The tapa cloth is produced by hand beating Mulberry strip with a wooden mallet against a tree base. After three hours or more each sheet becomes flexible. Modern attempts at developing machinery to replace these hand crafted methods have been a complete failure. Finally the sheets are joined by gluing them together with root crop starches. Master skill is necessary to meld sheets together for consistent thickness. Creations of the most skilled tapa makers are smoothly and seamlessly bonded. After drying in the sun for several days the cloth is bleached. Then the process of soaking, dying and bleaching is repeated to make the final product for decoration. The original designs were squares,triangles chevron bars,circles, diamonds etc. While superficially simple, these designs always conveyed a complex symbology known within the native culture. Painting is mostly done with Pandanus fruit brushes or coconut husks. Several hundred extracts from natural surroundings have been developed as dyes