3.

Manufactured by using a traditional technique or skill

The term traditional is defined as a continujng feature is more than a
hundred years. It is still considered "traditional"; (1) if the features peculiar to
the craft products are kept unchanged and (2) even if the initial technique or
skill from a hundred years ago or more has not been kept perfectly the same.
4. Made traditional materials
Concerning technique and skilI, materials are also very significant for the
features of a craft product.
The main materials that should be used for craft products be natural
substances. But since natural materials do not exist anymore today and are
difficult to obtain, other materials are allowed to be used as long as these
materials do not alter the unique characteristics of the product.
5. Manufactured in a certain area with a certain number of manufacturers
There should be enough number of workers, about 30 workers or more, who
should be engaging in the industry in a designated area. A traditional craft
needs a certain scale in manufacturing as well as an established manufacturing
area.
Traditional crafts consist of the following:
handicrafts
weaving
embroidery
woodcarving
musical instruments making
earthenware tiles making
glasswork
stonework
Handicrafts is the main sector of traditional crafts. These are types of work
where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using
simple tools.
Handicrafts have been existing in pre-historic times. These traditional crafts
have cultural and/or religious significance. The first examples were man's
necessities such as for protection or coverings. Items made by mass production or
machines are not considered handicraft goods. But handicraft goods made with
craft production process are considered handicrafts.

Handicrafts were later improved and adapted according to environmental

conditions and accepted as an art that reflects artistic sense, feelings, and cultural
characteristics of a society.
Weaving is another art form of traditional crafts. Materials used in weaving
consist of wool, mohair, cotton, bristles, and silk. It can be done with all kinds
of cloth. Its products include plait, carpets, rugs, and felt obtained by spinning
thread, connecting the fibers together or by other materials.
The Ilocos region, particularly the Ilocos provinces are very well known in
the traditional weaving industry. Weaving as a handicraft has been practiced for
many years in the Philippines and considered primarily as
livelihood.
means of earning a
Embroidery is notonly used for decoration but also asameansof communication
tool with the symbolism in its designs. Today, the tools in embroidery are crochet
needle, needle, shuttle and hairpin designed either as a border or motif and goes
by different names according to the implement used as well as the technique.
Embroidery materials include silk cocoon, wool, candle stick bead or any left-
over cloth. Embroidery as an industry is generally seen in the Ilocos and Visayan
Regions.
Woodcarving has been existing long time ago, the most common products
are tables, sala sets, cabinets, doors, cupboard corners, and others. These crafts
were greatly simplified and applied mostly to objects in daily use such as tripods,
wooden stands, writing sets, drawers, chests, spoons for decorations, rowing
boats, reading desks, etc. Architectural works in woodcarving include windows,
wardrobe covers, beams, ceilings, pulpits, coffins, etc.
The materials used in woodworking were mostly walnut, ebony, rosewood,
narra, acacia, bamboos, etc. Wooden objects were created by such various
techniques such as topping, painting, relief-engraving, caging, coating, and
burning. These are still employed today. Woodworking is generally common in
the Cordillera region and Southern Tagalog provinces, especially Paete, Laguna
and in Pangasinan.
Making musical instruments is a traditional craft that existed for many long
vears, the materials used for making musical instruments came from trees, plants,
skin, bones, and animal horn. Musical instruments are classified into string,
percussion and woodwind.
Glazed earthenware tiles are used for ceramic and art purpose. Artists usually
create animal designs in these tiles. As a ceramic art, it became world famous for
their extraordinary creative workmanship.
Glasswork is another traditional art form. Stained glass was developed many
vears ago. Church windows are made of stained glass in different models and
forms. Figurines, mugs, drinking glass, utensils made of decorative glass work are
very common nowadays. High quality of glass workmanship is kept alive in this
21" century.
Stonework as a traditional craft plays an important role in exterior and interior
decoration in traditional architecture. Traditionally, products of stonework consist
of grinders, stone tables, ano benches, gravestones, human and animal figures
and decorative purposes. Stonework techniques include carving, relief and statue.
Ornamental motifs used are plants, geometric motifs, writing and figures.
Basket weaving is also a traditional craft that started a thousand years ago. It
is carried out by weaving reed, willow, and nut branches, bamboo trunks, rattan
and other materials. It is used for home decoration in addition to the original
purpose of helping to carry things. Nowadays, basket-making is a very good way
of earning a living which is prevalent in the Cagayan Valley, Cordillera, and Bicol
Regions, as well as in some provinces in Visayas islands.
There are other traditional crafts that are available and found in some areas
of the Philippines which you can name of. Nevertheless, as a result of changing
conditions f the present times, resulting to industrialization and globalization in
all areas of work, the production of these traditional crafts has now ceased or about
to cease.
However, in order to promote their cultural values and traditions in the Filipino
way of life, these works of art are photographed and recorded for the archives and
art museums for heritage and posterity. Others are still exhibited during fiestas,
festivals, and trade fair for promotion and for income-generating purposes. There
are still traditional crafts that are found and available in some markets for sale
purposes.
It is recommended that the government (local and national) should hold
national and regional traditional craft exhibitions or competitions to promote the Filipino cultural
value and heritage.
Decorative Motifs Sir John Summerson, an architectural historian called decoration and
ornament as a "surface modulation". In prehistoric times, decoration and ornament are indicated
in single markings on a pottery, but such markings have been lost with the passing of time. A
wide variety of decorative styles and motifs have been developed for a long time in architecture
and applied arts that include pottery, furniture, metalwork, textiles, wallpaper, and other objects
where decoration is the main justification for their existence.
The vast range of motifs used in ornament were drawn from geometrical shape and patterns,
plants, human and animal figures. Traditional ornament from either parts of the world typically
relies more on geometrical and animal motifs.

