Weavers, embroiderers, beaders of Mindanao

 This was the presentation I mentioned to you a few days ago.  I put up the link to it and another on rug medallion design last week, not knowing then that it was going to be a great antidote, peace, art, people living together and making beauty, to the ugliness we witnessed a few days ago, and are still dealing with.

The rug presentation was okay, very dry, terms not explained to the uninitiated, and largely a sales promotion for the presenter's book, which is no doubt very good.  However, the real treat was the other one, about the groups of people in the Philippines, on Mindanao, in the mountains.

If you didn't remember to get there, they did record it and it might be possible to catch up on it, anyway, here's the introductory screen to help you do that.  The introducers were a bit taken aback at the sheer size of the audience, saying that it was huge, from every continent. And I'd say it lived up to the audience.

It was respectful, helpful, and very understanding of the sophistication of the work produced by the women of this area, all making and wearing their own one of a kind clothing, and selling amazing artworks produced from simple looms. You'll see backstrap looms in action, creating complex and wonderful designs, enormous pieces of fabric.  Some of the early fabric was abaca, the same fiber I use in handmade paper, from the banana-adjacent plant.

 Men process the fiber, a lengthy hand done task, and produce filament that can be warped on a loom and dyed with the black dye used for their designs.  They still have to observe the condition of the filament as they work, though, since a long dry spell means a pause in weaving, since the abaca can break if stressed when dried out. They also use cotton fabric for embroidering and beading.

I took just a few shots, not very good image on my screen, but they did their best.  Where you see beading, it's often hand carved mother of pearl, individually created, and many of them crowded into the  tops, where the shape is simple and the beauty is in the weaving and stitching, including embroidery and applique, and the beading. Men's clothing is also colorful, embroidered and beaded.

Where you see a name and an old person with the presenter, she's the weaver, great artists, some of whom have died in the last couple of years, very aged and still working in the traditional designs of millennia. The designs feature people as well as natural objects, trees, stars, mountains, eagles, all with meaning and worked and worn with respect and a spiritual connection to the tradition. 

The family groups are dressed in their best for the occasion, women wearing the garments they made and designed, within the traditional motifs but with their own interpretation.

In the pictures of work on the loom, you can see the sheer size of the pieces they make, with the backstrap loom, showing it's the weaver, not the complications of the loom, that make the work.

 It was an hour of restoration for this viewer, and I'm very glad I remembered and watched it.  I hope some of you blogistas did, too. I know some people were planning on it and I hope the events of the week in the US didn't drive it out of your memory bank.