Bark cloth "tapa" ·  Samoa/Tonga/Fiji · ID: 3040525

Description

vegetal fibre, pigment (black and reddish brown), painted on both sides with geometrical patterns and hatched areas, small pieces of material attached in some places for mending defective spots, small tears and holes

Samoan tapa cloth “siapo” is usually made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree “u‘a”. The bark is carefully peeled off the tree in strips and then the inner bark is separated and scraped clean. It is then pounded until it widens into a larger size. The pieces of cloth go through a process where they are pasted together to make a larger cloth.