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Silaksakaw

LOCAL NAME:

Silaksakaw

ENGLISH NAME:

Yardage

DESCRIPTION:

Kalinga: Silaksakaw
A violate yardage with crisscross-like motifs and white stripe designs composed of green, orange, and yellow lines

COMMONLY USED BY/IN:

Kalinga

MATERIAL COMPOSITION:

Cotton threads, Dye

ITEM CONSTRUCTION:

Brocade weave

DIMENSIONS:

Length
510 cm

Width
59 cm

Fringes
23 cm

ACQUISITION YEAR:

2021

RESEARCH DATA:

This textile from the collection is a yardage with a violet background featuring green, orange, and yellow thin stripes placed on multiple white vertical bands. The stripes alternate with weft-float crisscross-like motifs, with visible white warp threads beneath that look like horizontal stripes connecting to the white bands; appearing like a subtle plaid design. Typically, a yardage is a textile fabric in linear length that can be used to produce textile functional items such as blankets, garments, table runners, and pillowcases by cutting, stitching, and bonding them together later on. This yardage features crisscross-like motifs locally known as the silaksakaw, frequently found in traditional Kalinga blankets which resemble an actual bamboo dish rack used to put and display heirlooms of families among the Kalinga elite (Abbacan-Tuguic, 2022). According to Ngao-i (2022), the rack or shelf is called the “sakaw”, and blankets with this motif are often used as a canopy, blanket stretcher, and baby carrier (p. 17).

REFERENCES:

Abbacan-Tuguic, L. (2016). Mathematics of folk art: the geometric motifs in the embroideries of Ikalinga.International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 5(6), 816-829.https://garph.co.uk/IJARMSS/June2016/54.pdf

Ngao-i, L. (2022). Laga: Indigenous Textile of Kalinga, Northern Philippines. Golden Press.

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