The Babae Pendant (2002)
“Woman” or Babae
After Mary Ann Ubaldo(Urduja.com) taught me about baybayin,
I collaborated with her and together we designed this pendant together.
Each is custom-made, and as of this day, we probably only created 15 of them.
The baybayin symbols of this pendant are Ba at the outer shape,
another Ba in the negative space, and the E carved in it.
So for me and Ann, the babae pendant represents “Woman” or Babae.
Our collaboration yielded a piece brought about our artistic senses and our interpretations of the baybayin symbol of ba as the symbol of femininity and womanly forms, and also the baybayin symbol of E— seeing in it the forms of wind and earth (waves are wind/spirit, and zigzags are jagged mountains). Also, we love silver for this pendant, because silver captures the magical essence of moonlight and the feminine energy of the Moon and the Luna Goddess.
I wanted to share this piece with you readers because in this way I can show you that such metaphorical knowledge and artistic interpretations of symbolism, shapes and metals are some ways to open up to exploring the baybayin in universal and timeless ways.
If you are curious about baybayin jewelry, please go to www.urduja.com.