Who among you have colorful fantasies when you were young? I guess all of us right? Growing up, while we boys get dirty by playing our usual games in the afternoon, some girls are either playing their own girl games or crafting something beautiful. Some have been in the habit of showing off their beautiful new jewelry or some of those they hand crafted themselves. In time, I saw some of them sell their handmade wares themselves. Most probably, this was the same experience that the Crafted Fantasies Proprietress, Alexandra Anuales had in her St. Scho days, minus the boys. Coming from an exclusive school, Alex is most acquainted with the needs of other girls, and that is to be dainty and look beautiful. Long before she joined the Association of Negros Producers, she has been crafting for the needs of her friends since her grade school days.

Even as she studied college, this passion never went away from her and soon enough, she was able to produce more girl items using various materials like clay, plastic, resin, wood, metal and many more materials her creative hands can get hold of. Of all the displays, what attracted my attention is this dollhouse with various real-like pastries with strings. I even swore they look real and what do you know, they even smell real. Perhaps, what best describes Crafted Fantasies are these small dainty trinkets the sure looks like edible.

Apart from the tempting real-like sweet, she also sells lockets made of clay which also looked like candies stuck with a metal heart. There is one verb the best describes the things she sells: colorful. The trinkets and lockets best describes the fantasies that every girls have. Even as these are not your basic needs, girls crowd to buy her stuff because every girl has the need to look and feel beautiful.

In tribute to her exclusive girls’ alma mater, she even made these phone accessory. Asking if she ever plans on making accessories for flambouyant guys like me, she said that accessories for guys is a bit of her Achilles Heel. Nevertheless, I am quite contended of the fact that her accessories are making girls out there happy with themselves.

Aside from phone accessories, lockets and pins, she also sells customized necklaces that appeal to one’s need to be exclusive. These necklaces are of various designs that are well-thought of and crafted carefully.

Crafted Fantasies is currently available in the ANP Negros Showroom in Lacson St., Bacólod City near the Capitol Lagoon and soon in the new ANP Showroom Shop in Robinson’s Bacólod Citywalk. She also holds shop online at www.craftedfantasies.com and all her designs are original to cater to your needs. Her website also holds a careful reminder: “Be inspired but don’t steal. Karma is real.”

Let me ask you a question, what do you actually think when you hear about pandan? Most probably, some would be reminded of buko-pandan salad or that green pointy leaf that is put in cooked rice to smell good. How about native? Maybe, you’d be reminded of those handicrafts that are made by native tribes but who would think of pandan and native that is “in” and very chic? In the Negros Trade Fair, I was able to meet Marichu D. Cusi, the proprietress of Kiculo, a store specializing on handmade bags that caters to the classic taste of women. Her bags are made by highly-skilled workers using pandan leaves. I asked if this pandan leaves were the same as that being used to make rice smell good, she immediately answered maybe anticipating my question that the pandan leaves used are related to the one culinarily used but stronger and more durable.

Kiculo was named after her daughter Kitkat Cusi-Lobaton, the one who originally started the business with a passion for trendy fashion using native materials like pandan. The business prospered and gained wide customership through their various contacts in the Association of Negros Producers as well as the various Negros Trade Fairs they joined in for the past years. However, since her daughter was beginning to be busy with her family, the business was threatened for closure due to the lack of time. Seeing the wide potential of the business, Mrs. Cusi volunteered to handle the business herself. It was a learning experience since she did not have knowledge beforehand on how the crafts were made or how the business ran but soon enough, she was able to learn the ropes and develop new fashion styles herself. Her new designs are well-thought and well-critiqued with the help of family and friends.

Everytime a new design is made, she would consult her daughter Kikat and her friends if they like the new design. If there are some suggestions, necessary changes are made to improve the design. The bag pictured above are one of her best sellers and the design has been in the Trade Fair for six years now yet people never gets tired of buying this design. This can be attributed to the fact that the design integrated to the bag is a classic one that never fades in style. Native themed bags never goes out of style owing as well to the bag’s durability and handiness. Indeed, the booth was able to gather the likes of Sen. Loren Legarda and Irene Marcos Araneta, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ daughter, to check out her products in the booth. Kiculo holds shop at No. 24 Quezon Ave., Bacólod City and has products available at the ANP Negros Showroom. You can reach the shop by phone at (034) 435-4518 or check out new items at their website, www.kiculo.com with updated designs from their inventory.

When you say Anglo in Bacólod, what people would have in mind are the famous eyeglasses shop and clinic. Indeed, Anglo is one of the largest optometry shops in the city however, Anglo has now entered the fashion industry through the Association of Negros Producers. This was the ticket of Ms. Melissa B. Anglo to the high-end market of Rockwell. What started as just a pure exercise of the mind or a simple idea in a lazy afternoon, Ms. Anglo conceived what will become her design and concept shop. Her background of being an optometrist gave her a trait of being well-organized and being well-thought so she thought of a business that would sell bags to organize things at home. She used what we think as simple materials like jute or the ones we use to make rice sacks into something beautiful and special. Skillfully putting unlikely combinations in her collection of bags, she created a vast array of designers and organizers that will make work at home simpler. For this year, she released new designs just for the loyal Rockwell public.

Ms. Anglo’s products reflect much on her personality as her bags are organizer bags. For instance, some of her bags are travel bags which you can use to organize your belongings into categories of clothing. The bags are made from a variety of materials like jute as I mentioned earlier, recycled cloth and recycles plastic. For something recycled, they look trendy and fit for your travel needs. Her travel bags for example can actually carry as heavy as 10kilos. Imagine the durability of the bag and it has been proven from her customer history that they last long. Some of the bags are still in use by customers who flocked again to buy new designs. Your home organizing needs are addressed to for she has some organizer bags for laundry and for cabinets. Having some organizing problems, do get Anglo’s bags and designer items available for the meantime at the Negros Trade Fair. The Negros Trade Fair runs until this Sunday at Rockwell Tent, Makati City.

While going around the booths of the Negros Trade Fair, I chanced upon a booth named Saturn Arts and Fashion. The Vice-President of the Association of Negros Producers, Mr. Jojo Vito, a fellow Negros Blogger was talking to the owner. He introduced me to the owner, Saturnina Cautivar. You might already guess why the name Saturn for the enterprise, right? Just as the planet The enterprise of Saturn Arts and Fashion has been a resounding high success for the past few years. For one, among those sold in her booth are fashion designer bags made of banig! The bags are of varying sizes and shapes, asking for durability, it is quite durable and can coax with the local weather. Just as we thought banig is just a sleeping mat made of reeds, it can also be used to manufacture such works of art. Apart from the bags, she also sells wallets, trays and candy bowls and the few.

The story of Saturn Arts and Fashion runs as high as the planet Saturn itself up in the heavens. Ms. Saturnina did share a bit of history with her handicrafts. She started as a rank and file employee of the Association of Negros Producers Showroom in Lacson St., Bacólod City right from its founding circa 22 years ago. From her experience as an employee in the ANP Showroom, she got a hand on how the handicraft business work. Seeing the profit that can be garnered through handicraft making, she resigned from ANP Showroom, got a micro-finance loan and started up a business herself which she accredited with ANP itself. From a simple employee who manages the displays, her own handiwork is now being displayed the Showroom where she used to work. Every Negros Trade Fair in Rockwell, she even lands on a consistent Top 10 Net Grosser among the ANP Producers. Her products are only available in the ANP Showroom in Lacson St. but it is available in Manila in the time being for the Negros Trade Fair. The Negros Trade Fair opened yesterday at Rockwell Tent, Makati City and will run until Oct.2, 2011, Sunday.