Natalya says it wasn’t really difficult for her to find her signature style, which could be described as a vintage-inspired blend of old traditions mixed with modern lines and aesthetics. She remembers always being interested in Philippine history and culture, having collected colonial Philippine jewelry since she was a teenager. Her father, furniture maker and antiques dealer, Buddy Lagdameo, used to travel a lot to the Mountain Provinces when she was a child, bringing back with him artifacts, heirlooms, and precious native finds, all with a unique story about the people, history, environment, and symbolisms that come with these pieces. All these and more greatly influenced her present design style and made her appreciate the artistry and attention to detail hardly found in other jewelry designs today.

She loves working with a wide range of local materials and compositions such as brass, bronze, silver, and gold. Her favorite is utilizing brass and gold, which she says upholds the local traditions up north where most of the jewelry is done in brass. She then creates her own designs by adding other components such as pearls, stones, and shells. She also likes to experiment with antique elements such as tamburin beads, old relicario bits, and crosses while also making use of traditional tribal pieces of wood, bone, and mother of pearl. Restoration is also a big part of her work as she feels pride in putting together antique chain patterns and earrings from as far back as the mid-1800s. Most of the time, she fixes the chain locks and bits and pieces that have gone missing, all the while getting the satisfaction of learning about the different styles from a bygone era, together with the stories and symbolisms attached to these precious heirlooms.

Learning the intricacies, details, patterns and unique history of the pieces she comes across, Natalya learned to appreciate the dedication, work, and skill that often accompany local jewelry traditions. Her interior design training also helped mold her design style of building slowly around a base. And through knowledge of basic geometry, she then later adds layers of accessories and ornamentation to the basic structure format, resulting in a completely new and surprising design. She is also partial to experimenting with shapes, forms, and patterns that are unusual and unexpected.

I ask if there is a certain material she would like to work with more in the future and she says, “white diamonds.” But not just any white diamonds. “I like them rough cut, in their most natural state. They are called diamante,” she informs me. This way, she says, you see the light reflecting off the stones in the way it was naturally intended, without artificial barriers. To show me, she holds up a 12K white gold diamante pendant necklace with a 20-inch 14K white gold chain. She holds it up to the light and lets me eye the difference myself. The light shines on the rare stones plainly and with a subtle sparkle, softly highlighting the rough-cut surfaces in waves and brief flashes of white. She states, “I always like to highlight the flaw in something. I love that rough, earthy quality.”