After the DOT-Globe “It’s More Fun in the Philippines and Pinoy Homecoming convergence program press con/launch, I used my extra time in Intramuros to relax and fully internalize the culture of tourism at the The Silahis Center showroom of the Silahis Arts and Artifacts Inc. Little did I know that the place would satisfy my curiosity as a non-Manila resident. Practically revisiting cultural heritage. I enjoyed passing an eye over the large selection of finely crafted traditional and primitive Filipino arts and crafts, Asian ceramics, artworks, indigenous fabrics, maps, old and new books about the Philippines, Asia and Pacific, among various others.

Not only for tourists, the museum-like store is also for locals who are into homegrown decor.

Sarimanok, (artipisyal na ibon) is a totem bird of the Maranao people. The legendary bird has become a ubiquitous symbol of Maranao art and a symbol of good fortune.

Various ikat weaves.

Filipino musical instruments. Above is a display of bamboo flutes and below is a metallophone known as sarunay in Muslim communities.

The Silahis Center Gen. Luna St., Intramuros, Manila

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2012

Thanks to the hubby for bringing me to the BenCab Museum to conclude unfinished business. Heavy fog enveloped the whole of  Tuba. If the museum’s contemporary structure were done in the complete opposite way, I would have had an utterly different story.

In the midst of aged statues, relevant cultural artifacts and esoteric art, there were no badgering eerie moments. Guzzled up the visual experience in its entirety… intense… even turning  sensual at a definitive point.

Kulis foot massage chair

The BenCab Museum’s garden and farm.

Café Sabel


Ben Cabrera, National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts.

BenCab Museum, Km 6 Asin Rd., Tuba, Benguet, Philippines Open daily except Mondays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day from 9:00AM to 6:00PM (last entry at 5:30PM) Tel No.: (+6374) 442 7165

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2012

Before heading out to Baguio, I actually planned on visiting the PNKY Collection and Café on Leonard Wood Road. I discovered they have another shop at the Baguio Country Club where we were billeted, and so I entered and browsed through the well-edited eclectic collection.  Now I know exactly where to go when I need something in future home decorating projects.

A wonderful moment, I was talking to a voice from the little office and when I turned around, the voice was from Ms. Pynky Magsino, the owner of PNKY and the lovely mom of Flickr friend Liana Garcia Joyce, who I featured together with her photography in the blog (here). I spontaneously asked her for a photo op. Afterall, I’m a fan of Liana’s photography and it is such an honor to be photographed with her equally creative mom. She’s also a very nice lady. The wooden camera in the collection is testament to the family’s love for photography.

The familiar exotic Tinguian or Itneg accessories and clothing surely caught my attention. The unique, colorful Filipino-made minauderies too. A great stop in Baguio if you’re into uncommon things.

PNKY Collection Baguio 13 Leonard Wood Rd., Baguio, Philippines Contact: 074 444 5418/0922 818 4247
PNKY Collection Baguio Country Club Country Club Drive Baguio, Philippines Contact: 074 442 5352/ 074 619 2050 local 529
PNKY Collection Makati Showroom LRI Design Plaza 210 N. Garcia St. (Reposo), Makati, Philippines Contact” 02 403 0392/ 0922 818 4237
Email: pnkycollection@gmail.com Check their website: http://www.pnkyhome.com

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2012

Opening on the 13th of October, a collaboration between two Filipino masters
– noted photographer Melvyn Calderon and celebrated painter and print artist Benedicto Reyes Cabrera better known as BenCab.

The Exhibit runs ’til the 19th of December. BenCab Museum, Tuba, Metro Baguio, Philippines.

*Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines is world-renowned for its diverse ecosystems. Adjudged one of the top dive sites in the world, Tubbataha is also a bird sanctuary located in the Sulu Sea, about 12 hours by boat from Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. Specifically the tip of the South Atoll supports a huge number of masked red-foot boobies, terns, and frigate birds resting during their annual migrations. Declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in December 1993, the site that showcases natural heritage is under protective management by the Philippine Department of National Defense and under technical supervision by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. 

© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2012

I was supposed to be on my way to Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya this morning, but I’m glad the roadtrip was postponed at the last minute, so that I was able to avoid stressing out people to wait outside the door of the Mariano Marcos University Training Center while focusing my thoughts as one of the panel of discussants at the sociology forum organized by the College of Arts and Sciences Social Sciences Dept. Sociology Guild  for the Sociology Week. With all the festivals proliferating here and there,  the theme: “Beyond the Banderitas: Festivals in Focus” I believe was worth dissecting. What are your thoughts?

Sociology and Philosophy professor/newspaper columnist/socio-political blogger Herdy La Yumul was the brains behind the event, according to the MMSU Sociology Guild adviser, Prof. Maria Angelica Salas.

My felllow discussants were Dr. Edwin Antonio, also a blogger and the secretary of the Subcommission on Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, and anthropologist and consultant (Province of Ilocos Sur) Miss Maria Lourdes Ingel.

© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2012

Happy to be back in the blog and to share photos of the latest museum in Ilocos. To be formally launched on the 24th of October is the Museo de Bacarra, created by the Local Government Unit of Bacarra through the financial assistance of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. It is located at the St. Andrew Parish Church Compound, a stone’s throw from the Bacarra Leaning Bell Tower.

It was Joy, our Bacarreño friend, who ushered Marianne, Joan and me to the museum. A wonderful discovery: “The Balikbayan Town” of Bacarra  is also heralded as The Vatican Town of the Philippines after having produced the most number of priests in the country following the introduction of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines.

Amidst all the antiquities from the past, the tour was pleasant, with soothing, happy Ilocano piano music in the background. We have to thank Vicky Bonoan and Armando Pasion, who acted as our educational tour guides. According to Armand, it took the initiators only two months to put together the entire collection.

Hahah, a karison!

We call that dulang.

Well-preserved 19th century documents.

It’s a century-old bilog (boat).

There’s Vicky Bonaoan with us — shot by  Armando Pasion.

La Residencia is the ancestral home of the Peraltas, used as location for the Richard  Gomez-Dawn Zulueta-starrer Hihintayin Kita sa Langit. The house is not far from the museum.

The leaning Bacarra Bell Tower, built during the Spanish Colonization Period.

We had a brief stopover at Ella’s for Ilocos empanadas before heading back home to Laoag. Empanadas are sort of Ilocos’ banner food product.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2012

My eldest son, Eugene, loves the outdoors like all of us, swims better than the rest of us, and he skates, surfs, sandboards as well as collects fingerboards. He is my more creative boy. He went to the Ilocos Norte National High School Special Program in the Arts and majored in Media Arts in high school. Right now, he is in the third year of his Computer Science bachelor course at the Mariano Marcos State University.  So uniquely him — he  is not scared to wear pink shirts and pastel trousers, he eats only certain foods, and since childhood, he has nurtured a flair for the Japanese art of paper folding called origami. It must be my old collection of DIY books neatly tucked in a book storage beside the kids’ room door that helped rear his creative side.

I unwittingly discovered his talent while at an Asian gathering at the Los Angeles City Hall gardens during an LA trip. All the time he was nowhere to be found,  he was at a Japaneses booth showing off to the Japanese ladies his folding techniques. We got complimented for his little origami show of wildlife and UFOs. A proud mom moment:)

Found the Everything Origami book at National Bookstore. I bought it as a present for a godchild in hopes she will like the fascinating Japanese art from the 17th century.

Likewise available at National Bookstore, Über Origami: Every Origami Project Ever!, an instructional origami book that lives up to its title, with new never been seen designs.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Where in the Philippines can you find a Les Roches-Switzerland and Culinary Institute of America-New York-trained chef de cuisine who matures his own bugguong, using only seasonal taburkik fish and pure Ilocos sea salt, and churns it with a paddle made of a specific kind of wood, as he says, “it has to be molave,” and grows his own epazote, kutchay, karimbuaya, etc., and cooks only RC 160 rice?

“The enigma of my life,” Chef Peter Nic Rodriguez starts off after I pop the initial question, “Why Ilocos?”

