Tapa cloth

Treatment of Tapa Cloth with Special Reference to the Use of the Vacuum Suction Table... 

The treatment of ethnographic artifacts like tapa cloth require an understanding of the material and its manufacture. The literature of the conservation of tapa is reviewed, and new techniques for filling voids are presented. These techniques include the use of hand-cast fills, and fills cast on the vacuum suction table. Case studies from 1980,... 

Over the past three years, the treatment of tapa cloth has re-emerged as a topic of interest to conservators of ethnographic materials, as evidenced by papers presented at meetings of the AIC (1), CCI Symposium 86 (2,3), and the Jubilee Conference at the University of London (4). While a number of questions remain as to the best way to stabilize this material, certain techniques have been proposed which have shown promise, including the use of cast fills for filling voids. 

The major disadvantage of applying an overall backing is the loss of flexibility to the tapa cloth. For tapa garments, backings affect drape and three-dimensional form. The suggestion of nylon laminating tissue applied... 

The most successful application of the vacuum suction table to the treatment of tapa cloth clearly was the formation of cast fills for filling voids. As with the hand-cast fills, pulp was created from hand-made Japanese papers. The benefit of using the suction table, however, was that no adhesive was necessary to attach the pulp to the edges of the voids. 

It is clear from this review of techniques suggested for the treatment of tapa cloth that there is a great deal of room for further research to determine the effectiveness of wet treatments, cleaning techniques, the potential for the application of buffering compounds, and repair techniques. It is also evident that because there are substantial differences in the species of plants used, coloring agents applied and manufacturing techniques employed, that there must be careful evaluation of tapas before any conservation treatment can be undertaken. 

Document 55. [Note this report is similar in concept to the ideas presented by Natalie Firnhaber in the report she produced in 1979 (University of London, Institute of Archaeology Library, unpublished), although the materials chosen for experimentation are different. As could be expected from these two early sets of experiments in the repair and mounting of tapa cloth, the choices of materials differ from those which might be used at this point in time.]... 

One of the fascinations of studying textiles is that in addition to being manufactured from conventional fibers, they can be formed from other materials. Problems related to conservation of a particularly sensitive material, tapa cloth, are discussed in Chapter 12. 

Kapa or tapa cloth is made from mulberry tree bark. Kapa is specific to Hawaii, while tapa is made throughout Polynesia. The differences arise from the methods used to prepare the bark, and the uses to which it is subsequently put... 

Cloth made from the inner bark (secondary phloem) of various plants is found throughout many of the tropical regions of the world. Although the origins of its production are unknown, they have been chronicled as early as the 6th-century B.C. in China (5). The bark cloth of the Pacific, more commonly referred to by the Polynesian word "tapa", has been produced from the inner bark of various species of trees of the genera Broussonetia R. (paper-mulberry), Artocarous (breadfruit), and Ficus (fig species) (6). While examples of each of these types are well documented, the... 

While there are certain similarities between tapas produced world-wide, the investigation of treatment techniques described here have been applied only to examples from Fiji and Samoa. There are manufacturing differences between these two island groups, primarily in the methods by which decorations are most commonly applied. However, the cloths themselves are similar in thickness, texture, and stability of the pigments, and the treatment techniques applied were found to be interchangeable. 

While some tapas are left undecorated, or simply smoked to produce a warm brown color, most are decorated with painting, rubbed designs produced by placing a raised relief under the cloth and rubbing the surface with dues, "printing" with leaves and ferns dipped in dye or paint, or in Fiji, by stenciling. 

Tapas have historically been folded for storage, a factor which accounts for a great deal of deformation and breakage of the fibers. In Fiji, the house rafters were the typical storage location for folded and tied bundles of tapa. Dirt embedded in these cloths may contain a greasy, sooty accumulation from cooking fires if they were collected before the turn of the century. Since cooking fires were moved out of house interiors under British missionary influence about that time, a sooty accumulation on a tapa from that area may provide a clue as to its age. 

Stitching to an auxiliary support is the least desirable of the methods that have been tried. In one case observed by Toby Raphael (National Parks Service, personal communication, 1985), a tapa garment had to be completely dismantled for the procedure, and stitching was done through the body of the cloth as well as at the edges through the original seams. While this treatment, undertaken at some time in the past, reflects the application of textile techniques to tapa, it is clearly a more interventive treatment than would be recommended today. 

The following are summaries of treatment reports for Document 55 (Fiji Museum), 1821-18 (Texas Memorial Museum), and un-numbered tapa (Department of Textiles Clothing, University of Texas at Austin). 

Meredith Montague, Assistant Conservator, Materials Conservation Laboratory, Texas Memorial Museum, carried out the replication of the experiments done with the vacuum suction table, and completed the treatment of the unnumbered tapa from the University s Department of Textiles and Clothing. 

Similar in appearance to white mulberry, and also naturalized in the United States, is the ornamental shrub, paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), also native to Asia. This mulberry is shrubby, and may form thick colonies from root sprouts. Paper mulberry occurs around homes, fencerows, and disturbed sites. The bark of the paper mulberry is the source of tapa, a fiber used by Pacific islanders to make clothing. 

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