Tapa

Since 2007 when I started reviving the art of making Tapa here on Pitcairn, just like my grandmother Ivy who died when my mum was only 7, I was determined to learn how.
Bernice Christian gave my mum a plant of Aute and it was in a pot in our back yard for many years till I started replanting it out and started making tapa. I use the natural dyes that i collect by cracking the nuts from the Doodwi tree and burning the kernel and catching the smoke so I can gather the soot. using the dye from making the bark of this tree into dye, i brushed the soot into a jar and mixed the bark Doodwi dye so it makes a black colour. The Bark dye is a brownish reddish colour. I also use Nano root bark to make a light-yellow dye and also use Tumeric to make a bright yellow dye.
After soaking the bark for several weeks in water, I then pound each bark with the Eei pounder using the course side. After pounding the bark, i then soak it for a couple days then start pounding the bark together to make it into one size.
This can take up to 30 bark from they type of Aute growing here.
Thank you for being here to look at what I do.