Decorative Arts
ecoratve arts are a range of artistic disciplines concerned wih desigrn and
tation of items. These items are usually functional ana do iot ecessdrily
have any intrinsiC aesthetic qualities.
ecorauve arts which are also classified as crafts are parts Or tue laBe cae80ry
of applied art
coratve arts include the creation of baskets, cabinets, ceramic tiles,
re and accessory furnishings, rugs, carpets, tapestry, embroldery, book
ustration, floral decorations, ceramic pottery (earthenware, stoneware, porcelain)
8oldsmithing work, silverware and jewelry art
It also embraces theatrical sets, costumes, mosaic art, stained glass work,
precious armor, and weaponry and masterpieces.
Decorative Symbols
Lines, colors, rectangles, and other decorative symbols have no meaning in
themselves it they are not part of the elements of visual arts.
Classification of Decorative Motifs
A motif as previously defined, is an element of a particular subject or type of
subject that is found in any art work. It may also form the main subject of an art
work. The related motif of confronted animals is often seen alone, but may also be
repeated, for example in Byzantine silk and other ancient textiles. Where the main
subject of an artistic work such as a painting 1s a specific person, group, or moment
in a narrative, that should be reterred to as the "subject" of the work, not a motif,
though the same thing may be a "motif" when part of another subject, or part of a
work of decorațive art such as a painting on a vase.
Ornamental or decorative arts can usually be analysed into a number of various
elements, which can be called motifs. These may often, as in textile art, be repeated
many times in a pattern. Important examples in western art include acanthus, egg
dd
and dart, and various types of scrollwork.
Many designs in lslamic culture aree motirs, including those of the sun, moon,
animals such as horses and lhons, 1owers, and landscapes. Motifs can have
emotional effects and be used tor propaganda. In kilim flatwoven carpets, motifs
such as the hands-on-hips elibelinde are woven in to the design to express the
hopes and concerns of the weavers: the endelinde symbolises the female principle
and fertility, including the desire for children.
The idea of a motif is widely used in discussing literature and other narrative
as an element in the story that represent a theme.

Textile Art
These are both arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthenc nDel
create practrcal or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental neey
ot human e since the start of civilization. Methods and materlais use
them have expanded enormously.
lextile art started as a traditional craft. Textiles have been used to cOver the
human dOay and protect it from the elements of the atmosphere, to ser So
Cues to oe peoPle, to store, secure, and protect possessions and to sorten itsldc
and decorate iiving spaces and other surtaces.
Clothing made of woven cloth, richly embroidered silk, well-knited stockings,
oriental rug of wool, embroidered table cloth and curtains, felted fur hat, iet
shirl are some of the basic textile techniques in textile art in the I'hilippines.
Traditional Local Myths
The existernce of the soul, the significance and interpretation of dreams and
imagination have their religious, philosophical, and mythological essence and
value among the local folks. These have impacts on one's personality as well as to
society. Those who believe in the existence of the soul are mostly theists while the
non-believers are atheist. Socrates, Pluto and Aristotle understood that the soul
(psyche) mostly have a logical faculty.
Dreams according to Freud are unconscious wish which needs fulillment.
They lie beyond the subconscious mind. The impact of dreams on waking social
interactions is protound for dreams have signihcant role to play in shaping
interactions between people. Among the barrio folks, dreams are symbols that
imply meaning and they are used to Signity the game number that will come out
for the day. Daydreams can affect further daytime mood and behavior.
Imagination can change perception or realty. What a person sees and hear can
be reshaped by our imagination. kesearchers nave found that our imagination can
change perception of reality. Our mind can literally play tricks on us by changing illusions of
what we think and hear and see into what seems like reality.

