Manila FAME exhibition Autumn 2008  _{R Fuyonan..October, 2008}

The Manila FAME exhibition kicked off last Thursday 16 October. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself officially opened the exhibition by cutting an 8 metre long  strip of our Spiral Tagasi sheet that we specially made for the occasion. From the fixed smiles on the faces of the entourage and the focused look on the President's we are a little concerned that the scissors might not have been up to the task of cutting through the tensile fibres of the Spiral Tagasi sheet!   According to the organisers attendance was down by 20% from last April show. All the same, we received a great response to our different products and were flat off our feet througout the show. We were fortunate to have our pieces exhibited throughout the exhibition, the most noticeable being the gigantic Spiral Tagasi sheets. Upon entering the main hall, buyers were met by a shimmering cascade seemless spirals. During Tess Pasola's visit to our factory last August she spotted our newly developed Spiral Tagasi sheet (Tess is one of the foremost product designers working in the Philippines today). As a result CITEM, the exhibition organisers, contracted us to make 1,750 square metres of Spiral Tagasi sheet that hung 8 metres high over the special design setting. We were given only three weeks to produce the sheeting and the Homecraft team spent  virtually sleepless nights in the run-up to the exhibition preparing the enormous sheets.     Aside from providing the backdrop for the central design setting, a number of our products were also featured. Tess Pasola designed with us a range of driftwood planters, stools and lighting that was displayed under the Spiral sheets. All items received attention, with the driftwood stools garnering the most compliments.                                 Meanwhile back at the booth the Homecraft team were kept busy the whole four days of the show. The main attraction? The driftwood horses. These pieces are the first of a line of life-like sculptures created by James Doran-Webb. Each sculpture bears a brass casting in the shape of driftwood that bears the artist's name, the subject and the number of the piece. Aside from the Driftwood horses, we also launched our new range of cushions made from 100% organic materials. The front of the cushion is either hand prepared and hand woven raffia or sinamay weave with the back of ultra soft and sensuous bamboo fabric, dyed in a range of sophisticated colour. April 2009 will see the introduction of a really exciting new range of driftwood furniture. Plans are underway to produce a fine and sophisticated range of seating, tables and accessories. Our in-house design team, Jenno Gacasan and James Doran-Webb hope to work again with Tess Pasola to create other objects from driftwood and natural materials. Our range of cushions are also going to be pushed to a new level... plans are afoot to invite a highly recognised designer to work with Homecraft on a range of refined cushions to compliment the driftwood pieces .

TREE PLANTING WITH HOMECRAFT!R. Fuyonan September 2008