Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:30:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Edwms8
Subject: Tapa cloth – Meg Miller
I remember seeing tapa cloth when visiting the Cook islands and Samoa, back many years ago while I was living in New Zealand. I wanted to buy some for display, but my then-wife didn’t want to, so guess what?
It’s beautiful cloth, made from the bark of certain trees native to the islands of the South & Central Pacific. I recall asking a Cook islander, while on a visit to Rarotonga, how the heck you could make cloth from tree bark. He answered nicely – didn’t bark at me – but I don’t remember the procedure other than it involved a lot of hammering. I wish I had bought some.
Ed Williams