Saturday, June 21, 2014

Tapa Cloth Graces

A   L   O   H   A !
 Tap Tap Tap. . . 
These Hawaiian Ladies are 
manufacturing Kapa Cloth. 

“I was tired of seeing
 the Graces
 always depicted as
 beautiful young things.
 I think wisdom comes 
with age 
and life 
and pain. 
And knowing 
what matters.” 
                   Louise Penny










Pounding out mulberry bark 
to make the cloth


I hole ‘ia no ka i‘e i ke kau o ka lā.

The time to cut designs

 in a tapa beater

 is when the sun is high.

[Do your work 
when you are at your best.]

                                 Hawaiian Proverb














The carved sticks 
that print the patterns

" When 'I' 

is replaced with

 'We', 

even 'Illness'

 becomes 'Wellness'. " 

                                     Malcolm X.










 Drying & inspecting 
the printed Kapa

" To fulfill a dream, 
to be allowed to 
sweat over lonely labor, 
to be given the chance 
to create, 
is the meat and potatoes 
of life. 
The money is the gravy. 
As everyone else,
I love to dunk my crust in it.
 But alone, 
it is not a diet designed 
to keep body 
and soul together. "
                          Bette Davis,
                                                    The Lonely Life, 1962  






Read More About Kapa 

Here


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Thanks For Visiting, Friends
                                 Warmly, cloudia

16 comments:

  1. Thank you for this interesting essay on an aspect of Hawaiian culture. And exquisite statues -- the sculpture had a remarkable vision.

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  2. Greetings from Assam, India
    ~ Happy weekend ~

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  3. huh dont know if i have heard that malcolm x quote...ha...i like...

    hope you have a wonderful weekend..

    aloha from va

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  4. Great sculptures! The Three Graces or the Three Fates?

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  5. I really like the quote about the Graces. Me too.

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  6. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.” Louise Penny

    Oh boy, I have found that to be very true.

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  7. Super cool! When I was a kid, I had a book about a girl of old Hawai'i who learned how to make kapa cloth. It was one of my favorites.

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  8. These statues remind me a lot of the beautiful statue in front of the Hawaiian Village. They are gorgeous!

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  9. As I approach (rapidly) cronedom this post speaks loudly to me. Love it.

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  10. Beautiful craftmanship in the sculptures!

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  11. I had never heard of Kapa Cloth. Beautiful statues. :)

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  12. Lovely statues as statues go but they are always young and thin, maybe we need some fat old jolly ones .
    Merle............

    ReplyDelete

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