Meet Teofilo Garcia
A Casque Maker from San Quintin, Abra.
Awarded with Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (2012)
Teofilo Garcia
Born on March 27, 1941
Garcia is known for crafting tabungaw hat, a type of Ilocano hat made from a variety of gourd (Cucurbitaceae) known locally as tabungaw.
Garcia learned how to create tabungaw hats and weave basket from his grandfather named Hipolito when he was 15 years old. He eventually became known for producing tabungaw hats.
Since he learned the craft, he has not stopped innovating. Every time he makes Tabungaw he put himself into it. Each Tabungaw he handcrafted is the product of many years of hard work and study to the elements that make the entire piece.
He has developed a feel for each component and engages in a lot of experimentations and trials to work on variety of upo with different materials and techniques.
He would also innovate on the creation of tabungaw hats experimenting on using nito and bamboo fibers as decor. The interior of Garcia's hats would also vary in decoration.
On November 8, 2012, he was conferred the National Living Treasure Award.
What is Tabungaw?
Fun Fact: Teofilo's Tabungaw hats were reputed to be the most sturdy and smooth in his community. Garcia himself would wear tabungaw hat in his daily life and he could create 100 headwear in a year if the gourd harvest is good.
“Tabungaw,” in Ilocano, “Upo” in Filipino, (White) Gourd in English, is a vegetable-crop that can be made into a hat which Ilocano’s are famous for.
It is a all-weather headgear that is primarily made from native gourds. he insides are hollowed out, dried, and lined with finely woven rattan matting, while the top part is applied with bright orange or red varnish to make for weather resistance.
How Tabungaw is Made
Starting from planting "upo" seeds around the month of June or July and eventually harvesting them sometime around September. To harden the structure of the plant, the harvests are laid out to dry under the Sun while the insides turn mushy soft that attracts ants to eat out the insides. They are then finished hollowed out or rather, the contents of the plant are removed leaving only the shell or the outer part of the plant after which it is cut in half, polished and varnished to a bright-yellow or orange hue color. The hard part comes next as weaving the inner casing and lining of the hat. A soft bamboo is weaved into a mesh to form the comfortable padding inside and at the same time, it is strengthened using rattan. These Tabungaws are also unique in design because Teofilo is able to alter the weaving patterns of the rattan depending on how he likes it or how a customer likes it. All in all, the entire process of creating a single Tabungaw usually takes a week to finish.
Members:
Mercado, Ariel
Navarro, John Leo
Ochoa, Marcus Miguel
Oliva, Jester
Quirimit, Micah