I jumped out of the tourist van and stepped on the brown pebble walk leading to the entrance of Binuatan Creations. I remembered my first visit to this place as a tourist in 2010. As I walked towards the hall of their humble factory, my eyes landed on a spacious room packed with foot-treadle floor looms. They were organized in rows making a straight path at the center. The local weavers turned and greeted us with happy faces.

© Ric Sigua

I remembered when I was fortunate to try weaving for a very short period before. At that time, the place was jam-packed with tourists. There were rare times like this when the only visitors was our small group. I really took the opportunity to sit down in front of a loom, learn how to weave from the weavers, and talk about their work. It was a wonderful experience; one for the books!


I made eye-contact with a female local weaver in the factory. Her name was Marlyn. She stood up and invited me to sit. Slowly and patiently, she explained the alternating steps that I needed to do. I began by stomping my right foot on the treadles or the pedal-like tools at the bottom of the loom. Then she handed me a fiber and asked me to insert it under the vertical threads. In my mind, I remembered the name of these horizontal materials "weft threads." Lastly, she instructed me to pull the beater towards me. This step thrilled me because I kept the weft in place. With another fiber and more excitement, I repeated the entire process again.

© Ric Sigua

© Ric Sigua

© Ric Sigua

I gazed upon foot-treadle floor loom in the factory. It is as big as the typical study desk or table. Most of the parts are made of wood. According to the weavers, the looms were specially designed for Binuatan Creations. They didn't buy it as is from a supplier.


Marlyn weaves so fast. I saw her putting the fibers in pairs or trios. She seemed to be lost in the world of weaving with both mind and body working simultaneously.


Eva Valledor, the owner of Binuatan's creations dream was to provide jobs to the locals in Puerto Princesa. Aside from that,  she wanted to create hand-woven products out of indigenous fibers and grass. The weavers used different fibers and grass such as buntal, onang, vetiver, isay, amumuting, buri, pandan, and cogon to name a few. These materials were finely dyed.


As I looked around the factory, I saw this beautiful quote on top of the sample fibers and grasses on a wall:

"OUR ALMIGHTY GOD has blessed PALAWAN with rich natural resources such as natural gas and mineral deposits, beautiful islands and beaches, marine resources, lush forests and mountains, flora and fauna and many others. Among its blessings that are not commonly used and often neglected are the many grasses and fibers that can be found anywhere within our reach."

 That was a great reminder to see beauty in the small things.









As I walked around the factory, I conversed with another weaver. I feel bad that I was not able to get his name. Let's call him The Man in the Olive Jacket. His design was different from Marlyn's. His had more spacing between weft threads. I remember the current project that I am working on with varied spacing. The Man in the Olive Jacket shared that the distance between threads depend on the design that you are aiming for. Not only does a weaver need to learn how to put those threads together, one must visualize the outcome. And add a little arithmetic to bring this vision to life. Pretty complicated, huh?


My parents, along with Sarah, also tried weaving. They had smiles on their faces too. Never let a good opportunity like this pass you by. The entire experience (except for shopping in the store) is all for free!

© Helen Sigua

© Helen Sigua

I came to a conclusion that weaving is not an easy task no matter what material is used. So much passion and creativity is invested in a single product. Each local weaver creates a 29-meter woven masterpiece and turns it into a bag, placemat, notebook cover, wallet, wall decor, laptop cover, storage boxes, etc.

One of the longest weavers in the factory told me that they had a "quota" to achieve everyday. Their hands were tired yet quick and strong, already used to the whole weaving process. I wondered how many people those skilled hands have touched through their creations.

"Ine-export namin siya abroad," one of the weavers said. No wonder their top, well-known client is Calvin Klein! All products were made with word-class quality.






I feel so proud of our country knowing that our products are sought after by Western countries. The quality of our products are at par with world class standards. It is also true for other natural resources that we have. We are so rich with it. I hope we will all learn to preserve and value it. Itaas ang bandera ng Pilipinas!


I was more intrigued about Binuatan Creations this time. Because of my new interest in traditional weaving that began in July 2017, I was eager to learn the craft. I have only experienced using a lap loom which my Dad and I created. Check out How to Make a DIY Loom! I got excited to return home and finish my weaving project soon.

© Ric Sigua

I shared to Marlyn what I have been weaving. When she saw the few pictures that I showed her, she smiled and encouraged me to continue weaving with the materials that I have (e.g. yarns), "Tuloy mo lang yan." She also reminded me to teach it to someone else, "Ituro mo rin sa iba para may katulong ka sa paggawa." In case I want to turn it into a business later on, I have a workmate with me to weave faster. There was one take-away lesson that I would never forget:

© Ric Sigua

Weave at your own pace.

It takes time before a person can learn and get used to the nitty gritty of weaving. A young weaver like me has Breakthroughs and Struggles. Rushing to learn everything just makes things harder. I am taking this one step at a time and practice with patience. There will surely be frustrations and hardships. But I won't stop doing something that I enjoy.

