National Living Treasures: Magdalena Gamayo

Magdalena Gamayo, a 2012 Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan awardee, lives in a quiet rural area of Ilocos Norte, far from the bustling city of Laoag. Her life revolves around the land, with rice, cotton, and tobacco farming playing a central role. Despite her mastery of the traditional art of abel weaving, farming remains essential to her livelihood.

Sourcing high-quality cotton threads for her abel weaving is a persistent challenge. Although the North is known for its cotton, there are no local factories to spin cotton into thread. Magdalena relies on local merchants with limited supplies, often settling for lower-quality threads. In the past, she spun her own cotton and strengthened it with beeswax, but since World War II, she has depended on market-bought thread. She recalls bartering rice for thread, a practice now replaced by costly purchases. Despite the declining number of thread suppliers, the abel-weaving tradition remains strong in Ilocos, with Magdalena standing out as one of its finest practitioners.

Magdalena emphasizes that good thread must be resilient, durable, and of consistent weight and color. She prefers linen for its responsiveness to the weaver’s touch. Her personal collection includes abel pieces that have been used for generations, their intricate designs and structural integrity intact. These pieces showcase the meticulous process of arranging colored threads on a four-pedal loom and the precise calculations needed to create sharp, evenly spaced patterns.

Weaving requires more than just selecting quality threads and arranging them on the loom. It demands an understanding of thread tension to ensure the warp (lengthwise threads) can withstand the repetitive insertion of the weft (crosswise threads). Incorrect tension can lead to broken threads or uneven patterns. Maintaining a steady rhythm is also crucial for a smooth finish. While modern machines handle this process effortlessly, Magdalena relies on instinct, practice, and skill to achieve the same results manually.

Magdalena began weaving at 16, learning by observing her aunt and practicing traditional patterns. In her youth, weaving was a common skill among village girls, with friendly competitions to see who could produce the finest work. Her father gifted her first loom at 19, crafted from hardwood by a local artisan. This loom served her for 30 years, through marriage and motherhood, before she replaced it with a secondhand one. Today, few craftsmen can build looms like hers, which feature a sturdy wooden frame, wide beams, and foot pedals. Unlike the backstrap looms of the Cordillera, Magdalena’s loom anchors the warp to a stationary frame.

At 88, Magdalena continues to weave, her eyesight still sharp enough to handle the intricate task of arranging threads on the loom—a process where even the slightest error can ruin a design. She has two students: her cousin’s daughter-in-law and her sister-in-law, who began weaving at 38. Magdalena starts her students with the triple-toned binakol pattern, advancing them to more complex designs only after they demonstrate proficiency.

Magdalena has mastered traditional patterns like binakol, inuritan (geometric designs), kusikos (spiral forms), and sinan-sabong (flowers), the most challenging of all. She has also taught herself to recreate designs from memory, a skill that allows her to replicate patterns without samples. Weaving is physically demanding, requiring dexterity, strength, and endurance, but the results are breathtakingly beautiful.

Magdalena’s abel pieces are renowned for their high thread count, intricate designs, and use of up to five colors. Her ability to space threads evenly and maintain precise counts sets her work apart. The delicate yet uniform patterns in her weavings highlight the artistry and skill that machines cannot replicate. Magdalena’s calloused hands and unwavering dedication breathe life into her creations, ensuring that the tradition of abel weaving remains a testament to human artistry.