AS CLEAN water is vital to our life and economy, Aveda, the plant-based hair and skincare company, has been coming out with its annual campaign in creative ways.
For its eco-awareness campaign, Aveda (ah-vay-da) tapped 22 local artists and designers to create designs around the Limited Edition Light the Way Candle that was specifically made for this crusade. These works were auctioned recently at Greenbelt 5.
“Aveda’s mission is to care for the world we live in from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society,” said brand manager Evangeline Bumagat. “While sparking a candle may seem like a modest gesture, it will do far more than just setting a mood or filling the room with a warm and spicy aroma. It will help change lives.”
The proceeds of the auction went to Bantay Kalikasan, the environment program of ABS-CBN Foundation.
Artists were asked to interpret how clean water meant to them.
Glass sculptor Ramon Orlina’s abstraction of a drop of water also resembled the drip of the Aveda candle. The most expensive of the lot, it was made from imported optical glass block, incised with diamond cutters and polished for a clear and matte finish.
Another expensive piece was a pair of South Sea baroque pearl earrings studded with white diamonds. It was perched on a rock among polished driftwood and moss-covered stones. Jeweler Jesusa Ayson’s message was that we need to maintain clean water to produce healthy pearls.
Minimalist
Jeweler Candy Dizon’s minimalist candleholder highlighted the material of its base—pure silver shaped like a puddle. The base was encrusted with crystal gems that looked like diamonds to symbolize the value of water.
“Water is precious as a gem. We should treasure every drop the way we would create a carat,” she said.
Accessories designer Ann Ong expressed her affinity with nature by making a metal-and-jade candleholder that was nestled on salvaged wood. She said it symbolized nature as the highest form of craftsmanship.
Industrial designer Stanley Ruiz used piles and faucets available from the hardware store to created an assemblage of prefab water conduits as the candleholder.
Designer Ito Kish stacked up resin-made shells and stones covered with artificial moss to depict how the oceans are dying up. It was meant to call attention to the degradation of the ecosystem. The highlight was a mother-of-pearl shell that cradled the Aveda candle.
Theatrical flair
With characteristic theatrical flair, style savant Junjun Ablaza built an art chair made from a gnarled plantation coffee tree trunk. It was crowned with faux coral branches, with a wooden boat on top and a glass buoy hanging from the branches. The tree trunk was over a century old and painted red-orange to blend with the faux corals.
The carved boat was covered with hammered metal and gold leaf for texture. Reproductions of gold-dipped colonial filigree tambourine beads and pre-Spanish earrings with dangling foliage shapes lent more sparkle to the buoy.
“The ocean sustains us with the basic elements of life,” said Ablaza. “It produces half of the oxygen in the air which we breathe. It is an essential part of the water cycle, helping to provide the water we drink. The ‘Under the Red Coral Branches’ Art Chair signifies why we should protect our oceans. People need air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, new medicines, a climate we can live in, beauty, inspiration and recreation.”
Accessories designer Carissa Cruz Evangelista painted patterns on a tear-shaped, blue bottle to represent a clean drop of water, and displayed it beside the Aveda candle on a capiz holder.
“It shows the serenity that water brings,” she said.
Sculptor Jinggoy Buensuceso recreated his signature linear bird, a metal skeletal framework of a bird in flight. The Aveda candle was ensconced at the heart of the sculpture. Though not a literal message about clean water, he showed that both water and the heart shared the same attribute of purity.