Nature’s Village Resort is the only resort in Negros Island with a collection of Philippine textiles. The exhibit is called “Hinablon” and focuses on Philippine contemporary textile weaving and mats.

Hinablon aims to revitalize, create and promote an appreciation and respect for Philippine weaving traditions. It also conserves and preserves the finest examples of Philippine weaving. Through this exhibit, Nature’s Village Resort hopes to heighten and educate people’s awareness of the value of weaving in Philippine life.

The communities represented in the exhibit are, first and foremost, those found in Negros Occidental, the Visayas, from Luzon, and then, from Mindanao.

Exhibit tour depending on route (located at the Village Hotel)

Ground Floor Exhibit Items: Ifugao and Kalinga Skirt, Binakol/Kosikos Scarves, Yardages from Northern Luzon and Mindanao, Toboso, Negros Occidental Mats and Valladolid, Negros Occidental Patadyong

Second Floor: Generally Kosikos and Binakol, and a few mats

Third Floor: Generally Mats from Mindanao, and a few Pinilian Northern Luzon especially Ilocos and La Union

Facts About Weaving:

Produced on either Backstrap Loom or Footloom

Kosikos, a subcategory of the Ilocano Binakol, characterized by “pulsating orbs” within a grid, or without one, as the pattern found in old examples. The orb is actually made up of straight lines made to look curvilinear through optical illusion.

Pinilian, brocading technique found in many communities all over the country, wherein supplementary threads are added to a plain weave to produce a motif. Among Ilocanos, motifs can go from edge to edge, or be scattered, like those of Antique and Negros, on the background weave. Northern Luzon specializes on warp floats and for Magdalena Gamayo, textiles are woven with warp and weft floats. She introduced this weave, was given an award for it, and her workshop is the only one that makes it.

Kalinga textiles combine striped ground textiles with embellishments of plastic beads and cut shells.

Patadyong feature patterning through the use of colored threads as warps and wefts. If the warps alone have vari-colored threads, stripes are produced. If both warps and wefts are vari-colored, plaids are produced.

Ikat, wherein the threads are dyed before they are woven. To keep from taking the dye, sections of the threads are tied of. The more colors are required, the more complicated the process. Ikats from Luzon, made of cotton, are more colorful and innovative as they are not bound by tradition regarding colors and functions. Mindanao ikats, made from abaca, use natural dyes, with a limited color palette of brown, black, red, yellow and white. In the case of the Blaan, cutting the piece is frowned upon. Tboli and Blaan dream weavers hang their finished pieces around a work place to keep them connected to their ancestors as they work. Today, Ikat comes in dress weights and in heavy ones for use as accessories and home furnishings, in addition to yardage for clothing.

Piña is the “Queen” of Philippine traditional textiles because of the difficulty of its production. The center of piña production is in Aklan, embroidery embellishments are done in Laguna.

Silk, a luxury fabric, was once produced in the Philippines in small quantities for local use. More often, silk was sourced from China and India. Recently, OISCA, in Bago, Negros Occidental and the Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Sur, have initiated research and development programs that are now producing and selling silk threads. OISCA particularly, produces not only silk threads but also women’s garments and accessories. For the moment, we have no piña or silk in the collection. We do expect to add Negros Occidental OISCA products to our collection.

These textiles, rooted as they are in our cultural traditions regarding dress, continue to be available to this day and are finding new functions as accessory materials and for home decoration. They are keeping our weaving traditions alive, and in their innovations of color and function, underscore our enduring pride of identity and culture. You can also see some examples of textiles produced in Panay in the uniforms used by some of our staff members.

Mats are, generally, of two kinds. Those of Mindanao are two layer ones, which make them more comfortable to use. Most of the country have mats of single layers. The most colorful ones, of abstract designs, are those made by the Tausug of Jolo and Tawi Tawi. Visayan mats have single layers and figurative designs. All mats are of plain weave but some, called triple weaves make use of vari-color supplementary pandan leaves, as though brocading. Another mat weave is called “eyelet,” giving a lace effect to the mats.