Embroidery is the art of decorative stitching, especially by hand. The high quality of embroidery in the Philippines is partly due to its history and partly due to native talent. Although it is always difficult to pinpoint the origins of an ancient art form, the Philippines’ early exposure to Chinese and Indian artistic traditions may explain the features of its embroidery.
Iron needles were a major Chinese import to islands in the Philippines in the early 13th century. In the days of the Manila-Acapulco trade, 1565-1815, the embroidered silk shawls of Canton were loaded onto the galleons headed for Mexico. Eventually, they became known as mantones de Manila (Manila shawls) even if they were done in China. This is not to say that Filipinos themselves were not doing embroidery. In fact, according to the Jesuit Pedro Murillo Velarde, 1734, embroidery was one of the handicrafts perfected by the Filipinos.
Such a school was Santa Catalina, founded in 1696, which was also a beaterio, a type of convent. In the 19th century the nuns of Santa Catalina taught embroidery to their students. Similarly, municipal schools for girls then were required to dedicate two hours to needlework per school day.
Throughout the Spanish colonial period, convents churned out embroidery for priests’ vestments, altar cloths, and costumes for the images of saints. Wealthy parishes could afford metal thread from Europe, which consisted of flat and narrow strips called plate, or of wire coiled around a rod called purl. These threads were used only on equally luxurious fabrics, such as satin or gold cloth. Sections to be embroidered in relief were padded with layers of cardboard or yarn. Skill and patience were required to work satin or banig (local woven sleeping mat) stitches across the cloth without passing the expensive threads underneath the fabric. The techniques of metal-thread embroidery are still practiced today by lay people, although the industry is much smaller and genuine metal thread has become unaffordable.
In the 19th century, Manila was known for embroidery, even in Europe. Santa Ana, Ermita, and Malate were its main centers of activity. The embroidered male baro (skirt), camisa or blouse, pañuelo or shoulder scarf, children’s clothes, and handkerchiefs are painstakingly documented in 19th-century portraits of the native elite by painters, like Antonio Malantic, Justiniano Asuncion, and Isidro Arceo. Whitish nipis (light, transparent fabrics, such as piña, jusi, fine sinamay) were embroidered with designs in white thread, thus creating a local form of whitework then popular in Europe.
Manila embroidery was distinguished for combining satin-stitched designs with calado (openwork). This usually meant applying pulled threadwork, wherein threads of the cloth are pulled together with stitches to create openwork patterns, or drawn threadwork, wherein selected threads of the cloth are cut off to create openwork areas while remaining threads are decorated with various stitches. The first step in calado embroidery is the bakbakan, which involves drawing out a specific number of threads of the warp and woof according to a pattern. The material is then worked on by an expert who joins the threads together in typical calado stitching. The next step is embroidering in the munggo, a small motif within the calado itself, such as the sampaguita.
When the calado is uninterrupted throughout the entire length of the panel, it is called ilog na calado (river of calado). Embroidery designs have their specific names: flores for satin-stitched flowers; anino (shadow) in which threads cross at the reverse of the motif for a delicate, transparent effect; britanika for heart- shaped motifs; bulon for raised knots made of threads twisted together; and tirik and bitik for variations of the herringbone stitch, creating a geometric design. All these embroidery stitches, called by the general term labór, are combined with calado.
The embroidery process itself involves at least seven steps executed by different workers. First is the drawing of the design which is subsequently transferred on wax paper. This is perforated and printed on the cloth with a mixture of kerosene, alcohol, and blue dye. The material, set in the bastidor (hoop), is then worked on for calado, after which the embroidery designs are executed on the solid areas. The material is then stitched all around with the auherol, a scallop design for edging. It is then soaked and washed, then finally stretched on the banatan, a rectangular bastidor which evens out the material. The techniques are still used for the barong tagalog, placemats, table napkins, handkerchiefs, and other products.
Another technique requiring much skill and patience in 19th-century needlework was sombrado (Spanish, shading). Delicate, curvilinear floral or foliate patterns were cut out from white cotton cloth and applied on the reverse side of the nipis fabric to create a silhouette effect. Extremely fine, invisible stitching secured the appliqué to the fabric frequently cut out for a camisa, baptismal gown, curtain, pillowcase, bed hanging, or carroza (processional carriage) skirt. Sombrado also referred to shadow stitches which crossed underneath a transparent fabric to create a semiopaque quality.
