South of Dumaguete City is the municipality of Bacong, home of Negros Oriental Arts and Heritage's Stonecraft factory, or NOAH for short.
NOAH started out with stone crafts similar to the marble pieces from Romblon... which were usually name plates, paper weights, vases, candleholders and pen holders made of jade, riverstone and the like. Fascinated with mosaic and jigsaw puzzles, the owners eventually experimented with creating multicolor designs using the stones. This stonecraft proved to be more popular and became their main export product.
A typical piece starts with a paper design on a wooden base, with metal strips tracing the outlines.
Large chunks of jade and other stones are piled up in the courtyard.
These stones would be cut and shaped for use in the designs. The cut stone should ideally be exact to the shape it will cover on the design. However, there would still be spaces between the stone pieces and the metal outlines. These spaces are filled up with powder/grains of the same stone. The fillers are grounded up "rejects" and pieces too small to cut up.
Once the design inlay is finished, the stone is polished and laminated. The other pieces like mechanisms for clocks, or legs for tables, are then added for the final product.
NOAH still manufactures the usual pen holders, vases, candle holders and and paper weights made of single stone (no mosaic work). In addition, they have branched out to making jewelry like necklaces, earrings and bracelets made of stones, shell and coral stringed together.
Oddly, their shop also sells trinkets and keychains that seem to be manufactured elsewhere (probably even imported from China).
You would find their products in most Filipiniana sections of Metro Manila department stores, like Rustan's.
NOAH's website: www.noahphil.com/
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