Wearable pieces of art spring from Paul Syjuco’s able hands
This man of plentiful passions tells Northern Living how he handles life with hands and fingers that turn everything he touches into gold
If in Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo we find Simoun, the jeweler, a saboteur wearing blue-tinted glasses as he slyly infiltrates Manila’s high society to sow chaos for anarchist vengeance, in the famed artists of the Syjuco clan we recognize Paul, our hero of opposite virtues. Practicing an heirloom craft received from his grandparents, Paul, through his clear thick-framed spectacles, has the gleaming vision of a master appraiser, the handsome gait of a young husband, and the quick hands of an able cook at day and an indie band guitarist at night. Studied as he may be in the world of finance, Paul Syjuco has learned to channel his less calculative side into things that demand instinct—say, telling the worth of anything that glitters, assessing the spice from an alien pot of stew, or jamming to his cult label Terno Recordings-approved music project Children of the Pilgrimage. Let’s begin with your shop Aum Jewels, to say it as in the sound of The Beatles’s “Jai guru deva om.” It’s derived from the scientific word for gold, aurum. I’m a third-generation jeweler.
What was your exposure to the craft as a child? I’ve always been interested in art, conceptualizing, and music. I just needed an outlet. Sometimes, when I was younger, I’d go to the workshop. I guess that was normal for me, seeing those things, but I didn’t really go there straight after college. I did the corporate thing.
Because you were a trained economist! I was in a bank, handling credit card marketing, and I was a financial analyst for that company. I got tired of it, in 2001, after two years.
Do you remember the first pieces you touched? Younger, I was more fascinated with diamonds than metals. I remember being fascinated with it, in my mom’s office, with stones and different colored gems. I didn’t really have the books until I studied gemology in Thailand. That’s when my love for gemstones really grew. Did you acquire a New Age edge because of working with these gems? I would never really subscribe to that, but when I touch an amethyst [his birth stone] or a geode—the raw state of crystals, uncut in their natural form—I sort of feel a slight energy. To think that I’m skeptical about it, so I guess there’s some truth to it, why people wear their birthstones.
How long did you study gemology? I stayed in Thailand for about a year and studied jewelry design, diamond grading, and pearl grading. It’s more on evaluating stones and appraising. It’s a trade school for people in the field. It’s actually the most respected school in terms of gemology. I felt the need to study after going into the business because it’s one thing to do business and another thing to have technical knowledge. To get a gemologist’s degree, we needed to pass this test of identifying stones, and it had to be a perfect score. For jewelry design, we had an exhibit. What were your pieces from that show? They were very basic. I was exploring techniques and was more into rendering. They were more masculine, minimalist, architectural, hardedged, very European, very German. During that time, maybe 14 years ago, I didn’t think people were ready for it. It was too harsh. I think people still appreciate it, maybe a select few do. They are to whom I cater. You can’t please everybody. If you’re a jeweler, you basically use the same materials, the same gold, the same stones, and the same diamonds. It’s just the way you design and manufacture your pieces that makes the difference. I wanted to push beyond the typical way of valuing a gem in terms of its material worth than through its design. Design has an added value to a piece. You recently revisited Bangkok. Do you consciously set aside time to get inspired? Travel expands your mind. You’re pulled out of your comfort zone, and you’re exposed to other cultures and other aesthetics, so I guess, unconsciously, that goes into your mind as a library of images that you pull out from. For me, it’s not just about travel. It’s also being interested in other things like art, photography, [and] food. You have to be interested in a lot of these things because, if you’re just interested in looking at jewelry, your output would be so onedimensional. Inspiration has to be clever, smart, and yet, simple.
How do you see Filipino jewelry design? Filipinos like big and bold. Now they like color. I think the Philippines, historically, has its own jewelry culture.
Are you familiar with the Boxer Codex? Yes. Some of those things are exhibited in the Ayala Museum. If you look back, even in our pre-colonial stage, we have a big jewelry culture in Surigao and Bicol, where a lot of gold is found. We’ve always had this culture of adorning ourselves. I think it’s more for yourself, about feeling better. It is more psychological than about status. Do you see it as starkly different from that of other cultures? I guess some cultures are more modest in terms of accessorizing. The Japanese like fine and dainty pieces or almost none, and they are more organic, as visible even in their pottery. A lot of it is cultural context.
What are you wearing now, in our cultural context, so to speak? This is my wedding band. It’s just hammer-finished. It’s super thick and heavy. It doesn’t look like a wedding band. It’s very simple.
What attracts you to this unfinished look? I guess it’s just my aesthetic. The unfinished and organic look can be classic. I suppose it just adds another aesthetic dimension to jewelry— instead of being polished the whole time—this contrast between textures and color.
“Travel expands your mind. You’re pulled out of your comfort zone, and you’re exposed to other cultures and other aesthetics, so I guess, unconsciously, that goes into your mind as a library of images that you pull out from. For me, it’s not just about travel. It’s also being interested in other things like art, photography, [and] food.”
It’s like taking this craft culture that has reached a very sophisticated level and paring it back to its previous form through unlearning. It’s more of doing things simply but elevating its materials. If you have a simple stone, and you put so many things around it, they detract from the stone’s beauty. It’s different from being simplistic. It’s making sense of things. What gem, metal, or form are you really highlighting? You focus on that.
Your shop in TriNoma carries brands with similar leanings. There’s Jul Dizon, Janina Dizon, and Kristine Dee. I carry select designers who have the same drive to push Filipino design.
How has traveling to certain destinations changed your design perspective? Maybe we can start from last year. My wife and I went to Coron, Palawan. I haven’t been with nature in so long, and it made me step back and see again how amazing it is. It’s mostly unspoiled, and you rarely see that. It takes millions of years to attain that state and overnight to destroy it. You get to appreciate the many textures and colors.
The second trip we took last year was to Kyoto. It used to be the Japanese capital, and the good thing about it was that when they transferred the capital to Tokyo, they kept things in place. They preserved it, and it’s so normal to find establishments that are 200 to 500 years old. They’re all family-run businesses, and they take so much pride in one thing and only that thing. I take inspiration from that discipline, focus, and love for culture. Kyoto is a different animal. There’s purity in everything they do.
In Bangkok, we just ate a lot—from the sidewalks to the markets. It’s like Manila, and traffic is a little worse sometimes, but I’m very familiar with it. I notice that every time I go back, something changes… Their independent designers who do clothes, shoes, and jewelry are very much alive. They have a museum of materials collection there—a database of building materials. It’s a library. I actually prefer shopping in small stores or in the markets, in Chatuchak and Asiatique where they have all these brands that are welldesigned, well-made, not so expensive, and very unique. A lot of jewelry materials were discovered through voyages. What are your favorite finds from your personal conquests? I just look for unique stuff. They don’t need to be expensive. I like old, old shops, curios, and antiques. Sometimes, I use old pieces from those—like old jade and agarwood. It’s the most rare wood in the world. It’s highly resinated. I found it through this Chinese guy. It has this sweet scent. It’s used for Buddhist rosaries, and they use the extracts to make perfume. I’m not a big shopper. I’d rather make or have something made, and when I travel, I’d rather eat. I try more to experience.