Nimble Hands of the Old Arts. The Practice of Patadyong Weaving

On our 2-day field trip of our class in college during November 15 -16, 2014, we visited different tourist destinations throughout the mysterious and mystical province of Antique in the island of Panay. These tourist destinations come in awe with glorious scenery of mountains and beaches and bask in the colorful cultures of the Philippines lost through the passing of time. But one spot that was different from the rest of the geographical paradise was the laborious craftsmanship of the patadyong weavers.  

         

Place and Means of Travel

Bagtason lies a village famous for its indigenous fabric crafts called patadyong. It can be traveled to using bus to Brgy. Bagtason in Bugasong, Antique.

Introduction

 From handkerchiefs to shawls to teacher’s uniform, the patadyong of the Bagtason Loom Weavers Association have flourished a cultural bloom to our everyday casual clothing. Every strand gives you comfort knowing they are woven by Filipina hands. Locals in the town sometimes wear their product, and you can very well distinguish the ones that are patadyong and ones that are mass-produced.

Here, generations of women practice and learn from their predecessors the complicated, repetitive, and tiring task of creating special-of-the-town clothing. “Complicated”, “Repetitive”, and “Tiring” may well be the words best to describe your college life, but while we produce disappointing grades after sitting in a wooden chair, eight hours a day, enduring such a harsh procedure, these weavers produce colorful, artsy, and high quality products from, well, sitting in a wooden chair, eight hours a day, enduring such a harsh procedure. These patadyong products do not only contain these women’s ends-meet, but also contain our national identity, which had let this small town known nationally; receiving requests all the way from Luzon for their products, and also from Fashion Events to promote Filipino culture.

History

Textile weaving in Western Visayas dates back to pre-colonial times. the people were already weaving clothes from various fibers of different color. Thus, when foreigners arrived, they discovered that the looming practice is already established in the island. The most common garment woven was the patadyong which was worn by the women folks on a daily basis and even by the men as a tampi, a wrap around the waist. The patadyong is written in text are described as a tube-like garment with both ends open worn by the Visayan women dating back late 1500s. Also written in other manuscripts are about Visayan women wearing colorful garments from different colors of cotton, which can be a reference to the patadyong. It is very similar to the Mindanao malong but with a more checkered and brightly colored  design. Presently, the patadyong can be seen in cultural dances and fiestas, and rarely, everyday use unlike before when it was often used as casual clothing.

The Bagtason Loom Weavers Association was developed during the late 1960s to promote the local product and to adapt the rising of the industry back then. The association is partnered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Trade and Industries

The Process

The process is very intricate and requires patience, discipline and focus. The process involves 7 steps that turn individual threads of cotton into the finished products we see in the shop:

1. Pagsab-ong – This step involves determining the measurement of each strand and the colors to be used

2. Paglikis – This step involves the arrangement of the thread.

3. Pagsulod sa bining – This involves the insertion of the thread to the binting. This may be the most gueling task ever since you need to insert EACH single strand to tiny hooks and making sure each strands don’t tie together. Imagine inserting cotton wool to small needle holes, and doing it hundreds of times. The weaver in-charge said it took her two days to finish setting it up!  

4. Pagsulod sa sulod – no pun intended, this stage involves with inserting the thread in the reed.

5. Pagtalingyas – This involves the transfer of thread from the cone to the talingyasan.

6. Pagpanara – this stage is where the actual weaving starts which involves locking the threads together and forming the product

7. The finished product- need I say more?

Personal Experience

More or less, the tour around the association was more like an educational trip. The shop involves different stations. Each station is comprised of a single step in the process of creating the hablon with their associated machinery. The stations are presented at different places to highlight the importance of each step of the process. Each station has a sign written with their associated step (for example: Station 1 - Paglikis). There, the workers let us have a hands-on experience on creating the patadyong. For a nationally or even internationally known producer of a fine clothware, the workshop is pretty small. It involves only a few workers, young and old. But you can see in the eyes of each man and woman involved in the association their desire to promote the local product and keeping the old tradition alive. For the culmination of the activity, the tour made us play “Paint Me a Picture” on how to correctly use the hablon during the old times. Our team made few correct demonstrations, but most of it all we were really far on, which really made us rethink our approaches, and it was all mind-boggling in the process when we get to see the correct demonstration.   It was a fun and educational event really, and it made us open our minds a bit, when they say we were going to portray on how to use the cloth for outdoor peeing, pregnancy, and fishing. 

A shop is also open to showcase and sell their variety of clothing and accessories like hats, bags, shawls, etc.

As one of the weavers said, the only way to preserve a tradition is to have a heart for the practice.

I wish I could apply that to my academics.