Among Mindanao ethnic groups, the Bilaan, Bagobo, and Mandaya have highly developed embroidery traditions independent of Western trends. Clothing, whether for male or female, can be densely embroidered with colorful geometric patterns. Blouses can be lavishly decorated with minute satin or cross stitches consisting of lozenges, chevrons, zigzags, meanders, and tumpal (steep-triangle motif found in Mindanao and Indonesian weaves). In northern Luzon, the decorative stitches of the Tinguian, primarily used to join seams of blankets or borders of clothing, are equally distinctive.
Beadwork is prominent in Bagobo clothing, known to the natives as pang-o-lo- bayan. Tutuk or decorative borders or panels on shirts or trousers are covered with fine appliqués over which are fine embroidery stitches, beads, and sequins. Among northern Luzon ethnic groups, the Gaddang are distinguished for beadwork decorations. These may be sewn to a loincloth, blouse, headcloth, pouch bag, or sash. Much of the decoration is simultaneously functional as it conceals shirt seams or weighs down the ends of a loincloth with its fringes.
Various ethnic groups use bells, pom-poms, coins, and animal hair to fringe their clothing or accessories. Occasionally, there are stones, seeds, or pieces of wood which may function as amulets or charms.
Appliqué and patchwork is a challenging art form among the southern ethnic groups, such as the Tboli and Bagobo but especially among the Talaandig of Bukidnon. On patchwork panels made into shirts or cloth accessories are tiny lozenges, chevrons, or squares. A cotton blouse worked in appliqué is described by the Tboli as kegal kenibang. The latter word, “an adjective used to describe plants or animals that are mottled or speckled,” suggests the tedious process to achieve the desired effect. Among Sulu people, simpler forms of appliqué are done for decorative flags, buntings or tabil, a decorative cloth band of colorful patchwork used as a curtain for gatherings, especially weddings. It can also form part of the canopy hanging over a sleeping area. The bottom is fringed with colored strips of cloth and further embellished with dangling cloth flowers or beads.
Relative to beads are sequins which among the Bilaan and Bagobo are made of shells. These can be used so profusely on a shirt that only tiny portions of the fabric are visible. Real sequins, however, are used by other groups, such as the Maranao who use it to decorate their silk wedding canopies. Otherwise, the ancient oriental technique of chain-stitch embroidery is used.
Chain-stitch embroidery is also done by machine. It has developed into a small industry in Bulacan, particularly in Bocaue. Locally known as cadineta, it was popular as a form of decorating the butterfly sleeves of the terno in the early 20th century. Along with the first Filipino fashion designers, chain-stitch embroidery for womens formal wear was combined with sequins, bugle beads, seed pearls, and other materials.
In Luzon, Taal in Batangas province is still known for the large floral patterns worked with slightly embossed satin stitches, and Lumban in Laguna province for delicate barong embroidery using silk thread. Frequently used motifs are kinape (coffee beanlike), sinampagita (jasminelike) and sili-sili (resembling tiny peppers). The apak-manok (chicken’s footprint) stitch is widely used to decorate as well as bind drawn thread in calado panels.
In Iloilo province, the Asilo de Molo is an orphanage as well as an embroidery center. Here the nuns of the Daughters of Charity train orphans to do various types of embroidery. The “counted thread” embroidery wherein straight stitches are carefully measured by the number of threads in the fabric it should cross with each stroke, is used in corners of tiny white handkerchiefs. Vignettes outlined in black embroidery thread recall the sensitive lines of pen-and-ink drawings.
As an export industry, Philippine embroidery rated well in 19th-century piña and other nipis articles sent to Europe; and in the early 20th-century exports of lingerie, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, and children’s clothing undertaken by Philippine-American partnerships. • S. Castro, with notes on calado by A. G. Guillermo
References
Guillermo, Alice. Art, Man, and Society. University of the Philippines, 1988.
Lane, Robert. Philippine Basketry. An Appreciation. Manila:
Bookmark Incorporated, 1986.
De los Reyes, Roberto. Traditional Handicraft Art of the Philippines.
Manila: Casalinda, 1975.
________. Philippine Designs: Ceramics and Traditional Art Forms.
Quezon City: Alemars-Phoenix Publishing House, 1975.