WIRED TO SUCCEED

RACSO JUGARAP on becoming the first Filipino finalist of the Loewe Craft Prize.

- CELINE LAGUNDI

THE SILVER, GOLD, AND PRECIOUS STONES IN RACSO JUGARAP’S FATHER’S JEWELRY SHOP in Mindanao were off limits to him growing up. As a child, the artist was left to tinker with leftover wire scraps and pliers scattered around the workshop with which he fashioned trinkets and gifts for his friends.

“I just gave the gifts away for free—and they loved them,” he says. “They’ve always known me as the creative kid.” Perhaps, it is this artistry that has led him to his most recent achievement: becoming the first Filipino finalist of the Loewe Craft Prize.

The prize, which was launched in 2016, sought to honor those “who demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value. By identifying work that reinterprets existing knowledge to make it relevant today while reflecting its maker’s personal language and distinct hand, the Loewe Foundation aims to highlight the continuing contribution of craft to the culture of our time.” Past winners include Ernst Gamperl, Dahye Jeong, and Eriko Inazaki, whose ceramic piece “Metanoia” won last year.

While Jugarap’s artistic leanings might be traced back to his early days playing with scraps on the workshop floor, it wasn’t the original path he set for himself. When he was 17, he moved to Europe, Germany then to Belgium, to be a chef. He wanted to rebel against his father’s wishes to follow in his footsteps as a jewelry maker.