Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Tapa Clothe


Tapa Clothe is a bark clothe made on various islands in the Pacific Ocean. Tapa has different names such as ngatu in Tonga, siapo in Somoa, hiapo in Niue, and uha or masi in Fiji.  
Tapa can be painted, decorated by rubbing, stamping, stencilling, or dyeing.  The patterns of Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian tapa usually form a grid of squares, with repeated geometric patterns. At one time Tapa was used as clothing, but in more modern times it is only used in weddings and other special occasions.  These samples of Tapa were done by 1st graders.  They spent two 50 minute sessions in art and some additional time to glue them to the background.  Each of the squares are 3 by 3 inches.  





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