ABLAZE OF GLORY

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. For JUN-JUN ABLAZA, he likes to make something beautiful with wearable, nature-drawn art in the form of excessive, extravagant fashion jewelry. He likes to make people stop in awe and say, "It’s more than just a design, it’s a style... It’s being creative.” 

Being known as an events designer in social and art circles, JUN-JUN ABLAZA, who admits being drawn to excess, has crossed over into artful accessory design. "Fashion jewelry should be worn as ornamentation," Ablaza as quoted in his latest style catalogue. He considers natural forms like birds, flowers and stones as his departure point.

"Too many people think of jewelry in terms of gold, silver, pearls and diamonds," says Jun-jun. He wants to show people that contemporary jewelry, though experimental, can still be commercial. "My jewelry isn't only about prettifying, but about shifting the idea of preciousness away from an object's material value to the experience of wearing it," he adds.

Showing this passion for fashion and the arts, JUN-JUN ABLAZA recently had an exhibit entitled ABLAZABLAZE held at the National Museum of the Philippines. His works, featuring a bountiful of feathered headdresses and accessories, as well as wooden beads, reptilian skins, animal skeletons and fur, are represented in an epic tale of mythological and mythical Filipino folklore during primitive times. See Jun-jun's ethnic masterpieces below as he sets fashion married with historical art ablaze.