The pandemic led to the institution of health protocols formulated to reduce the risk of spread of the COVID-19 virus. One called for the wearing of masks whenever outdoors and ideally also when one is indoors. At first, most went into a frenzy purchasing surgical or medical masks, most of which were disposable. As such, there was a brief shortage of masks in the country, what with the pandemic closely following the eruption of Taal volcano and the ash fall that necessitated many in Metro Manila and Southern Tagalog to wear masks.
It turned out that you didn't need surgical masks to keep you safe. Those are for doctors, nurses and other medical staff for their work in hospitals and clinics. Cloth masks would suffice as long as they have the minimum in terms of filtration.
A good friend referred me to a Facebook page run by a friend of his who is based in Baguio City. The latter is involved in a research project on textiles and weaves in the Philippines, and regularly posts on their work as well as items for sale by various collaborators in the project. The page is where I discovered and learned about the many weaves around the country including those that I am already familiar with like the Yakan, Tausug, Inabel and Hablon weaves that we have at home.
And so I tried to get a few masks first that we could use for our daily walk/jog. The first one to catch my eye were masks made with the Itneg weaves. Here is more information about the Itneg or Tinggian people:
https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/glimpses-peoples-of-the-philippines/tinggian/
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| Woven face masks as they came out of the packaging |
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| This design features spiders. |
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| More intricate weaving pattern of blue with red accents |
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| Lizards |
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| The package came with a bonus pouch |
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| I took another photo of the masks together with a signature woven blanket design from Abra that I got about 5 years ago. |
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