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From dainty to deadly: Taal’s arts and crafts


Needle in hand, 54-year old Agnes Magsino deftly sews the flower design on a tablecloth. She has been doing this since she was 12 years old, one of the few women in Taal town in Batangas who are still engaged in the delicate art of hand-sewn embroidery.

Agnes Magsino is one of the few women in Taal who have preserved the delicate art of hand-sewn embroidery. Yasmin Arquiza
In another old house, two women employed by Elsa Aseron work on calado and embroidered table cloth for embassy clients, trade fair patrons, and the export market. It is easy to imagine the dainty pieces adorning the tables in country homes abroad, and in fact, Elsa says her biggest customers used to come from Clark Air Base. The smallest pieces are round doilies that sell for P100 each, while the most expensive is a fully embroidered table cloth for 12 that takes four months to make and fetches P7,000. Table runners are the most common items, selling for P200 to P800. Some foreign buyers bring their own designs, but many are still traditional motifs drawn on ramie cloth combined with calado, which is done by pulling strands vertically and horizontally to make a square mesh. Elsa has been in the trade for 35 years, with four women regularly turning out unique and intricate products. But during peak seasons, she says many women in town revive the craft to fill in orders. One tradition that has remained strong and very much identified with Batangas is the manufacture of balisong or fan knives, which is the domain of males in Taal. Heritage conservationist Dindo Montenegro says the term comes from the words bali, literally to break in two, and sungay, or the deer horn originally used to decorate the knife’s handle.
An array of Batangas balisong from Barangay Pandayan. Yasmin Arquiza
This explained why there were many deer antlers scattered above the glass display case of Diosdado Reyes Ona’s knife store, which also had a pair of stuffed deer heads mounted on the outside wall. Inside, an assortment of blades in all shapes and sizes dazzled the eye. The years may be etched on his face and his hair has turned gray, but Diosdado has kept the skill and speed of his youth, flicking the balisong out and back with such agility that his audience could only gasp in awe. As its common name implies, the knife takes inspiration from the Chinese fan: the split handle can be folded back and wrapped around the knife, concealing it completely. Diosdado says the trick in making a good balisong is to use old steel from ball bearings; 100-year old steel is the best material of all. “What’s interesting about the balisong is that it supports the junkyard business," adds Dindo. The industry complements the blacksmith trade, which is another Taal tradition, he says.
Diosdado Ona brings out his balisong collection from his ancestral house in Taal. Yasmin Arquiza
It’s interesting to note that many place names in town still refer to local craft, such that fan knives are found mainly in Barangay Balisong while blacksmiths are found in, where else but Barangay Pandayan. With this in mind, I dared not ask what Barangay Halang, which refers to the Tagalog phrase halang na kaluluwa or evil spirit, is known for. - GMANews.tv MORE ABOUT TAAL
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