ACTIVITY 1: PABALAT

Pabalat is a form of papercutting originating in the province of Bulacan in the Philippines. It involves making intricate papercut designs from wrappers used in pastillas, usually Papel de hapon or Japanese paper. The form may also have been an offshoot of Papel Picado from Mexico.

These two Pabalat also known as the pastillas wrapper that I created have stories during the process of making. A little background of the first Pabalat design, that was inspired by nature, I guess. I came up with this idea of creating the leafy pattern of Pabalat to remind myself of getting the feeling of connecting to environment. The next Pabalat is designed by Ms. Maria Natividad that the one who started Pabalat Creation in Bulacan.

The Process

Patience can lead to a good result

Creating these design of Pabalat was very challenging for me. Due to the unavailability of small scissors, I used cutter to cut the pattern in my Pabalat design. It was very hard for me to finish in small period of time. It is also very tiring in hands with the use of the cutter because it needs more force to cut the patterns in papel de hapon. Using the cutter also needed a little mindful not to over cut the papel de hapon so that you can't ruin the pattern and the paper. In overall, the result was good and the leafy patter really showed in the paper!

What I realized

This project was a great opportunity to preserve the making of Pabalat.

After I watched the interview of Ms. Maria Natividad, I realized that preserving of Pabalat was very important to them. They want to share the knowledge of making the Pabalat to the new generation to continue preserving the one that also inherited to them back then of making Pabalat. This project was a great opportunity to preserve the making Pabalat and to be honest it was therapeutic for me.