Capability building for DavNor jewelers initiated

A series of capability building activities were conducted for the jewelers and goldsmiths of Davao del Norte from January 26 – February 6, 2015. The activities were facilitated by Ms. Marieke Bekker, a senior expert from PUM Netherlands through the initiative of DTI and in partnership with DOST. Marieke Bekker, a senior expert from PUM Netherlands teaches a jeweler from Davao del Norte how to trace designs that will serve as basis for the jewelry wax model during the Delft Clay Casting Workshop conducted on Feb. 3, 2015. The series of activities kicked off with a consultation between Ms. Bekker and the jewelry shop owners and goldsmiths from Tagum and Panabo. During the said consultation, participants were introduced to the jewelry expert from PUM Netherlands. They were also assessed on the skills they need that can be provided by the PUM senior expert. This twin hearts design is one of the jewelry wax models DavNor jewelers were able to make during the hands-on training on Wax Jewelry Modelling. After the consultation and the initial assessment, a series of jewelry designing and processing workshops were conducted. This includes the Delft Clay Casting Workshop held last February 3, 2015 at DTI-Davao del Norte. This workshop provided the jewelers with hands-on training on creating wax models to be used for jewelry casting which is a technology long used by jewelers around the world. Majority of those present claimed that they haven’t heard of the technique before. Another workshop is the Technical Information on Jewelry Processing and General Design conducted in TCNTS on February 5, 2015 where jewelers from Monkayo also participated. Participants of the Technical Information on Jewelry Processing and General Design Workshop get to design their own jewelry during the hands-on activity. To assess the real situation of the jewelry sector, Bekker also conducted an on-site visit of the jewelry shops in Tagum. She was able to visit six workshops around the city. Her initial assessment was that the province clearly has the potential for jewelry making since Davao del Norte and its neighboring provinces such as Compostela Valley has vast amount of gold deposits. “If you didn’t have the resources, I’d advise you to just forget about it (jewelry making). However, you have the gold so that makes you very suitable for this industry. You cannot avoid it. People here will always work with gold since your area is surrounded with it.” Bekker said in an interview with Romeo L. Castañaga, Officer in Charge of DTI-Davao del Norte.

She also noticed the lack of standards being implemented for jewelry making citing as an example the different methods used by pawnshops and jewelers in determining the amount of gold a jewelry contains. She explained that a jeweler might declare a jewelry he/she made as 24K but pawnshops would only value it at 18K which could cause confusion and dissatisfaction on the part of the customer. She also observed that miners would bring raw gold to the jewelry shops for refinement but sells the refined gold to be made as jewelry elsewhere then buy the finished jewelry at a much higher price.

Marieke Bekker, a jewelry expert from PUM Netherlands during the Jewelry Design Workshop held in Tagum City National Trade School. She is currently based in Holland and had experience working for big names in the jewelry industry such as Tiffany & Co. in New York. Also seeing the industry’s potential, Tagum City National Trade School will also be offering a 3D Jewelry Design course in summer this year. This is part of the effort to upgrade the province’s jewelry making technology to be at par with world standards in the near future. It will also enable graduates to easily find employment as jewelry designers here and abroad. As an offshoot to these activities, the DavNor Jewelers Association was formed and elected its first set of officers last February 5.