T'nalak is warp ikat woven from stripped abaca by T'boli women around Lake Sebu, who receive their patterns in dreams from Fu Dalu, the goddess of abaca. Three colours only: a ground boiled near-black in k'nalum leaves, figures left the natural undyed fibre, and a rust red drawn from loko root.

Every figure is stepped and bilaterally mirrored, marching in horizontal bands along the warp. Nothing is machine-true — the bands drift, the dye creeps under each tie and feathers the edge, and narrow strips are joined selvedge to selvedge with the seam left showing.