Flor-San's Handcraft

Florsan's Handicraft was an initiative started by the very enterprising owner, Susan Velasco, in her search for ways to keep her productive while her husband is working abroad as a nautical engineer. With very limited resources and only her experiences gained while working to collect business permits fee in the commercial districts of Makati as a casual employee of the Office of the Treasurer, she ventured on setting up a business anchored on the industry which has long supported and fed the people of her hometown Paete for generations. At a rented shop in 1985, wooden ducks, wooden birds and an assortment of other woodcraft items were produced to supply orders from exporter. In a years time, an order for a big volume of painted ducks from a Japanese national gave them a break and paved the way for the establishment of their own shop and factory. In leaps and bounds the business flourished and earned itself a stature in the handicraft producers of Paete. When the scarcity of wood materials became a problem with the total log ban policy, paper maché and paper pulp products were developed and no sooner provided a lucrative substitute to wood items, which used to dominate the bulk of their orders. Not later, MDF wood became available and was used as the material for most of the wood products that were developed. The business has stricken the proverbial golden pot with orders upon orders flowing in. Susan’s husband, Florentino Velasco left the high seas to join her in managing the business. FLORSAN, which stand for the flower and the sun as can be seen in her logo, continue to shine and bloom under the husband and wife tandem’s able and unparalleled ministrations. It is giving jobs and employment to hundreds of men and women of Paete and its neighboring towns. Despite the slacking business in the country, it was able to maintain its core of skilled craftsmen and craftswomen occupied and with steady employment.