Native Mat

Native Romblon Mat from Cabilao Weavers.

Native Romblon Mat, technically, it is not a textile.

The most common type of leaves used is Romblon Leaves.

Banig often refers to the brown, handwoven mat commonly used for sleeping.

The art and beauty of banig weaving lie in the intricacy of folding over the strips of the material to yield a design of interlaced folds and entails a sequential order of steps to create geometric patterns and rhythm.

          An arduous and very tedious process, banig weaving requires hard work, determination and patience form the manugbanig (a person who weaves banig). They cut the Romblon leaves using sanggot (an arc-shaped cutting tool) and a long slender bamboo pole to reach the leaves of high – grown Romblon plant, the process locally known as the pagsasa.

Process

          The bundling and stripping off are the next steps in the preparation. The manugbanig gathers and bundles the slashed leaves to strip off thorns along the edges and into the middle ridge.

Each leaf is pile separately until the bundle is strip off with thorns.

          The sun – or air – drying follows. Drying of Romblon leaves under direct sunlight gives them a shiny brown tone and strengthens the fiber. Air dry leaves are durable compare to the sun- dry ones. Air – dried leaves create blackish spots or molds that destroy the natural luster of brown mats.

          The hammering phrase is gradually by beating the Romblon leaves against a flat stone.

          Paglikid is a process of keeping the softness of the Romblon leaves and prevents the leaf strips from becoming stiff and crisp. The leaves are roll one after the other in a round form; tightly rolling the leaf sustains its softness and elasticity. The unwinding of the linikid to straighten the spirale Romblon leaves is called pagbuntay.

          The shredding of Romblon leaves into a desired strand through the kurulhadan or splicer; a wooden – based shredder. Pagkyupis is the preparatory process to the weaving proper. Romblon strands are fold into halves. Every kyupis consists of four strands, folded together in pairs; horizontally and vertically, with the glossy brown color in the outer surface.

The Native Romblon Mat produces 3 kinds of sizes like:

Single Mat

Only use for single person only with the size of 30 x 70.

Double Mat

Only use for two person only with the size of 42 x 70.

Family Mat

Use for family only with the size of 52 x 70.