My Mothers Pearls

I would always want to go with my Dad when he drove from Cagayan our town to Bukidnon to visit the farm. It was a long drive on dirt roads (now much faster on a highway) but I would get to see the peanuts growing on the little plants and most importantly see the farmer’s horse.

Mama Chata (my Dad’s mother) always had a ruler beside her when she played mahjong. She would make her wall of tiles then woosh the ruler on the side to ensure the wall was straight. She was also able to pick up a tile, feel it with her thumb without looking and decide to keep or throw because she knew what it was simply from that thumb! My Dad at 95 can do the same now.

This was a Filipino folk song we learnt at school and I remember doing the movements to the song with all my classmates. Weirdly enough I thought it was “Planting rice is always fun” which is completely incorrect!

Mum iced cakes using her piping bag and wanted to be like her. Sadly I was never good at piping but instead shaped them out of fondant. This is the same technique used to decorate these pieces.

I remember my white dress, the long scratchy veil and walking with my classmates in pairs into the auditorium at Lourdes High School.

The chalice is marked with small circles, which represents the round communion wafers and the pearls on the crosses represent the sign that the Roman soldiers nailed to the cross with the words “This is Jesus the king of the Jews”.

I’m not actually sure if we drank wine but I love the idea that seven year old me was forced to drink alcohol.

Marleen my eldest sister had this library of Mills and Boon romance books which I would secretly read. The gruff tortured man was always a little resistant to the woman but in the end, love would find a way to have a happy ending. I still love romance novels which makes me laugh when I say it out loud.

On New Year’s day we would gather at Mama Chata’s house and have a long lunch with my father’s 4 brothers, 2 sisters and my many cousins.

After games on the basketball court we would line up to be given money by all the Aunts and Uncles and if you were smart enough, you would line up a few times for those who had drunk too much. At the time the 5-centavo coin was my favorite as it had a hole in the middle.

I remember the brush scraping through my hair so it could be pulled tight into a bun. My eyes would be stretched back and my head would be sore from the hairpins and elastic. It was concert time.

Some ladies still wore veils when they went to church at that time in Cagayan De Oro. Rosary beads are comprised of five sets of 10 beads with a cross hanging on the end. The lace pattern on the pieces is from my Mother’s doily.

Being born in May 1966 makes so me a Gemini Fire Horse. I always loved that combination. Apparently I almost died when I was born as I had a terrible chest infection. Fortunately, there was a conference of pediatricians in the city so my Dad, a surgeon, asked them to help with my treatment.

The horse imprint is from a brooch given to me by a friend at this year’s lunar celebration. It hangs on my ceramics bag that I use at the studio.

It was the 70’s so it meant that Mum would tease her hair into an enormous beehive then spray it with a giant can of hairspray. I was completely in a trance as I watched her apply her make up.

I still remember the pale yellow butter icing, the sides piped with her signature trellis pattern, the pale pink roses and green vine leaves. Leticia was the OG of cake decorating and I loved that cake.

Every new build in my suburb. It’s a pandemic of curved walls, ribbing and a balcony or three.

After Angelo Candalepas’ new NGV Contemporary in Melbourne interior which resembles the omphalos – the Ancient Greek word for the centre of the Earth.

For some reason I’m sure I remember him telling me it was an orange but I may be incorrect.

We have been fortunate to have two homes designed by Angelo. Our first in Paddington 30 years ago when we were all so young. This current home was finished in 2017 and was listed for House of the Year. Motifs he used in Paddington can be seen in the details. We love living in this space.

This is my family. Yes – I have six siblings. Dad came from a family of 7 and Mum from a family of 10. I also have just over 100 first cousins. My parents have 19 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. Although I had no say in these numbers I’m strangely proud of it.

Macquarie Lighthouse is the oldest working lighthouse in Australia and was designed and constructed by convict architect Francis Greenway in 1818.

Behind my grandmother’s house was a bamboo grove where I would play house. It had spaces which were my imaginary home playing alone on the days I stayed with her for company.

I would watch her sew on her ancient Singer pedal sewing machine and eat native snacks like fried sweet potatoes dipped in coconut jam and mandarins that she would peel the skin off for me. In the evening we would watch television and her maids would massage her arms and legs and if I was a good girl they would do the same for me. At night I would sleep on the floor on a mattress beside her covered with a giant mosquito net.

Inspired by Oscar Niemeyer’s Contemporary Art Museum in Niteroi. Brazil. The flying saucer built in 1996 is one of my favourite buildings.

I was fortunate to learn a technique for flat coiling from my masterclass with Elena Vasilantonaki in Athens this year. It allows me to build larger pieces and reduced the strain of smoothing rounded coils which can be hard on my wrist.

This reflects the old rough base then the new layer added to homes, a metaphor for the addition of new skills added to my own in ceramic making.

In honour of my teacher Elena Vasilantonaki in Athens.

I have two sets of twin cousins, my Mum miscarried twins, a brother has twin daughters and a sister has twin sons. We have a lot of twins in my family. Every time I fell pregnant it would be my first question to the doctor. Same for everyone else in my family.

After the famous ancient rice terraces in North Luzon, Philippines. They are over 2,000 years old and were hand carved by the ancestors of the native Igorot people.

Having three children is a daily exercise in adjustment and compromise. The threads aren’t tidy because life is sometimes a beautiful mess.

“DO NOT RUN!” Mama Chata my Grandmother shouted at the top of her stairs as I tumbled onto the gravel and skinned my knee again.

I looked down and I had torn that thin layer of newly formed pink skin from when I fell at Mum’s work at the university only a week before.

San Miguel Corporation owns Coca Cola in the Philippines. My Uncle Mario was at that time the manager of the bottling plant so every week the delivery truck would drop off bottles of soft drink to our house. He went on to run whole divisions of the multinational – beer, soft drinks, ice cream and a lot of our family worked for the company. It was truly, like working for a King.

After Harry Siedler’s building in Darlinghurst finished in 1998 winning the Wilkinson Award by the Australian Institute of Architects in 1999.

After Frank Gehry’s iconic Guggenheim Museum in Spain. I have only ever seen it in pictures but what a truly magnificent example of modern architecture.