Ugu Bigyan still crafting masterpieces at 61
Despite being a success in his field, master potter and ceramist Augusto “Ugu” Bigyan continues to thrive, four decades into his lifelong mission of producing quality and exquisite masterpieces made from clay.
Together with his House of Ugu team from Tiaong, Quezon, he is still very much into his craft, innovating with new designs and materials marked with the Ugu Bigyan flair of carefree, well-positioned motifs and avant-garde touches.
Born in Tiaong to Batangueño parents from Bauan and Taal towns, Bigyan, whose real name is Augusto, first set sight on the beauty of pottery when he was a college student at what is now the Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation in Lucena City.
As he would always pass the shop called Banahaw Pottery by Jaime and Anne de Guzman in neighboring Candelaria, he was enamored by the couple’s clay and would buy rejects and bring them home to his mother who was also an artist.
After his college education, he worked briefly in Manila and returned to Tiaong due to the political situation in the 1980s.
In Tiaong, he started venturing into pottery after he was able to purchase the electric kiln and leftover clays of the De Guzman couple, who moved their pottery business to Sagada, Mountain Province.
According to Bigyan, it was actually the De Guzmans who started Sagada’s pottery industry, which still flourishes today.
In the 1980s, Bigyan first experimented with making bricks and small pots. He would later develop these to include ceramics by learning from pottery magazines.
He actually did not apprentice with the De Guzmans but is self-taught, persevering on his own to refine his craft. In Tiaong, he now owns the Ugu Bigyan Pottery Garden and Restaurant, where his shop is located and where he serves delectable Filipino dishes to dining clients.
Artistic talent
His clientele today includes top hotels and resorts, as his creations offer a wide selection of dishes, mugs, vases and wind chimes to different types of celadon and sculptural pieces.
His artistic talent may have come from his mother who was an artist (textile art), although not by trade.
Bigyan, who started out as a painter and sculptor during his high school and college years, has exhibited his works here and in countries such as France and Germany.
In 1987, he mounted his first exhibition at the Ayala Museum. In 1990 and 1993, he was adjudged winner in the Best Product Design category of the Manila FAME exhibits held during those years.
He would mount other exhibitions at the Ayala Museum, while a recent exhibit was at the Bintana Gallery at Lima Park Hotel in Malvar, Batangas. Titled “60:40: Journey of Life,” the show featured many of the creations he made with House of Ugu members Jian Carla Arciaga, Micko Agno, Janice Agno, Alyzza de Guzman, Harold de Guzman, Merjah Montilla, Sherjoy Palacol and John Carlo Palacol.
The exhibit was done in celebration of his 60th birthday last year and 40 years in the pottery industry. Coinciding with that 60th birthday was a weeklong sale of his works at his shop in Tiaong, with all the products sold at 60-percent off.
This sale was repeated in August this year, offering 61 percent discount on all of his products.
