Miracles of Salogon

Posted on 18 mar 2008

Tigaon, Camarines Sur – Residents in some villages of this town use trees in their crafts in a specific way not "balding" the forests. They only take the bark that is used in manufacturing items from flip-flops, vernacular bags to home decors and ornaments.

Handicraft is a long-time home industry here. Skillful people creates different products like bags, flip-flops, home adornments wall decorations, wallets and many other things that could be done with their hands.

One of the basic materials which are used in handicraft is the salogon. It is the inner part, soft bark of some trees taken by removing the hard, outer bark to extract the important finer stuff. It turns into a fabric when chopped to become thin sheet as the paper or cloth.

Craftsmen use salogon in their handicraft business within 50 years. They make handmade flowers, bags slippers, and other items handling the salogon fabric. They accord design with the orders of the clients.

First craftsmen using this material met different difficulties in the process of salogon using. Nevertheless the salogon craft serving as unique gifts was recognized and now the stuffs are mass-produced.

The salogon is preprocessed carefully before it can be operated for handicraft. It is washed to delete the extra sap of the fabric and mildew. Then the salogon fabric is bleached with chlorine and is soaked in a boiling dye solution to gain the desired color. In order to strengthen and make the salogon fabric crisp the armidol is added and then it is ironed.

There are some species that yield good salogon. They are Tabgon, Balite, Rabas, and the Salogon tree itself. The most notable point is the trees are not abolished.

After the salogon is processed into sheets like fabric, it is sold to shops.

This handmade craft is regarded as unique gift to any age or social group.