Words by: Tanya Singh
Photo Credit: Hacienda Crafts

Amid the sugarcane fields and lush, tropical forests of Negros Island in the Philippines, sits a homegrown "enviro-social" design house, Hacienda Crafts. Run by the Gaston husband-wife duo, the company focuses on sustainably producing lamps, accent furniture, and home décor all made from and by indigenous resources — from the wives of sugarcane farmers to coconut twigs grown on the same land.

"We realized that we were a business much later. From the beginning, it was the mission first – to support the families of the sugarcane plantation workers," shares Christina Borromeo-Gaston, the primary designer and co-founder of Hacienda Crafts. One of the largest producers of sugar in the Philippines, Negros became home to Christina and her husband, Joey Gaston, in 1989 when she moved to Manapla to join Joey who took over the family sugarcane plantation business. The "Sugar Bowl of the Philippines" was recovering from a devastating economic crisis at the time, and they realized very quickly that sugar was not going to be enough to sustain the plantation and its inhabitants. With the population growing, there were not enough livelihood opportunities in the farming communities.

Christina and Joey Gaston, founders of Hacienda Crafts. 

During the recovery period, a group of concerned residents banded together to form the Association of Negros Producers whose mission was to diversify and find alternate ways to augment the incomes of the sugarcane workers. "Whatever they were earning was no longer enough to take care of their families. My husband and I are both architects and we readily joined the mission in the hopes of finding a creative solution to the social issues on the plantation. We had no product then. We just knew we had to find a way to enable the farmers to help themselves."

The couple set up Hacienda Crafts in 1994 and entered the export market with their coconut twig placemats and tabletop decorations soon after. "For about 10 years, all our products were made from coconut twigs, a renewable resource found in abundance in our region. We chopped it, rolled it, spliced it, and glued it. Everything you could think of doing with a coconut twig, we've done it," says Christina.

Coconut Twig Placemat by Hacienda Crafts.

Three decades in and millions of coconut twigs lovingly woven into timeless designs, the company has since expanded to include other homegrown materials to their portfolio and changed several lives in the process. “Most of the products are hand made by the wives of the sugarcane farmers who can work from home and support their families. We only use natural materials that are locally grown across the islands of Philippines. Even our hand technology requirements, like welding, is sourced locally.” explains Christina.

"We insist on working with local artisans because they are the ones that need our help the most."

Buri Metro Baskets

Every Hacienda Crafts product has a story – a story that touches lives of the makers and the users in exceptional ways. The story of the Buri Metro Basket, for instance, begins from Noli Suico and his family. Noli used to be a tricycle driver who made brooms out of buri fibres as an additional income for his family. He sold these brooms locally for 35 pesos a piece. Today, he and his family are the primary buri midrib suppliers for the signature baskets that the company produces.

Left to right: Noli Suico, the buri midrib supplier with his family; Dolores Portillano with her family.

The high-quality buri midrib strands collected by Noli and his family are then distributed to the wives of sugarcane farmers for weaving. Among them is Dolores Portillano who has worked with Hacienda Crafts since the early days. She has been able to support the schooling of her six children with her weaving setup. Dolores is now a proud great grandmother and continues to take out time to weave baskets with utmost care and perfection. Once the baskets are woven by the community women, they are sent to the main in-house workshop where local artisans put the finishing touches to it using other homegrown natural materials and resources.

Left to right: Obi Squash Hanging Lamp; Weaver, Isabel Duyungan, working on the Obi Squash Hanging Lamp.

Christina's own design process also begins with her environment and the people around her. The form of the Obi Squash Hanging Lamp, commissioned for a zen-inspired residential project, was jointly inspired by her exposure to the Japanese culture as a child and the shape of her daughter's hair. Noli's buri midrib became the obvious choice for the primary material due to their prismatic characteristics that allow light to bounce off and create a moiré effect. The internal diffuser is made of fiberglass by factory workers in a neighbouring city that had lost their source of income due to closure. Once woven, the lamp is put together using banana bark twine in the Hacienda Crafts workshop. The Obi Squash Lamp has since become the brand's best-selling product.

Christina describes the Hacienda Crafts working process as "bayanihan" — the Filipino word used to describe the spirit of communal unity and cooperation. Every product is a culmination of effort from different parts of the community and a result of the shared dedication towards preserving the local life and culture.

An envirosocial design company in every sense, as the founder describes it, Hacienda Crafts is a support system for communities that depend on it before it is a business. The environment as a resource, social welfare of the attached communities, and timeless designs are the three pillars upon which the company stands. "We grow as the world becomes more conscious and willing to participate in the welfare of our community. At the end of the day, it is the mission that is most important, and every purchase contributes towards that," shares Christina with a heart full of hope and love for the land and people she calls her own.

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