When I left Candon at the age of 8, I told my yaya, “Uray kitam, agsubli ak tu.” Sure enough, he arrives home to put meaning into his realm of cooking.

With a passion to the core of his being, Chef Nic Rodriguez runs his own Bistro Candon Resto and Catering specializing in genuine Ilocano cuisine in the company of universal favorites. With all his credentials on the wall, he keeps his insanity sane, so to speak, by constantly developing new recipes and planning and servicing a most diverse clientele. He’s done spreads for high profile weddings across Ilocos, along with intimate and village gatherings. Tourists from neighboring cities go out of their way to seek Chef Nic’s sanglao, dinengdeng, pinakbet, lomo-lomo, doy-doy/diniydoy, morton/morcon and bagnet (descibed as nasisi nga usto in the vernacular) and served with the most ambrosial bugguong ever! A saliva-inducing bugguong that triggers the thought of summer Ilocos mangoes dipped in bugguong mixed with extra dark sukang Ilocos! 

“It’s the simplicity,” he counters to my “What sets Ilocano cooking apart from the rest?” Pinakbet is his favorite Ilocano dish while fried vegetable lumpia (spring roll) is his comfort food.

- I’ve been craving for rellenong bangus for about a week now. I was so thrilled to see it in the menu! Brought home all my leftovers for the family.  Back in Laoag, the first time I didn’t hear negativity from a food-know-it-all hubby and son. The carrot cake slathered with authentic standard Swiss buttercream frosting and the decadent old-style chocolate cake fashioned from a 1978 UP recipe, but of course, amplified by Nic’s own gustation, are well-deserving of the accolades from the press.

All the highly esteemed calories were worth all the long hours I spent freezing inside a Partas bus to and from Candon, Ilocos Sur.

*Bistro Candon is located inside the Four Brothers Compound, Candon, Ilocos Sur, Philippines. Open Mon-Sun, 7 AM-6 PM. Tel.Nos.: (077) 7425905 Mobile 09178055500.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

‘Tis the time of the year to celebrate my most revered display of true Laoagueño tradition and culture. The officials of the city might be moving too fast, changing the landscape and exacerbating the traffic issue, yet the oldest mode of transportation in Laoag endures. Until when? In God we trust.

Eco-friendly ka pa!

Lots of love and hugs to all the balikbayans who are visiting town. BlauEarth can’t thank enough the wonderful blog readers from New York, Canada, California, Hawaii, the Philippines, and other parts of the globe. You know who you are:) Enjoy the sunshine, peeps!

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Trust the feminine intuition. It’s real guys. Brandon and I had a pasta date and we chanced upon beautiful artworks of women on the walls of Saramsam.  It felt good, mother and son celebrate International Women’s Day in style, in true festive style.

The featured artist, Joseph Alvarez Flor, is a native of Laoag.  The Glitter of Asia collection is a spirited depiction of  Asian women in florid traditional clothing. Women and fashion, women and beauty, always synonymous.

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As usual, I got a pasta marinara and he got his fave Saramsam pasta with mangoes and cilantro. We shared a third pasta, chorizo de Laoag with fetuccine in red sauce. I figured it tastes so much like their herby Ilocandia pizza.

Now this puts a smile on my face. The best thing about being a woman — being able to bear children, watching them grow, enjoying life with them while they’re young, giving the facts from a woman’s standpoint, preparing them as they transition to adulthood. I love being a woman… there’s so much to celebrate about being a woman!

Happy International Women’s Day, beautiful women!

Photographed by Brandon and Blauearth
© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

The town of Adams is a curious amalgamation of settlers from different tribes, namely Iyapayao and Igorot highlanders and Ilocano lowlanders. I was asked by the One Ilocos Norte mayoral candidate, my friend Leehua Lu Pascua, to head the board of judges for a tribal dance contest.

I am not a stranger in Adams. The vice-mayoral candidate, former mayor Wilma Dupagen, was the first ever Adams leader to embrace ecotourism by welcoming my eco-adventure and development group, LEAD Movement, in 2004, as a means to help shrink the quasi-anonymity of the former rebel town. It is in Adams where radical personal shifts sprang up.

