Samoa Siapo ( tapa cloth ) made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree.

In the Samoan islands there is an art form called siapo where bark cloth is painted with patterns resembling the local flora and fauna. The production starts when bark from a young paper mulberry tree (around a year old) is stripped from the tree’s stalk. Before it’s painted, the cloth is dried, stretched, and flattened. The painting is done in two primary ways: cloths that have their pattern applied with a pattern board or painted by hand. Regardless of if the artist is applying the pattern by hand or by board, smaller designs are always done freehand. The dyes used to paint siapo are created from natural plants in Samoa. The primary dyes are brown, black, yellow, and red. Siapo cloth is used for anything from clothing to room dividers to ceremonial implements. Motifs and iconography on these siapo cloths are all drawn from nature. These designs are abstract and geometric, sometimes having the siapo cloth divided into separate sections for each motif.