TEXTILE

 Textile weaving is the process of making cloth by means of interlacing a series

of parallel longitudinal threads, called the warp, at right angles with another
series of lateral threads, called the weft or woof.
 Weaving textiles is an ancient art in Southeast Asia
 The earliest example of textile found in the Philippines in Banton, Romblon
 Textiles may be plain or decorated by dyes, embroidery, and appliqué.
 In the Philippines, there are a number of plants producing fiber for handwoven
textiles.

The Process
 The entire process of weaving cloth, for daily use or for ritual, has been the work
of women.
1. It begins with the cultivation of the plant—such as cotton, abaca, and
pineapple—the fibers of which will be used for weaving.
2. The fibers are extracted from the leaves of these plants and prepared by
carding, twisting, spinning, and winding by means of a spindle into thread.
3. Warp threads are carefully counted and measured before they are attached to
the beam of the loom and weft threads are evenly wound onto bobbins.
4. After the threads are soaked in dye and dried in the sun, weaving on a loom
can begin.
5. Weaving may follow decorative dyeing techniques, decorative weaving
techniques, or supplementary thread techniques.
 In the Philippines, there are a number of plants producing fiber for handwoven
textiles.
1. Cotton - was once a major crop in the Cordilleras and Ilocos regions, and
was also cultivated in the Visayas.

2. Ramie - is a shrub that yields a tough, white, and lustrous fiber from its
stems.
3. Abaca - a variety of banana grown in central and southern Philippines

 Most dyes come from vegetable substances. They have to be gathered from the
forest and prepared by chopping, pounding, squeezing, soaking, boiling, and
evaporating in earthenware vessels.
 A loom is used for weaving. In general, the warp threads run vertically in parallel
lines from the warp beam to the breast or cloth beam, which is close to the
weaver.
 Still widely used throughout Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, is
the backstrap or body-tension loom, the oldest and simplest type of loom. A
backstrap consisting of a pad of leather, woven matting, or wood is attached to
the breast beam by a string or rope.
 To create designs in handwoven textiles using the backstrap or frame loom,
there are three kinds of processes: the decorative dyeing techniques, the
decorating weaving techniques, and the combination techniques.
 Ikat is a process done before weaving in which a specified number of threads or
fibers are bound or knotted together at different intervals with dye-resistant
material following a preconceived design before soaking the entire mass of
knotted threads in a vat of prepared dye.
 The Tboli tnalak and the Mandaya dagmay use the ikat technique on abaca fiber
to create numerous bird, snake, and other animal and human motifs.
 Tapestry weaving produces complex, mosaic designs by weaving with
discontinuous weft threads in many colors.
 The Maranao malong features tapestry weave in the langkit bands that join
together the large sections of solid color.
 The pis, the large colorful headpiece of the Tausug, is an excellent example of
tapestry weave.
 Yakan cloth owes its particular beauty to the supplementary weft technique.
 Itneg blankets also use the supplementary weft technique in their designs of
horses alternating with human figures
 Weavers of northern Luzon sometimes make supplementary warp stripes as in
the tapis and the bahag 
 There are combination techniques involving embroidery, couching, appliqué,
and beading to embellish the cloth
 The Bukidnon, Bagobo, and Mandaya of southern Philippines decorate their ikat
weaves with appliqué, colored wool, gold and silver thread, shells, mica chips,
and panel beading.
  The Cordillera groups of the north also embellish their weaves with mother-of-
pearl slivers of shell.
 Bagobo abaca bags patterned with narrow warp stripes are embellished with
small brass bells and colored glass beads
 Tboli and Bagobo blouses are richly ornamented with embroidery, sequins,
seeds, glass beads, and tiny mother-of-pearl buttons
 Textiles, as clothing, may be untailored or tailored
 Untailored – rectangular piece of cloth that may fold, wrap or drap such as
tapis, bahag and malong
 Tailored – jacket, vest and pants

Philippine Textiles

Luzon
 Among the Cordillera groups, blankets, loincloth
(called binulan or wanno among the Ifugao), blouses, skirts, and bags are
woven.
 Woven on a frame loom, abel can be multicolored with checkered or striped
patterns or can be plain white with embossed patterns in tapestry weave
 The Mangyan of Mindoro generally use bark cloth for daily wear but also weave a
dark blue denim-like skirt used by women.

 Panay textile

VISAYAS
 In western Visayas, Aklan is known for its piña cloth. Since the process of
preparing the thread and weaving piña is so tedious, weaving of the cloth
suffered a decline until rediscovered by haute couture.

 Piña is woven into cloth for tailoring, handkerchiefs, napkins, and fine altar linen.
 Pinukpok—woven from banana fiber, then pounded to make it more pliant.
  The cotton patadyong is woven in Miag-ao, Iloilo.
 Hablon, meaning weave, which combines silk and cotton to produce a gloss
smooth textile for clothin made from western Visayas
 Habol - the blankets are woven in frame looms the abel of the Ilocos
 kinarnero (sheeplike) is a special type of weave that has a high nap and
resembles the wool of sheep
 lampotes is a cloth was used for making sails
 The saguran, a raffia cloth used for bags, wallpaper, and covers from Bohol

Mindanao
 The landap is for ceremonial occasions, may be of one solid color, although
often in two alternating colors in broad bands. The special feature of the landap
is the langkit, which is a band separately woven in tapestry weave and sewn
onto the malong.
 The andon malong, which features ikat motifs in the warp and weft techniques.
 Malong decorated with tiny motifs between bands of many colors are called babalodan.
 A rare kind of malong contains overall floral geometric designs, while the central area
or kepala features two vertical rows of facing tumpal patterns, a row of adjacent narrow
triangles that frame a series of simple geometric motifs.
 The Yakan weave multicolored scarves and belts with recurring geometric patterns
 The Tausug male gird themselves with a colorful waistcloth, called kandit, and wear the
pis or a headcloth of recurring geometric patterns.

Bagobo inabal weaver, Salinta Monon, Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan awardee, 1998 (Photo by Renato S. Rastrollo,
NCCA)

The rich textile weaving tradition of the Philippines is an important cultural link to Southeast
Asia, Taiwan, South Asia, and the Pacific cultures. The weaving processes that have been
passed on from generation to the next have been recognized as an intangible heritage that
embodies the social, economic, and spiritual beliefs of Philippine communities. Textile weaving
is also considered a signifier of the high status of women in indigenous communities as they
were also considered as leaders, healers, and keepers of traditional knowledge. The following
textile weavers received the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (National Living Treasure Award):
Tboli tnalak weaver Lang Dulay and Tagabawa Bagobo inabal weaver Salinta Monon, both
awarded in 1998; Tausug pis syabit weaver Darhata Sawabi, 2004; and Ilocano abel
weaver Magdalena Gamayo, 2012.