Amid spools of threads and fiber, beautiful tapestries take shape through the hands of artisans who, knowingly or unknowingly, keep weaving traditions alive. For the last twenty years, this fiber artist had been creating masterpieces, but under somebody else’s name and renown.
Finally, he’s stepping into his own to express his creativity as a master weaver, upholding traditions and creating legacies on his own terms.
John Rey Sanchez came to Cebu seeking opportunities to provide for his family. His mother, a banig weaver, already equipped him with the know-how, teaching him her trade of weaving banig and nipa. “I started to weave through my mom, and when I moved to Cebu, that also became my work. It was here that I discovered handloom weaving. I learned that you can incorporate different types of weaving in one art piece,” he says, threading together his beginnings and the work that brought him across the country.
What he once thought was enough, knowing how to operate a handloom, he reconsidered as he learned more techniques and patterns through his travels. “There are amazing weavers and elders who are great at their craft,” he ponders. “It’s just sad that they merely focused on weaving, without thinking about the value of their work, its history, and tradition that went beyond making fabrics.”
“What we do is not small. We are continuing a legacy. And because of that, we should not allow ourselves to be diminished or treated as less—we deserve recognition, respect, and ownership of our craft.”
The Philippines has rich artisan traditions, many lost to colonization and time, but some regions have managed to persist, perhaps out of necessity and survival. Government and private sectors have initiatives that help communities build sources of income around weaving, but John Rey believes the craft can go further than that.
His years of professional work refined his eye for patterns and styles that could reach wider, newer audiences. He saw an avenue to elevate what most people dismissed as a low-skill trade into a discipline weavers like him could be proud of. “What we do is not small. We are continuing a legacy. And because of that, we should not allow ourselves to be diminished or treated as less—we deserve recognition, respect, and ownership of our craft.”
By incorporating patterns and weaving styles from the places he has traveled and learned from, John Rey seeks to move the craft forward for newer generations and create pieces that can stand as art in their own right.
After two decades behind the scenes, he is ready to be seen, not just as a craftsman but as an artist. Last year, his works were exhibited at ANTHILL Fabric Gallery, including pieces co-created with his wife. One of them, called “YANO,” focuses on canvas weaving to show a new generation how this basic form of weaving is very much a part of their everyday lives. For John Rey, something so simple can be elevated into a work of art.
“Now that I am creating on my own, I feel a sense of freedom to fully express what I want. Today, I stand in my work with pride, knowing that what I create is truly mine.”
Photography Kyrra Kho
