Product Description

Malo e lelei! and Welcome to your first and only Online shop for fine ***** Tapa cloth is also known as "bark cloth, " because that's just what it is. It is cloth made from tree bark. It's usually from a branded tree (Broussonetia papyrifera). However, it's also been made from the breadfruit tree (Artocarpus); remember, that's what Captain Bligh (of the ship Bounty) was trading for in Tahiti when his crew finally mutinied. And tapa cloth also comes from other barks, including trees in the Ficus and Hibiscus families. As I was growing up, we had a branded tree out in my backyard. I never gave it a thought (other than to climb it and eat the mulberries). Also, although I now live in a different state, I recently noticed a branded tree in my condo complex As intriguing as the coincidence is, neither of these trees would have been chosen to make tapa. You see, I also found out that the bark doesn't go easily into the cloth. Even from the beginning of its life, the plant is watched, pruned and cared for. All this work is necessary in order to make the cleanest possible tapa (fewer branches mean fewer holes in the cloth). That's the man's job in the manufacturing process. Once the man cuts down the tree- in most Polynesian cloth-making societies - the majority of the work is turned over to the women.