| Brief Description |
Siapo tasina or siapo elei or barkcloth (tapa); Samoa; made from inner bark paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera). Siapo tasina or siapo eli is Samoan barkcloth patterned from a design tablet; the pattern emphasied by freehand overpainting; heavy, brownish-black resinous glaze (dye) used for over painting of o'a sap mixed with charcoal from lama nut kernels. Pattern is divided into 64 rectangles with alternating patterns of 2 elongated and curved triangular shapes. Some have 3 circles in one corner. Two with spider web-like pattern, 8 quadrants, 4 dyed brown and 4 dyed black/brown to make pattern similar to fa'a ali'ao (trochus shell). O'a dye on surface obscures detail of patterns which are more visible on reverse side. Border at one end, of diamond shapes and same pattern dissects the centre of the siapo.
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