on figures, Decause it is feared by many Muslims that the deplcu

form 1s 1aolatry and thereby a sin against God, forbidden in the Qur an. u
portrayals can De tound in all eras of Islamic art, above all in the more private iO
of minlatures, where their absence is rare. Human representation tor tne p
of worship 1s considered idolatry and is duly forbidden in some interpretattO
Islamic law, Known as Sharia law. There are also many depictions of vundi
Islam s chier prophet, in historical Islamic art. Small decorative figures of anitdis
and humans, especially if they are hunting the animals, are found on secular Pie
in many medla irom many periods, but portraits were slow to develop.
Muslim South arts include the T'nalak art, Tboli art, dagmay skirt, pis syadit
cloth tapestry, Yakan seputangan head cloth, Inaul of Cotabato City, wood crarts
of Maranao, Muslim literature and musical instruments.
T'nalak
Ihis 1s a traditional cloth made by a group of people in Lake Sebu, Outn
Cotabato called Tbolis. Tnalak is hand-woven which is made of abaca Which
traditionally has three primary colors, red, black and the original color of the
abaca leaves. Ihe colorant of the materials are naturally dyed boiled in with bark
roots and leaves of plants. It is an heritage and believed that the intricate and
creative patterns of the Tinalak was seen on their dreams and made it on to work.
They cant create a design of the Tinalak if they haven't dreamed of it. They are
sometimes called the "Dream Weavers".
Tnalak fabric is very significant in the Tboli culture. It is ever present in
significant turning points in a [Tboli] life, such as birth, marriage, and death. It
is the medium which sanctifies these rites, enveloping them in the length of its
fabric like a benediction. It has also often been referred to as "woven dreams".
It is exactly that, and more. In a culture which diant have a form of writing, the
Tnalak served as both Literature and Art. Ihe IT bolis] expressed everything they
are in the T'nalak: their dreams, beliets, myths and even their religion. Making use
of the various geometrical patterns arnd tne traaemark red, black and white colors,
the [Tbolis] weave the natural and the supernatural in the abaca strands of the
T'nalak. Furthermore, the weaving Process integrates the personal, the social and
the cultural. After a weaver reaches à certain aegree or expertise, she becomes a
master weaver" -someone wno can merpret and take inspiration from drea
hence the term "dreamweavers. Dy a accounts, this seems to be an intense
personal experience for the weaver, aul ue etSne succeeds in doing this is
the moment she becomes an artist. Ana then it 1s alsO SOCial because the Tnalak
Dinds together all that the |T boljpeOple Deneve in. Ihe skill of the weaver thers
in the Tnalak all the elements that make tneTi Do social lite. Finally, it is cultural
in that it is the means through wniCn otner ioes 1aentity the [Tbolis] since the
T'nalak is uniquely and distinctiy T l DOuJ. iron ulda Oong (Tboli tribeswoman
dnd dreamweaver)
This cloth is the Muslim s prized pOsessIOn at marriage, even the cone or the most indigenous
people in Southern Mindanao are the T boli people
of the South Cotabato. Based on Muslim Ethnography and linguisticterature, the
DO peOple have various names and spelling such as t'boli, tboli, tiboli, tibole,
tagaoi or tagabulu but they term themselves as t'boli or tiboll. 1ner Ogn and
aenaty are somewhat imprecise in the literature; some publications present thee
1 Doll and the lagabili as distinct peoples; some locate the T'bol1s to the Vicinity
or the Lake Buluan in the Cotabato Basin or in Agusan del Norte. 1he 1bolis then
reside on the mountain slopes on either side of the upper Alah Valley and the
coastal area ot Maitum, Maasim and Kiamba. In former times, the T bolis inhabited
the upper Alah Valley floor. After World War II, i.e., since the arrival of settlers
onginating trom other parts of the Philippines, they have been gradually pushed
Into the mountain slopes. As of now, they are almost expelled from fertile valley Their immediate
tribal neighbors, the Ubüs, Blàan, Blit, Taú-Segél and, for those
who have serious doubts in the hoax argumentation, the lasaday, they have been
variously termed hill tribes, pagans, animists, etc, as opposed to the indigenous
Muslim peoples or the Christian settlers. In political contexts, however, the term
Lumad groups (derived from the Cebuano term for native people) has become
popular as a generic term for the various indigenous peoples of Mindanao. Dagmay Skirt The
dagmay represents the indigenous culture of the Mandayas of Davao. The
dagmay has been worn as a woman's cloth by the Mandaya women but it is also
used as blankets to wrap their dead. Each design carries with it a certain story.
Most of the traditional designs date back to over a hundred years. Germelina A Lacorte of
Davao Today Wrote a feature story under the banner
"culture" which was posted by Bulatlat about the origins ot Dagmay. Here is the
uncut version of the story, as published in Caraga, LDavao Oriental. Masandag Diano-Pagsac's
face tiushed when she heard another version of the
story of the origin of dagmay. "It was not a tamisa (a Marndaya term for an only Son) who found
it was so beautihul he decided to bring it home. When the Tagamaling (spint ivin
in the balete) found that he lost the cloth, he was very mad and cursed the one wno
took 1t.TOu ll die, wrapped by the cloth you've stolen. Right in that instant
boy died and the people asked forgiveness from the Tagamaling. Ihe lagamani
appeare n their dreams, finally appeased, and taught them how to make tne
dagmay she insisted in Mandaya. It was a maiden taking a Datn tuc
Pis-yabit Cloth
1S-yabit is a head covering by the Tausug of Sulu. This traditional clotn
tapestry 1s made trom cotton or silk. people in this town
he most recognized community of Pis Syabit weavers in Sulu are trom
Darangay Guimba Lagasan in the town of Parang. This is also where the late
master weaver DARHATA SAWABI, a GAMABA Awardee of 2005 (National
Living I reasure) came from.
The barangay people in this town are well known for their expertise in the
Craft, their bold contrasting colors, evenness ot their weave and their taithfuiness
to traditional designs.
unlike other traditional weavers, Pis Syabit are intricately woven at the houses
of the Tausugs. Most of the elder weavers devoted their full time to their craft.
They even teach and pass on this tradition to interested young generation.
Seputangan (head cloth)
The seputangan is a head cloth worn by the Yakan tribe of Mindanao. The
warp and primary weft are of cotton and the supplementary weft is silk. The
Supplenmentary wert work 1s alscontnuous, a type ot work in which the various
colors are inserted in the proper place by hand.
Inaul Skirt
The inaul is the tamous cotabato City handwoven fabric in Maguindanao. It
is used by Maguindanaon as a malong a taDular skirt ot sarong that wraps
around the lower part ot the body and worn as traditional dress by both men and
women. Inaul, is a treasured cultural traaldon as 1t captures the Maguindanao
symbol of distiction and royalty. A Source or pride and a testament to the rich
Cultural heritage of the people ot Cotabato City.
Woodcrafts
The materials primarily used im Musim or Islamic Art are wood, brass, and
cloth, but no less important are silver, gola, iron, horn, ivory, leather, bamboo, and matting
materials.

