Tapa cloth (Siapo in the Samoan language or barkcloth) is made from the inner bark of the Mulberry tree and was the only 'fabric', other than wovan mats, made and worn in the South Pacific prior to European contact. The bark is pounded, dried and then, in Samoa, beautiful patterns were stamped on with natural plant dyes using an Upeti like this one. These individual and unique designs were charished by their makers. See separate "Tapa" page listing actual pieces of Tapa.

These are Traditional Samoan Handcarved Wood 4-Block 2-sided TAPA (Siapo) Stamp or UPETI (in the Samoan Language).These Upeti come from the Island of Savai'i, Western Samoa. These Upeti were carved from the local ironwood tree (IFILELE) which is very heavy in weight and is becoming quite rare now. They have intricate, deeply-carved designs completely covering BOTH sides of the wood. The designs are quite different and on the one side there is the traditional Samoan tattoo designs and on the other side are usually 4 traditional geometric designs but the designs vary. A stamp like this is still used on a finished double layer of tapa cloth to make the painted designs which are indigenous to Samoa. The natural plant dyes are applied to a wooden stamp like this one and then the tapa cloth was pressed against it.