Kalinga: Tapis
This textile is an innovation created by Irene Joy Bawer-Bimuyag of Lubuagan, Kalinga. It features a base textile with the common stripes found in Kalinga skirts. The striped textile is heavily embroidered using the traditional Kalinga embroidery technique, with new and innovative design elements. The embroidery features a large tree with colorful roots, vines, flowers, leaves, trunk, and branches, covering much of the textile. The two panels are joined by an embroidery pattern of continuous diamonds, reminiscent of the traditional pilakpak embroidery pattern typically used in skirts. The term pilakpak comes from the word pakpak, which means “to attach” (Ngao-i, 2022). Although traditionally characterized by yellow embroidery, this interpretation of pilakpak features different color combinations.