Weavers from Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) visited the country recently to showcase the various techniques involved in producing the intricately designed handmade textiles which made their nation famous in Southeast Asia.
Almost every weekend, Sen. Loren Legarda invites an indigenous group with a dying fabric-making tradition to do a demonstration of their weaving techniques.
Evelinda Otong Hamja is a 40-something weaver from the Yakan tribe who, when she was just 9 years old, learned to create beautiful headscarves called seputangan from her grandmother.
Centuries-old Filipino weaving traditions are in peril of being overwhelmed by consumerism and low-cost mass-produced textiles.
The Center for International Trade Expositions & Missions (Citem) commissioned two of the country’s foremost designers to create collections for home and fashion using indigenous materials, for the 60th Manila FAME on Oct. 16-19 at SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.
When super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) tore through Leyte and Samar last year, displacing tens of thousands of people, three high-school friends decided to establish Abre Linea Inc., a social enterprise that aims to create a sustainable livelihood for the region’s weaving communities affected by the disaster.
In the design world, Rocio Olbes is known not just for winning awards for her bag designs, but also for her wholehearted commitment to her craft.
Ann Charleen “Cher” Tagle became an abaca entrepreneur through, pardon the pun, a complex weave of events. In 2009, as an employee of J. P. Morgan, the advertising graduate from Assumption jumped into the abaca business primarily to help an old friend, whose family had been active in the industry but had encountered some problems.
Pinto Gallery in Antipolo is showcasing the varying art forms of the Vinluan family of artists, Nov. 17-Dec. 3.
Esmerna Uyguangco-Gabutina wants to make one thing clear at the outset. Sinamay, she points out, is not a cloth. It is a way of weaving abaca in four-pedal handlooms.
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