She's also the proud mother of an intrepid and enterprising son who is a successful sales associate of a construction company, and whom she lovingly jokes is her "best work"!
She is arguably the only artist I have met who employs woodburning to create marvelously decorative wooden products that make quaint and picturesque additions to any kitchen, pantry, and cupboard of any home.
She is Rose Callejo Fernandez, a youthful looking and charming artisan who has discovered woodburning, and fine tuned it into an art form!
She chanced upon the technique quite by accident, as she is wont to experiment with different arts and crafts processes. Before this she had also dabbled in glass etching, fragrance formulation and similar endeavors. In her travels, she had seen products that used wood burning, but found them too costly for local users. So she went in search of a machine that she could use to create the same effects, and through it, she met one Henry Galicha Jr., a Filipino artist who has been using woodburning to create works of art. Only he had built machines that enthusiasts like Rose could use...and he has become quite a fan and mentor to Rose as well, meeting and sharing tips with her on how to perfect the skill.
Rose starts with a pencil sketch of the design she has in mind. Then she burns the design, and then cleans it up afterwards. She works with all shapes, sizes, and types of wooden utensils and surfaces, enhancing trays, chopping boards, loofahs with wooden handles, salad bowls, condiment sets, platters, even hangers. A design takes her anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours to do. At present, she only has one part time helper, a handyman by the name of Larry, who helps her create some of the accessories and utensils that she burns. At the same time, she is not above buying plain wooden products and then enhancing them with her work. She works with palo china, molave, and light bamboo surfaces.She calls her works, MERAKI, after a word that modern Greeks use to describe "doing something with soul, creativity, or love". She chose the name because when she works, she works with passion, throwing her all into her efforts, and in the process, she surely and irrevocably puts something of herself into it.
At present, MERAKI is a hobby Rose has been into for a little over a year, but she was encouraged by the warm response of friends and family who ordered so many of her creations as Christmas gifts this past holiday season. Because they were handmade, and modestly priced (from Php 150-800), they were a sought after, and phenomenally successful gift idea...she had more orders than she could supply.
Being of an artistic temperament and born into privilege, Rose has not considered it primarily a business, though she has frankly admitted that if the opportunity emerges to grow it from a hobby to an enterprise, she would consider it...perhaps as a second career if and when she retires from teaching. She is quick to add though that she will "need help", because as of now she does everything by herself. She hopes to venture into carpentry, and staining, to master the full gamut of skills involved in what started out as a very fulfilling preoccupation and has since become a rewarding passion.Rose is also a devout Catholic, and a woman who professes and lives by a strong moral standard. She is an extraordinary multi tasker, able to juggle a career as a popular pre school teacher with a passion as an emerging artist, and able to balance time spent with her beloved son and her own family of an elegant mother and three equally spirited sisters, and her commitment to her faith. She is what I call a truly amazing grace, with apologies to the title of the legendary hymn, an archetype of a modern total woman, accomplished as she is attractive, yet modest, humble, and unassuming about her achievements.
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