This week a Canadian visitor to the studio mentioned the intriguing banana fibre textiles from the Philippine Islands.
The oldest known of these pieces in the world dates back to the 13th or 14th Century. It is an ikat cloth (as you can see on this link) and was found on Banton Island in 1936. The art of making this textile continues in the archipelago although this is not the only place in the world where the banana is used to create beautiful fabrics and garments.
The Republic of the Philippines is home to lots of other textile traditions. Here are a dozen other practices, highlighted in Tatler Asia, and this link shows some of the ikat of the region. If you want to learn more about making cloth from pineapple fibres, this is the video for you and this film, although not translated, shows some of the weavers from the islands who make traditional fabrics. To learn more about weaving from the Yakan people of Basilan island, where symbols play a major role in the making of cloths click on this link.
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