On its 51st year, the Department of Science and Technology–Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI) keeps up its advocacy of making textiles an instrument in improving the livelihood of Filipinos in the countryside. Such is reflected on its flagship tagline “Textiles Empowering Lives Anew (TELA).”
For this year’s celebration, TELA fused with “Concept to Cloth”–a theme that centers on giving an opportunity to the government, academe, and private sectors to translate ideas, literally and figuratively, into materials, processes or solutions leading to more prospects and impact in the textile sector.
Thus DOST-PTRI, on January 30, 2018, will open its doors to new innovations even as it will launch its new programs and initiatives that embody the “Concept to Cloth” theme. Among these are the following:
The New Technology Business Incubator Facility for Natural Dyes is a new multi-million facility for producing powdered natural dyes. The facility aims to provide technical support to MSMEs, start-ups, and social entrepreneurs in enhancing their textile/natural dye-based businesses.
“The Perfect Fit” Project (Textile Product Development Center) will be the first textile R&D “laboratory” in the Philippines that will provide access to textile designers, artists, retailers, and manufacturers to aid them in the prototyping of their designs/products for evaluation before offering it to the public. The facility will feature state-of-the-art equipment for textile product development such as 3D Body Scanner, 3D visualization system, and computerized fabric prototyping loom. These pieces of equipment are expected to be acquired in 2018.
“ArtisTELA” is a design competition promoting creative innovations in textiles through various enhancement techniques and material manipulation. This competition will run in 2018.
The Philippine Silk Road Program is a multi-project program that aims to provide technological solutions to address the low production capacity in silk yarn production. The project intends to increase collaboration with multi-stakeholders in moriculture and sericulture activities, set up two micro scale filature facilities in northern Luzon and Mindanao, and help upgrade silk yarn manufacturing capability in the Visayas by the lone commercial silk yarn producer located in Negros Occidental. Concurrent to these, new commercial silkworm hybrids with improved performance will be developed using a genome-based approach.
Design Competition for Government Uniforms is a contest that aims to produce uniform design prototypes that use Philippine tropical fabrics and local weaves for select government agencies. This is in support of RA 9242 or the Philippine Tropical Fabrics Act which prescribes the use of Philippine Tropical Fibers. This aims to mainstream Philippine Tropical Fabrics and local weaves in normal, everyday wear.
The TELA Yarn Production and Innovation Center in Miag-ao, Iloilo is the first micro-scale yarn spinning facility to support Philippine Tropical Fabric production and development with full scale equipment from pretreatment to carding, drawing, roving, spinning, to finishing as weave-ready yarns for the supply of the handloom weaving communities of Iloilo and the whole Panay island group.
Concept Presentation of the Proposed DOST-PTRI “Textile Design Hub” will focus on the proposed hub concept: a physical and virtual space which will bring together textile stakeholders from the academe, social entrepreneurs, and local weaving communities. The hub will be the convener, and will provide space and support for networking, business development, and community engagement with the local textile industry. It is envisioned to encourage more initiatives and collaborations among academe, social enterprises, and the industry sector which will push innovative concepts into market-ready textile products.
Still on January 30, DOST-PTRI will also hold a workshop exclusive to designers and social entrepreneurs. The “Drafting Weave Designs” is an interactive workshop that will teach designers and social entrepreneurs how to come up with “draw patterns” for handloom weaving. This will enable them to translate their design weave ideas into a form that will be easily understood by local weavers.
Further, an Open House will follow to enable first-hand views and close encounters with the research, testing, and technical services teams of the Institute.
Moreover, there will be a Lecture-Workshop on Natural Dyes and Colorants Program on February 01, 2017. DOST researchers who attended a short-course in this topic at the Ohio State University will echo learnings and techniques they gained from the course. Included in the whole day seminar is a comprehensive demonstration on the use of natural dyes and colorants which can be applied not only to textiles but also to food and cosmetics.
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