Creator and seller of coptic-bound journals and sketchbooks

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This particular hand-woven design is called bunga-sama (Python Pattern). The amount of material available is good for only two regular-sized journals/sketchbooks, so place your order now!

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The Yakan are one of the 13 Moro groups in the Philippines. They mainly reside in Basilan.

The Yakans are the traditional settlers of Basilan Island in the Southern Philippines, situated to the west of Zamboanga in Mindanao. It is said that their typical physical characteristics are strikingly different when compared to the other ethnic Filipino groups (relatively high-bridged noses and tall stature). Traditionally they wear colorful, handwoven clothes. The women wear tightfitting short blouses and both sexes wear narrowcut pants resembling breeches. The women covers it partly with a wrap-around material while the man wraps a sash-like cloth around the waist where he places his weapon – usually a long knife. Nowadays most Yakans wear western clothes and use their traditional clothes only for special festivals.

In the early seventies, some of the Yakan settled in Zamboanga City due to political unrest which led the armed conflicts between the militant Muslims and government solders. The Yakan Village in Upper Calarian is famous among local and foreign tourists because of their art of weaving. Traditionally, they have used plants like pineapple and abaca converted into fibers as basic material for weaving. Using herbal extracts from leaves, roots and barks, the Yakans dyed the fibers and produced colorful combinations and intricate designs.

The seputangan is the most intricate design worn by the women around their waist or as a head cloth. The palipattang is patterned after the color of the rainbow while the bunga-sama, after the python. Almost every Yakan fabric can be described as unique since the finished materials are not exactly identical. Differences may be seen in the pattern or in the design or in the distribution of colors.

From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakan>