh suffered visual impairments. They still are, however, seen as some of the best in their fields, and have made lasting contributions to beauty. Ms. Zuluaga makes use of her own condition in a surprising way.
Ms. Zuluaga began to lose her eyesight around the age of 10, due to a genetic condition called Stargardt’s disease which is caused by the body not being able to synthesize proteins which instead get deposited in the eyes’ macula, which is responsible for central vision. In addition to this, she also has Behçet’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the body’s own blood vessels. One of the symptoms of Behçet’s is deafness. “I have a very short life ahead of me. I’m trying to make the best, and the most, out of what I have,” she said.
She talked to us about how it is to live with Stargardt’s. “Just imagine you’re driving a car, and it’s moving. The wipers are broken, but you use them anyway. Even though the wipers are moving up and about, the raindrops aren’t going away. That’s Stargardt’s for you.” Noting that the visual impairments associated with Stargardt’s are different depending on the person, in her case her “raindrops” are always there. “When I close my eyes at night, and I try to sleep, I still see them floating around. Some of them are red, blue, yellow — whatever color. There’s no escape. It’s there 24/7. It would drive any normal person mad, really,” she said.
“If there is an advantage of being shown floating, colorful, gem-like dots in front of you all the time — well, I use them for designs. I imagine designs. I imagine metalwork around the Stargardt’s dots. That’s kind of a blessing if you’re a jewelry designer.” With a laugh, she says, “You’re kind of f***ed if you’re not. It’s just going to drive you mad. That helps. Weird, isn’t it?”
Ms. Zuluaga lists down other designers she knows with visual impairments — game designers, learning development specialists who create educational material, software developers, and even a carpenter and woodworker. “I’m the only one I know that does jewelry.”
“There are several of us out there that have conquered our disabilities, and have found our voice, and have found our purpose. I hope that the others who are just like us — who are going through the cycle of depression and acceptance — let me say this: it will end. You would eventually find something. You will eventually realize your purpose. You do have one. Everybody has one. It’s more of focusing — not wishing — on what you want, and understanding what you want to do with it.”
ETHICAL SOURCING
Ms. Zuluaga and her husband have faced many challenges: aside from the fact of her disability, they also started their business in the Philippines after Mr. Bautista lost his job during the pandemic (more on that later), but they also take the cruelties of the mining industry quite seriously. That is why the couple only uses ethically mined or synthetic gems (by synthetic, we mean gems created with the same minerals in like conditions created by machines, controlled by humans).
“Lab-grown diamonds, when done properly, done by a proper laboratory, with very good accreditation from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) — they are stunning,” said Ms. Zuluaga. When shopping for synthetics, she said one should quiz the vendor about the process by which the gem was made. If they can’t explain it properly, “then just be polite and say goodbye. These are the synthetics that you would not want to own.”
As for ethically mined stones, she said, “You’re dealing with people who have toiled to get a diamond off the ground. For me, that’s the essence of ethical sourcing. There’s no violence; the money that you pay goes to the person who actually labored blood, sweat, and tears to get that rock off the ground.”
“Ethical” can just be a buzzword, but separate sojourns in Africa for the couple, from even before they met, taught them otherwise. “We have witnessed the atrocities of the mining industry, and what they do to children. We’ve seen children amputees. They do that so they can’t escape from the mining camps. I’ve personally seen a child just lying dead out of hunger in a minefield. They’re not treated well. It’s practically slavery.
“A girl’s arm is not worth a diamond ring. There is no justification. A diamond on a queen’s crown does not justify a girl’s leg.”
It seems almost futile to think that a single purchase can change the world, but Ms. Zuluaga says it does: “Things can change. Things will change if we want to, if we’re passionate enough to do so. Slowly, we’re getting there.”
PANDEMIC
Ms. Zuluaga and Mr. Bautista started their brand last year in the Philippines, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic derailing their initial plans.
Ms. Zuluaga had been designing jewelry for a long time abroad, doing so in her free time while working in the corporate field. She learned by apprenticing with bigger houses (she hints in their website that aside from her friends, she also designed for members of the English aristocracy).
On his part, Mr. Bautista said, “Gemology started as a hobby when I was working for Ericsson as the head of operations of a local telecom that had contracted Ericsson to run their operations in Tanzania. My South African boss taught me about the gemstones that were available in Tanzania, the rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and most importantly the tanzanite there. I didn’t have much to do in my off time so I studied gemology and photography. I devoured as many books on either subject as I could find. I could only get electronic books because of the nomadic nature of my life at the time, but I did get to see lots of gemstones and experience what it’s like buying gems in the field.”
He’s currently studying to become a certified gemologist. “I’m currently a member of the International Gem Society, and I’ve been certified as a Specialist in the following gemstones: sapphire, ruby, citrine, and aquamarine,” he said in an e-mail. “I’m still constantly studying to improve my knowledge. Luckily for me, I have a background in inorganic chemistry that I studied while I was at the University of Illinois.”
“It’s working quite all right,” said Ms. Zuluaga, even if they did kick off their business during an uncertain time for everyone in this world. “More than what we expected. We’re quite surprised.”
“We sometimes pinch ourselves just to make sure it’s actually happening.”
It’s not easy always to reconcile how one can search for luxury and beauty during a time like this. But we have spent a whole year determining what is essential. Apparently, luxury is. “Luxury has nothing to do with price tags. Luxury can be a fluffy blanket. It could be a pair of slippers. It can be anything. Luxury is an idea that brings comfort, and security, and this unbelievably nice feeling for a person.
“We have to remember our humanity. We have to remember to take care of ourselves. Just surviving, alone, can actually drive you mad.
“It’s what makes us human.”
View Ms. Zuluaga and Mr. Bautista’s work at www.thecollection.design, or on Instagram at @the_collection_ph.