Hawaiian Discovery

Tapa making has been the Pacific Islands most indigenous handicraft for centuries. It was used for clothing, bedding, and in other ways for special occasions such as weddings and funerals. The making of Tapa is a very time consuming and intricate process. Tapa is made from the inner bark of the paper-mulberry. The bark is then rolled up and soaked until soft then scraped with a shell to remove the remaining pieces of the outer bark. The strips of inner bark are then beaten with a flat faced wooden club against a resonant length of hardwood. This expands the material 6 to 8 times its former width and reduces it to a tissue-paper thickness. These thin sheets are then placed one over the other in double or triple thickness and is beaten again to “felt” it together and make one sheet. When painting the tapa, only natural pigments are used with designs traditional to each Tapa maker’s culture. It is unlikely to find an exact duplication in design. This unique and rare artistry is a prime reason why sophisticated markets are becoming especially partial to Tapa cloth. Unfortunately Tapa making is fast becoming a lost art, with only a handful of South Pacific nations still practicing the skill.