My two days in Adams was also my initial flick with the hardcore political jungle. Post-rebel wars, I’ve always known Adams as a zero-crime rate town. In fact, the municipal jail was once featured in a TV show as a place to spend the night (like a hotel) back when homestays were non-existent, until municipal treasurer Elpidio Sy was killed in an ambush by unknown killers somewhere along the Pansian-Adams road a couple of years ago.

Today, I hear stories of women’s rights abuse, sexual harrassment, excessive illegal logging and more stories that make you cringe in embarrassment.

 - My friend Leehua Lu Pascua who’s running against the imcumbent mayor, Eric Bawingan.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Hello, the new LEAD Movement sandboard! Customized by gnarly,  young Laoagueño artist MJ Ruiz (McShine). Clear-cut elements of Sunshine City Laoag, mind you, he finished in 2 and a half days!.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

screenshot via La Pomme for kids

I’m going gaga over this online shop for kiddie stuff. Too bad my four kids are all grown up and Alexa is starting to create things for herself as well. The shop is called La Pomme, created by Apol Lejano Massebieau. If her name rings a bell, it’s because she used to be editor of a popular magazine for housekeeping. She’s now married to a Frenchman and a mother of a cute girl named Lilou, and only recently the family moved from the south of France to live in Panglao, Bohol, according to the La Pomme blog. La Pomme was created in France and it’s been on Etsy (here) for a while now.

I am inspired by her efforts to promote indigenous fabrics, and actually handcraft them into unique soft toys. Since inabel, like the swan crafted with binakol fabric, is close to my heart, I can’t thank her enough. Also love her crumpled tote bags made of tree bark fabric, the throw pillows made from recycled plastic and basically everything that she does. Get updates on La Pomme’s pop-up shop every now and then at their Facebook page.

© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Sharing a gem of a kid. Well, not exactly juvenile stuff. He’s Vince Canlapan, a young graphic designer in Ilocos who’s fast making a name as a blog designer for celebrity bloggers across the nation. Check out Vince’s work in his blog, The Art Apprentice.

A survivor of a car crash, Ironman Vince is here to stay.

images via Vince Canlapan The Art Apprentice

© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Alexa couldn’t be happier getting her dose of art and culture in a green setting. Chanum Foundation’s Tam-awan Village was set up by national artist BenCab in 1998. It has been bolstered up over the years. We failed to catch solar painter Jordan Mang-osan, who guided us when the Cordillera village garden was in its infancy stage. The colors of the environs are more saturated, fetching happy spiritedness.

From time to time, art exhibits, workshops and cultural events are facilitated by Benguet local artists. The Ifugao and Kalinga huts are adorned with contemporary artwork, reflecting the dynamic culture of the Cordilleran peoples. There are small fees to be paid to help sustain this estimable project of preserving culture as a fresher means for the enjoyment of younger generations.

The cafe and crafts shop has grown bigger and better. They have an interesting, very current menu of crisp upland salads, crepes, sandwiches and native meals such as pinikpikan. Still the same excellent brewed local coffee that Reny loves. I don’t know how many times his cup was refilled with coffee and great memories of mountain biking under Benguet’s killer road conditions back in the 90s. Brandon was absorbing the advetures in the cantilever brake era, while Alexa seized the chance to sit for portraits by artists Jenny and Alfred for the price of one.

The huts are up for lodging.

Tam-awan Village 366-C Pinsao Proper, Baguio City Tel. No: (074) 446 2949/442-5553

Photographed by Alexa, Brandon and Blauearth
© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Through my stint as legit blogger for the Lifestyle Network’s FoodPrints, we got to unearth not so common heritage recipes in two not so talked about food-tripping destinations in the country. One of them is gorgorya (or gurgurya or golloria). According to Riza Santiago-Hernandez, a niece of awarded food and culture historian Milagros Santiago Enriquez, who made a short and sweet demo on gorgorya-making in Malolos, Bulacan — in the colonial period, when the friars were building churches, incorporating egg whites to bind rocks, corals and shells together, people found ways to utilize egg yolks, hence the rise of egg-based desserts such as shell-shaped gorgorya, leche flan, pinaso. yema and many more.

