Size: 4"

Qty: 1

Made in Hawaii

Tapa cloth is a traditional handicraft and art form in the Pacific Islands and is an intricate process. It has been used from antiquity for clothing and decorating of village houses- especially chiefs, ceremonial purposes, and gift giving for weddings, royalty, and honored visitors. The material is the pulpy underbark of the paper mulberry tree, pounded on smoothed logs into thin sheets with a wooden club called a tapa beater. The paints in the designs are made of color pigments from various barks and roots in a vehicle of natural gums, oils, and resins from native trees. Different Polynesian Island groups each have their own distinctive tapa designs. Each piece of tapa is entirely hand made and one of a kind.