She Started Selling Handcrafted Pieces on a Manila Street Corner in 1990. Thirty-Five Years Later, She Is Attempting a Guinness World Record in Baguio City.

The name Abiakak is "kakaiba" spelled backwards. Kakaiba means unusual, distinctive, one of a kind. It is the right word for what Adelaida Guia and her family have been building since 1990.

That year, Adelaida was selling handcrafted and crochet pieces on Teresa Street in Sta. Mesa, Manila, near PUP. No storefront. No brand. Just handmade work laid out for buyers who were looking for something different. Her first customers were the people around her. That is still how Abiakak works: one piece at a time, made by hand, sold to someone who recognizes what they are holding.

Thirty-five years later, Abiakak is a growth-stage family enterprise based in Baguio City. Its products are in consignment at Lemon and Olives, Baguio Country Club's Curio Shop, Made Here Artisans' Studio, and Mt. Camisong. It has appeared at Session Road Sunday Showcase, Mandeko Kito, Aliwan Festival, Pahiyas Festival, BenCab Museum, Pugad ni Art, Alitaptap, and more. It has been covered by ARTventure Magazine, The Beat Asia, Business Mirror, the Philippine Inquirer, Philippine Star, PTV Cordillera, ABS-CBN, and GMA Northern Luzon. And on January 22, 2026, Adelaida stood at the Dagitab Amphitheatre at Mt. Camisong Forest Park in Itogon, Benguet, with a crowd of witnesses, attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the Largest Crochet Mandala by an Individual.

This is the story of how a family got there.

A Business Where Everyone Has a Role

Abiakak is not Adelaida's business. It is her family's.

Adelaida and her daughter Danielli do the crochet. Her husband Philip, a Cordilleran who brought the family from Manila to Baguio in November 2016, and their sons Ezekiel, Jeniel, Azriel, and Giddiel make the handcrafted accessories and Tree of Life décor. Each member of the family has a distinct specialty. The product line is not a one-person collection. It is the combined output of six people who each bring a different craft skill to a shared enterprise.

That division of labor is what has kept Abiakak growing through constraints that would have shuttered a solo operation. Materials are not cheap. Every piece takes hours of handwork, fitted in between family duties and day jobs. "The biggest challenges were financial and time," Adelaida says. "But we chose to keep going because handmade dreams are worth the slow, steady effort."

The Pandemic That Became a Turning Point

When COVID-19 shut down markets and bazaars across the Philippines in 2020, Abiakak could have retreated. Instead, the lockdown gave Adelaida something she had never had enough of: uninterrupted time to crochet.

She started the Mandala line in Baguio during the pandemic. The first giant mandala she attempted was made from rug yarn, rough and challenging to work with, and she managed only half before stopping. But when she joined Baguio's Mandeko Kito artisanal market after restrictions lifted, she met Ms. Marbee Go of BACCI, the organization behind Mandeko Kito, who encouraged her to complete the giant mandala. She crocheted for more than two months. In October 2021, at Mandeko Kito 4, she sold her first Giant Mandala.

That sale opened a new product category. By August 2022, Adelaida had gone viral on social media for a crocheted giant mandala measuring approximately 120 inches. The attention brought interviews, features, and a growing following of repeat customers, including Ms. Astrud, Ms. Bella, Mr. Bernardo, Ms. Maria Anna, and Mr. Apollo, names she remembers because that is how Abiakak operates: it knows its customers.

The World Record Attempt

The Guinness attempt was not an impulsive decision. The design was inspired by Helen Shrimpton's Star of Wonder — a pattern available for purchase — but rather than buy and follow it stitch by stitch, Adelaida took on an additional challenge: she crocheted the entire piece freehand, working only from a photo of the original. No pattern. No instructions. Just her eyes on an image and her hands on the hook. She spent months in Burnham Park's Rose Garden crocheting in public, letting the city watch her build what she called "The Wishing Star." By September 2025, Guinness World Records had accepted Baguio's bid and confirmed the attempt, with SM City Baguio hosting the record attempt event. On January 22, 2026, she made her formal attempt at Mt. Camisong, with witnesses gathered to validate a piece that united art, geometry, craft, and a thirty-five-year journey from a Manila street corner to a potential world record.

"In the sacred circle of her mandala, countless crochet stitches unite to create wholeness," Pressenza described after the attempt, "a metaphor for how individual creative acts, rooted in cultural tradition and animated by good intention, can contribute to the healing and harmony our world urgently needs".

Scaling Handcraft Without Losing the Hand

Abiakak's most immediate business challenge is the one that faces every premium handcraft enterprise: how do you grow when every unit requires skilled human time?

Adelaida's answer is honest and practical. For pieces like keychains where the technique can be replicated, she looks for crocheters and crafters willing to produce specific items under the Abiakak quality standard. Raw material costs are the second constraint, a financial variable that limits how much inventory the family can build ahead of a bazaar or bulk order season.

"For us, crochet is not just business — it's passion and therapy," she says. "Every loop holds our stress, our prayers, and our joy. When you hold an Abiakak piece, you're holding hours of calm we turned into something beautiful for you."

That framing is not marketing language. It is the authentic value proposition of the handcraft category: the product carries the maker's time, intention, and skill in a way that no manufactured equivalent can replicate.

Abiakak products are available at Mt. Camisong, Lemon and Olives, Baguio Country Club, and Made Here Artisans' Studio. Follow the family at Adelaida Guia on Facebook and Instagram at @abiakakguia.

What She Wants Other Founders to Know

"Don't wait for perfect conditions. Use your passion as fuel and your constraints as training. If crochet can be both business and therapy for us, your craft can carry you too. Grow by inches, not by loans. And if God permits, the exhibits outside Baguio, or even outside the country, will come."

When you hang a mandala or a Tree of Life in your home, Adelaida wants you to carry something with it: "A reminder that dreams don't have an age limit. It's comfort, inspiration, and family-made care you can actually hold."

Find Abiakak:
Facebook: Adelaida Guia / Abiakak | Instagram: @abiakakguia | Products available at Mt. Camisong, Lemon and Olives, Baguio Country Club, Made Here Artisans' Studio

Original Source:

This founder story is based on a direct submission by Adelaida Guia of Abiakak, Baguio City, and public media coverage of Abiakak and the Guinness World Record attempt. We are grateful to Adelaida and her family for sharing their story with Amianan Innovation Ventures.

Market Context:

Adelaida Guia's Guinness World Record bid for the Largest Crochet Mandala by an Individual was accepted and confirmed by Guinness World Records in July 2025, with SM City Baguio hosting a public viewing in September 2025 and the formal attempt held at Dagitab Amphitheatre, Mt. Camisong, Itogon on January 22, 2026. Made Here Artisans' Studio, one of Abiakak's consignment partners, opened in 2025 as a curated hub for Cordillera craftsmanship in Baguio City, joining Lemon and Olives and Mt. Camisong as premium retail destinations for locally made heritage and artisan products. Baguio City holds UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts designation, and Mandeko Kito, the artisanal fair where Abiakak sold its first Giant Mandala in 2021, is organized by the Baguio Arts and Crafts Collective as a flagship platform for creative entrepreneurs in the Cordillera. The global handcraft and artisan market is growing alongside consumer demand for ethically made, story-driven products with verified provenance, with premium handcrafted décor and textiles commanding 3 to 5 times the price of mass-produced equivalents in export and specialty retail markets.