The late Tita Mila, as she is fondly called by Riza, wished to share the heirloom recipes for the next generations of Pinoys to enjoy.

Gorgorya can last up to a month without refrigeration, making it suitable to cook in big batches. It’s Christmastime, so Lynne and I tried to roll some for friends. Riza’s demo included kalumata leaves for an herby anise-like flavor. Kalumata plant, she says, is typical near old churches in Bulacan.

Tita Mila’s original recipe was lifted from the book, Kasaysayan ng Kaluto ng Bayan, (Zita Publishing Corp., 1993) she penned, and translated in English by BlauEarth for this post.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• !/2 cup margarine
• 5 tsps milk
• 1 egg,  beaten
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsps water
• grated dayap rind (native lemon)

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together except sugar, water and dayap. Mix evenly. Mold dough and cut into small pieces. Press each piece into a fork and roll to form a shell shape. Deep fry in oil until golden-red. Set aside.

Boil sugar and water until thick. Drop in grated dayap rind and the shell-shaped pieces and mix until fully coated.

The BlauEarth’s Kitchen version

I used artificial flavors in place of kalumata leaves, and butter rather than margarine. Lynne and I added some dayap rind directly to the dough mixture, then followed the rest of the steps. There’s a semblance of how local binuelos or cascaron are made.

It’s easy to recreate the time-honored Bulacan cookies. Enjoy!

Acknowledgements: Thanking food historian Milagros Santiago Enriquez for the recipe, Riza Santiago-Hernandez for the cooking demo and the Lifestyle Network’s FoodPrints.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

When I featured Ilocano visual artist Mike Kairuz in 2010 (here), it was after a random visit at his home. At the launch of his own exhibit at the Samtoy Books in the La Tabacalera Ilocano Lifestyle Center last night, I was finally able to take photos of him and his art. I didn’t know he left his tools only to come back after four years of absence in the art scene. Once an artist, always an artist. But Mike’s got new verve.

If you look closely into the painting, Begin The Journey, you’d notice a woman with an umbrella, kind of resembling Imelda, and a Pablo Picasso-like figure on the other side. There’s also a calesa which could fit into the entrance of the legendary Laoag Sinking Bell Tower.

Mike has added a child to his tres Marias. He wishes to do an all black and white series next.

“Four Years After” Multiple Perspectives runs until the 12th of December.

My blogger bestie, Marianne Gaces Pasion. We tend to meet  unexpectedly. She took some of the photos.

Thought Journals!

It was nice to have met another artist, Nicole Rudio. I chanced upon her beautiful work at Samtoy Books in August.  I’m looking forward to meet with her again for a feature in the blog.

I also got to meet the bookstore’s gracious manager, Gee Foronda Diaros.

Complementing each other, Eric Cayetano is a musician/videographer. Aren’t they a lovely couple?

I’ve known Stella Gaspar since about 8 years ago, here in the net:) She’s all grown up.

Photographed by Eugene, Gee, Marianne and Blauearth
© Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

The Ferdinand Marcos Stadium shone brighter than moonbeams for all the town festivals in Ilocos Norte in one night, one show, one competition. Supporters and contingents from the participating towns filled the bleachers with ease. Those who aspired to be within spitting distance from the stage queued up for one thousand-peso tickets. A cheap price to pay for proceeds go to the construction of the new space of the displaced local Red Cross chapter.

I went to root for my hometown city of Laoag. Out of 10 audience members I surveyed, 9 predicted Laoag for the top spot.

And indeed Laoag won for a stellar performance. So rousing that at some point, a tear rolled down and my hair stood out.  My next other favorite presentation from Batac reminded me of my lola Iniang and the good old days. The snappy dance depiction of the evolution of its famous empanada, complete with seamless music, was totally clever. Siwawer Vintar was very creative as usual.  Pinili highlighted its stable economy from white gold bawang and dollar remittances. Banna’s red ant colony was bubbly. Nueva Era was a revelation it its rendition of its indigenous culture. The costumes were beautiful. All together, last night’s Tan-ok ni Ilocano was a clear-cut definition of who we are as a people, as a province. So rich in culture, so rich in history, so rich in natural resources.

