MANILA, Philippines -- When the passion for crafting becomes a financial burden, turn it into a real business. This is exactly what Jessica Luzano did, especially when the cost of the equipment and materials she was buying for her various hobbies was running into tens of thousands of pesos.

A practicing cosmetic dermatologist, Jessica just couldn’t keep her hands idle in between patient appointments. Initially, it was cross-stitching. Then she got into paper crafting, beading, pergamano, framing, even candle making.

“At first, I had a clinic in one rented unit, and a craft shop beside it. When I wasn’t to be found in the clinic, patients knew I was just next door,” Jessica said. Eventually, she housed both in one unit, with her practice confined to the second floor, and the craft shop on the ground level.

At one point in her “crafting life,” Jessica thought of glass etching. But the cost had become too prohibitive. The start-up cost was going to be more than P70,000, which was already the highest she had ever spent when she got into pergamano, a parchment paper stencilling craft.

Besides, husband Alex was already forever arguing with her on the futility of her seemingly clueless spending.

Jessica was fixated with the idea of luminosity, of light streaming through colored translucence. Thus, when a crafts trainor gave a workshop on leaf fossilizing, the idea of using the technique although slightly modified as a decorative accent on lamps grew.

The concept gained approval from Alex. “It was something that was not what everybody was doing,” he said. It took Jessica two years though to market-proof the idea. “The leaves easily fell off the resin fabric at the start,” she said. With patience and persistence, the first lamps were put on sale in 2003 at the national trade fair.

With more orders coming in, and sales at various fairs improving, Alex quit his job as a medical representative to lend support to Jessica, who had also decided to focus on the business rather than her clinic practice. The couple were making the trip from Tuguegarao to Manila, where the big trade shows were being held, with increasing frequency too.

Soon, the big department stores were selling her products. “And we were not getting ‘Return to Vendor’ notices,” an indication that the items were all being sold, said Alex.

As a matter of strategy, the couple decided they were not going to flood the market with their products. “We did not want to end up like many start-up businesses that would mass produce their products, then in the next year, run out of steam,” Alex said.

The tack of pacing their product releases seemed to be working well for the couple. They had started with lamps for tables, then walls, on floors, ceilings, even chandeliers. They next incorporated lighting accents on furniture – side tables, big tables, coffee tables.

Lately, they have been serving clients who come to them for custom-made pieces. This has inspired the couple to build their own showroom, one that will reflect the lifestyle convenience and elegance that they have been putting together the past five years.

Even their booths at trade fairs are not hodgepodge displays of what their company, AJ Arts and Crafts Industries, Inc., makes. The furniture and house ware pieces are displayed to set off their intrinsic value and beauty. “Which is why we choose the trade shows we participate in,” Alex said.

Jessica’s puttering in the early days of crafting has certainly gone the lengths she had never imagined then. Alex and Jessica still argue, but it is now about how best to light their business’s future.

==========================
Alex’s and Jessica’s advice:

 Start small. Think big.
 No pain, no gain. Lakas loob, pikit mata. Pag nauntog, dumilat ka. Pag nadapa, bumangon ka.
 Look for your niche. Create something unique.
 Be happy with what you’re doing. Everything should start with a passion.