Dest examples of Maranao brass art are the gabu and gaalua a jar-like
cOntainers with corner; lang8uay, coverless containers with decorated rims, kendi,
an ormamented teapot; salapa and lutuan- both associated with betel-nut chewing
common among Muslim Filipinos; and talam, the gorgeous tray orten Used
modern table top or wall decoration.
Drass art seems to take the place of pottery for the Maranao ror even their
CoOking pot, the kodon is made of brass. Aesthetic and artistic intention is always a
characteristic of the Muslim art.
Muslim carving is a highly-skilled, well-developed, and broadly-based art.
Sulu artists used instruments like axe (kapa), planes (katam), gau8e (songa) for
Scouring and knite (lahot). For simple carving, sometimes chisel and knife are
used.
Although, non-figurative art is predominant among Muslim Filipnos, there
are a number of notable figurative types found among them. Ihe most obvious is
the Maranao Sarimanok where both bird and fish representatiorn are depicted.
Okir or Okil
lhis is the term that represents the geometric and flowing desigrns, often based
on an elaborate leat and vine pattern, and folk motif which are usually fournd in
Marana0, Maguindanao and some other places in Southern Mndanao and as tar
as Southeast Asia.
The Okira datu is the ornamental design for men and Okir a bay 1s that for
Women.
An ancient proof of okir's style of flowering symbols is the torogan, the ancestral
the highest title holder in a Maranao village. lt is a symbol ot power and
prestige usually adorned during festivities. Its prominent part is the panolong, a
carved beam that protrudes in the iront ot the house and styled with okir motif.
The okir design is tound woven or printed in textiles, carved into wooden cemetery
markers and wooden boxes, ana it can also be found etched into knife or sword
blades and handles, and cast or etchea nto various brass and silver objects.
home
Variations of the okir involves the uSe ot naga or serpent motif. Maranao
instruments usually are styled with okir, A more prominent variation is the
Sarimanok, a chicken-like figure that carries a fish in its beak.
It was believed that the first OKir was made in lugaya, Lanao del Sur, as Tugaya
is known as the home ot Maranao arisans and the industrial capital of Lanao del
Sur. It has been long known as the home ot arts and crafts of Maranao tribe since
time immemorial.