A personal wish — a true One Ilocos Norte to take these strengths to a new higher level.

Governor Imee Marcos of the province of Ilocos Norte.

Vice-Governor Angelo Marcos Barba is a true cowboy.

The key people of Red Cross Ilocos Norte chapter headed by Tita Mary Ang.

Pagudpud mayor, Marlon Sales, arrived with the Bergblick’s Chef Detlev Cotte and his wife Maritess.

Official Results of the Tan-ok ni Ilocano Festival of Festivals 2013:

Grand Champion: Laoag City
1st: Nueva Era
2nd: Batac City
3RD: Vintar
4th: Banna
5th: Pinili
6th: Paoay
7th: Currimao
Best festival music: Batac
Best performer (male and female performers:   Batac and Laoag
Peoples Choice: Pinili

My special thanks  to friends Me-Ann Macaraeg, Ace and Kit, Alaric Yanos and Gemma, Edna, Ronan and Stella for the Tan-ok results.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2013

Abra, a former  Ilocos town, now among the provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR),  has a rich texture of social, political and cultural history.  Abreños are largely Tingguians and Ilocanos.

The centuries-old impaod (backstrap) weaving and its many forms, developed through rituals and dreams, are so much a piece of history of the people (Itnegs) of the Tineg River. Pinaing is the goddess of  the women weavers who were taught to weave at the age of ten.

Norma Agaid with a hand-embroidered ritual tapis.

With pride and flame, nana Norma Gintengan Agaid, an Itneg native (internationally referred to as Tingguian) of Abra, speaks about the traditional craft she inherited from ancestors, “It’s the only thing I can pass down to my children and their children.”

The Tingguian colors are predominantly muted. Natural dyes such as malatayum plant (for indigo) were prominent in the designs of the olden days.

White sinugkitan  is worn to signify mourning.

A lace-edged slip underneath the tapis signifies wealth, according to nana Norma.

Piningitan edging such as tinulbek (tulbek ti biag) symbolizes life.

An Ilocano pagablan (loom).

The Abra abel of today are based on traditional pinilian (sampaga, python, river and horse patterns), dinapat (a special seamless weave), and binakol (op art weave like kosikos). The pastel and livelier  motifs are influenced by the times.

The ethnic handwoven fabric comes in the forms of traditional garments, blankets, scarves, table covers and many more. Special designs can be ordered from the remaining indigenous loom weavers in Abra.

Namarabar Ethnic Crafts and Antiques, Namarabar, Peñarrubia, Abra, Philippines
Maria Librada M. Donato
CP Nos.: 0905 2422069 / 0921 4359173
Zita M. Benabese
CP Nos.: 0905 5036515 / 0920 5437921

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2014

As fabrics have gone high tech, towels and blankets have become more sophisticated. Is there room for burbur in today’s homes?

Burbur is a type of abel that is loom-woven in Paoay. It resembles bath towel fabric, hence the name which is a term you’d describe a furry dog. The designs of burbur are much more simple.

The abel of yesteryears were made of pure cotton. The fabric is course and stiff, but gets softer with time. A burbur blanket is exceptionally heavy when wet, so that in the olden days, the manangs had the whole river to wash blankets and they’d leave them on the rocks to dry.

Most of the abel blankets today are not 100 percent cotton. Custom orders can be made however. The old tradition of spooling natural kapas (cotton) fibers is a tedious process, so loomweavers prefer China threads purchased in Divisoria.

On a random visit to the Pagablan in Paoay, what struck me were the burbur blankets, towels and even bata de baño (bathrobe). My last memory of a burbur bata de baño was on a classmate, during one of those Christmas tableaus. We still have our old sturdy blankets from my nanny. The owner’s name is part of the weave, so each piece is really special.

If you’re used to the texturized feel of burbur, it’s not easy parting with it.

Photographed by Blauearth © Blauearth™ All Rights Reserved 2009-2014