A Contemporary Pira
 

Greetings everyone :)

For quite some months Paolo Abrera and myself have been working on this Contemporary Pira designand it was a great pleasure to receive the final pictures.

I see it as a sculpture which will be displayed in my living room, the curved arch placed like a bow and the blade on an acrylic pedestal.

Most of you who know me, know that I do prefer to interact with the smith instead of just buying a piece. Just a matter of temperament and the fact that I like to design my stuff, I guess :)

Just thought I would share this masterpiece by Paolo.
Thanks for your attention.

A VERY PRETTY AND INTERESTING PIRA, IT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OLDER PIRA FORM AND MAY HAVE INFLUENCES FROM MALAYSIA OR INDONESIA. :confused: I LIKE TO THINK OF THIS FORM AS A HORNBILL BIRD THE BLADE BEING THE HEAD AND THE HANDLE SPIKE THE LONG TAIL FEATHERS. :D PERHAPS DIVING DOWN TO CATCH SOMETHING TO EAT.

THERE IS ALWAYS THE QUESTION DID THE OLDER PIRA FORM ORIGINATE IN THE PHILIPPINES OR WAS IT INFLUENCED FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE?

I LIKE THE NEW PIRA AND THE WORKMANSHIP IS VERY GOOD I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE BLADE. IT IS INTERESTING TO SEE ALL THE PLANNING AND DRAWINGS AS WELL AS THE WORK IN PROGRESS. WE USUALLY ONLY GET TO SEE A ANTIQUE WITH NO PROVENANCE AND ONLY WHAT IS WRITTEN IN BOOKS TO GO ON, SO THIS GIVES SOME UNDERSTANDING AS TO HOW THE WORK WAS DONE.
THOUGH SOME NEWER TOOLS AND TECKNIQUES MAY NOW BE USED. THE ONLY THING MISSING IN THE NEW PIRA ARE THE OLD RITUALS AND MAGICICAL BELIEFS THAT WENT INTO THE MAKEING OF THE OLD TRIBAL ONES WHICH ARE LOST AND NO LONGER PRACTICED.

Thanks Vandoo. I must confess that in this case I took the entire concept in a basis of shape, trying not to get too involved in historical terms, knowing that if I did too much research, then my creativity would be tied up by acquired knowledge.

I'm sure someone can clarify this. So far what I know comes from the HOS exhibition.

True, specially since Paolo has kept his tools very close to the tribal smith, mainly the charcoal forge.

Actually me and my wife were in Manila last year for a weekend, and we were superbly treated by my friend Anton and his lovely wife and by Paolo and his lovely wife Suzy.

http://www.arscives.com/antonio/imag...n-families.jpg

Yes, the elephant trunk was removed. I could not mime a ritual, specially not being native and having no knowledge. The most honest thing was to keep it as I viewed it, away from the initiates.

I like it alot - very interesting.

Thank you Jose :)

Haven't heard from you yet.
Very best

Wow. That's really fantastic, Antonio. My congratulations to you for the design and to Paolo for the execution.

Hi Andrew,

Most kind of you my friend :)
I have notified Paolo as he is the one to be applauded. It was such a wonderful partnership.

Meantime check your PM for something else. ;)

Gentelmen,

I just wanted to thank you for your kind words.

It was most kind of Antonio to share our unusual project here as well, and it was certainly a pleasure to work on. :)

I shared a brief backgrounder on another forum, I hope you dont mind if I paste it here just to contextualize the spirit of the piece:

As Antonio mentioned, our approach and intent was primarily sculptural, and while Antonio's design drew inspiration from older ethnic forms, the idea was not to get overly bogged down in trying to make an academic study of the significance of the totemic forms and thier symbolisms, but to translate certain ethnic forms and treatments into interesting sculptural elements devoid of thier spiritual significance so as not to blindly parrot what we dont understand or are culturally removed from. Rather than setting out to make a historical replica, instead, we tried to stay connected to the cultural tradition by sticking to some old-school techniques while creating something new. It's mostly hand-work in an open fire, laminating steel with softer iron, and etching with "calamansi" juice (a local type of lime) but not feeling too tied to sticking to what would be considered historically correct. It's something new but nods in approval to what came before

I look forward to sharing more in the future. Thanks

Best,

P. Abrera

Pira in hand
 

Hi folks,

Sorry but I've been terribly busy.
Anyway the Pira has arrived and is absolutely awesome!!!

I had a quick picture taken to share with you all.

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/im...lding-pira.jpg


No pose and I'm not a muscle builder. Just made sure my both hands were not disturbing the Pira.

Wonderful contemporary masterpiece. :)

Some more pics
 

Folks,


Here are some more pics of the Pira

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/images1/wideview.jpg

beautiful shape and flow

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/images1/handle.jpg

Hand textured-pitted

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/images1/closeup.jpg

The selective san mai layer

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/im...pira-blade.jpg

more here

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/im...de-detail1.jpg

Paolo Abrera is a most fantastic and intelligent smith working in the Philippines. Hope you folks enjoy :)

Beautiful work.

Steve

Thank you on behalf of Paolo Abrera :)

in light of Piras...

Beautiful piece my friend - quality exudes from it!

Makes me think that as we examine some of the older blades of varying styles that don't quite fit into regional standards - we should always remember that there are those of us now, as there must have been back then, that like our own touch on traditional designs.

Beautifully executed!

Dan

Well spoken :)

I wonder what place modern-made blades have in the EAA forums, I note they are almost never discussed... I mean they aren't "true as antiques"... but they are today's weaponry (many of which are now used second to the firearm)... the kukri, the ginunting, the barong, the machete, etc. are all good examples....

and they are the antiques of tomorrow (or a lot of tomorrows)

Discussion of new ethnographic weapons is absolutely appropriate here. :)

Pira
 

Hi Andrew, Dan and everyone else :)

Thanks all for the kind words. Been a long long while.
One of the things I believe is in not being a dogmatic person. Almost about everything is subjective.
Migration inter-influences and hybridism have been there since the stone age.
So I guess it is nice to design an interpretation piece that could be a little bit of the past of tomorrow :)

Cheers everyone.