Let’s Talk About Capiz
You see it everywhere, adorning chandeliers, bowls, placemats, and furniture. The semi-opaque, textured, creamy material with a slight shimmer is elegant, but not over the top, and tropical without being kitschy, making it the perfect accent for many different styles. We love it so much we named our studio after it.
But what is it?
Not to be confused with its grander cousin mother of pearl, capiz is made from the shell of the Placuna Placenta Mollusk, a species native to Indonesia and the Philippines (where we’re from). In the Philippines, it was used historically as a substitute for glass, giving it the nickname Windowpane Oyster. To make capiz, the mollusks are harvested, and the meat used for food, while the shells are washed and softened with a mild acid to soften the material. They are flattened and laid out to dry before being shaped and turned into products. Historically, many houses had huge sliding windows and doors made of narra or mahogany and inlaid with hundreds of squares of capiz.
As one of the most iconic Philippine natural materials, you can see why we love it so much!