I have always thought that sculpturing was a man’s world until I met Charming Baldemor, a young lady from Paete, Laguna, the carving capital of the Philippines. As a little girl, she was mesmerized by the work of her sculptor father, Charlie Valdellon Baldemor. Along with the other members of the Baldemor family (painter Manuel Baldeor is an uncle), creativity was in her blood so it was an easy step for the alumna from St. Paul and the College of St. Benilde to eventually segue from handicrafts, painting, and photography to sculpture.

Always on the lookout for old wood from discarded electric posts, demolisded old houses, wagon wheels, fallen tree stumps and driftwoods, Charming could already envision at first glance what her finished product would be –whether it was a minaudiére (clutch bag) that would take two to three weeks to complete or a seven-foot log lamp that would take seven to eight months to painstakingly chisel.