I remember a movie "August Rush" in which one of the male leads said, "You never quit on your [insert passion]. No matter what happens. 'Cause anytime something bad happens to you, that's the one place you can escape to and just let it go." He was talking about music. It could be anything you do that makes your heart leap. Are you doing it? Not yet? Go for it.

As for me, I will continue weaving along.

K

P.S. If you visit Puerto Princesa, Palawan, insert Binuatan Creations in your itinerary. You'll definitely know why it is one of my favorite places in Palawan.

My weaving practice started last July. In my previous blog How to Make A DIY Loom, I was able to create my own customized loom with my Dad. Before I had the loom, I used an old picture frame to practice on. I only weave occasionally. There were times when I could weave continuously for three days then I need to stop. Hello, other priorities! Hello, life! My weaving started to become more frequent when I spent #30DaysinJapan.


In Tokyu Hands and Can Do in Shibuya and Sekaido in Shinjuku, I found great materials and tools I needed for weaving. These are one-stop shops for almost anything---homemaking, beautifying, writing, drawing, painting, woodwork, and various DIY projects.  This shop inspired me to pursue this new hobby. Here are just some of my great finds.

1) Different Types of Yarns e.g. wool, cotton, acrylic, mohair, etc. --- ¥100 (Mura 'to!!) in Can Do 

2) Good Quality Tapestry Needles --- ¥300 in Tokyu Hands

three needles in different sizes

Everything on the label is Japanese so I just assumed that it was made in Japan. ((:

3) Clover Thread Cutting Scissors 10.5 cm --- ¥950 in Tokyu Hands

light and durable

black blade

4) Vanco Cutting Mat A4 size --- ¥1296 in Sekaido

Made in Japan

5. "Naka Pri" (Nakamura Printing) Graphing Notebook A5, 5mm, 80 sheets --- ¥230 (A bit expensive for a notebook though you get the quality you paid for) in Tokyu Hands

large enough boxes

smooth paper

...even Jiji loves it

My weaving progressed while I was in Japan because of these tools and materials. When I am not being touristy, I spent my free time in the afternoon or at night weaving my first project using this loom. It was not easy. I had to undo and re-do some of my weaves. Based on my experience, three factors contributed to my struggles that became breakthroughs as I weaved along.


The first factor was the DESIGN. I had a template in a paper that I could follow. The "good problem" was I deviated from it. I changed the colors that I initially planned. When something did not look right, I switched to a different pattern. The template was a guideline but it also changed and evolved into something else. It's actually an exciting process. I made room for spontaneity. As soon as I felt the hang of it, changing things became normal to me.

Design #1 - ABORTED!

Mix and Match!

Second, I still need to learn the TECHNIQUES. So I had to go through the how-to process one at a time. I had difficulty with tying knots neatly. So, I read and watched step-by-step tutorials made by Kate from the The Weaving Loom and other tutorial videos on YouTube. Since I am a visual learner and I love movement, I found videos easier to follow than pictures. I enjoyed learning the tips and techniques. The most difficult part was ending the weave! There were so many different ways on how to do it and I kept forgetting. According to Kate, weaving takes practice and patience. My most favorite process was changing from one colored thread to another without making a gap. Weaving looks so complicated but it is doable!

The third and last factor that I encountered was TIME. Weaving is time-consuming!!! Doing a single project can take hours especially for a beginner. Since it eats time, it is also extremely tiring. I encountered back and neck aches. When this happened, I took breaks and returned to it at a later time or day. This explains why I weave occasionally too.

When I brought the weave home to Manila, it was still hanging from the loom. I didn't want to mess it up so I had to pack it well. Before I placed it in a plastic wrap, I put bubble wraps around the ends. I am grateful that it stayed intact in my hand-carry bag.

before removing the weave from the loom

Before taking the weave off the loom, I cleaned up the back part first. I weaved in the extra yarns and cut them. I also added fringes at the end of the weave. Then I tied all of them together, creating an uneven tail at the bottom. Tutorials on how to do a hem-stitch and rya knots helped.


So ta-dah! Here goes my first weave: A wall decor. Crafted during my favorite season and portraying  autumn colors, I named it "Fallen."

back part

I still need to weave the white weft threads in.

Despite the struggles in weaving, I consider all of them as breakthroughs because I learned a lot of styles and techniques. As a young weaver, there is still more to learn about finding my style and developing it. I am still weaving through the do's and don'ts.

The output of my first weave is far from fancy. But I am learning not to overdo it and just leave it be. There were tons of ideas that I wish I could do. There is a right time for those. I am just beyond grateful that I got to start and finally finish one.

Hello, Fallen

Weaving has been so therapeutic for me. It calms my nerves and takes me into a different world or era. Wenk! Haha! Actually, it teaches me to focus, makes it capable for me to multi-task despite my inattention (hehehe), and exercises my fine motor skills. Plus, it gives me the thrill of learning something new. Because of these, I feel joy. I am so excited to start a new weave soon and see where this hobby will lead me.

Dear reader, if you are weaving too, let me know. So we can share some ideas and learn from each other.

Always loving learning,
K