INTRODUCTION
Textile weaving is an art that has been performed in the Philippines since pre-colonial times. Each ethnic group has its own particular kind of textile, motifs, and method of production. The people of the Cordilleras weave blankets and apparel with a backstrap loom. T'boli people first tie-dye abaca threads in earth tones before weaving them into a fabric called t'nalak (Guillermo, Alice G. “An Essay on Philippine Visual Arts”). A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural, artificial fibers often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibers of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands.Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or pressing fibers together (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile).
The words fabric and cloth are used in textile assembly trades (such as tailoring and dressmaking) as synonyms for textile. However, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. Textile refers to any material made of interlacing fibers. Fabric refers to any material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods (garments, etc.). Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but often refers to a finished piece of fabric used for a specific purpose
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile).
Cloth weaving is one among the principal household art of the mountain peoples and among the Mindanao groups like the Bagobos, Mandaya-Mansakas, and Manobos. Deigns made in cloth weaving provide interesting insights on the culture 0f these Filipino groups (Research Journal Vol.VI No.1.Pp 198).
Southern Philippine and Indonesian textiles are more splendid than Northern Luzon highland textiles, and collectors of these are therefore often characterized as esoteric. The interest in cotton textiles from the north invariably is an offshoot of a fascination with the complex and