murano, anyone?

still saving my money to get this original murano pendant

a couple of days ago, for the first time in my life, i went to quiapo to do some shopping. though i've been to the church once or twice, last week was the only time i ventured outside the quiapo church walls. the market there is not one of the safest places to be and i didn't tell anybody at home i was gonna be there. so i told my friends that if anything happened to us, i'd rather be dead than get spanked! patay na kung patay.

and it was all because of the murano glass beads i'm currently fascinated with. the ones in quiapo were copies of the original murano glass of italy but they were so pretty and colorful and cheap that i really didn't care if they were fakes. the ever-famous duke served as our tour guide since he used to moonlight in a clinic there. we braved the afternoon heat as we rode a jeepney going to quiapo, coz we couldn't contain our excitement in finding the beads.

all i knew was we had to find the muslims who sold pearls and other ornaments, just like in greenhills and robinson's where i already bought a handful. so duke guided us to where he saw them and we weren't disappointed. my instinct was to buy them at once and get out of the place fast. of course, when buying, bargaining and canvassing the other stores were very important. so we made round of the shops, until one saleslady pointed us to where they got their beads.

and boy, were they cheap! they were just 1/3 the price they gave me in greenhills. kainis! but the stock was limited which was a little disapponting. i bought a few plus all the little things needed in making a bracelet and a pendant. but in the last store we went to, which i initilly didn't want to enter thinking they didn't have what we were looking for, we found more beads. they were a lot cheaper than in all the other shops. and contrary to what i thought, it was owned not by muslims but by a chinese businessman. plus, it wasn't a jewellery shop, it was a general merchandise store.

it was a joy finding those fake murano beads. now i have a box full of them, still unmade, and i don't know what to do with the lot. and i can't wait to go back to quiapo again this week.

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this afternoon, i went to a stall in greenbelt where they sell original murano-made jewellery from italy. i'm now a proud owner of a new pendant and watch, courtesy of my brother. nakaka addict!