Tapa Cloths by Room 24

Tapa cloths were traditionally made in Tonga, Fiji & Samoa. Tapa cloths were originally made from the inner bark of a Mulberry tree. This is how they made them...firstly the inner bark is removed from the rest of the bark, then soaked in water, next they pound it thinly, after that they glue it all together with natural glues. In the old days it was used for clothing but bark cloth was no good when it gets wet. Nowadays it only gets used on formal occasions such as weddings. Tapa cloths are the traditional gift given for births, deaths and marriages. This is how we made ours. We started off with a square brown piece of paper and then we had to make a pattern to go on it in pencil. We looked at shapes from nature and geometric patterns. After we put vivid over our lines. When we were finished doing that, we dyed them dark brown, light brown, yellow and orange. When they were dry we scrunched them all up over and over again until they felt like cloth. This takes a long time. By Amalia- Room 24