Materials used to make the \"New Garden\" tapa
\nThe “canvas”:
\nThe bark cloth itself comes from the bast, or \"skin,\" of the paper mulberry. The outer bark is discarded, the hard inner stalk is used for firewood or staking plants in the garden, and the skin is dried and stored. When required for making masi, the dry strips are soaked in water and then beaten. The strips are overlaid as they are beaten, as in a felting process.
\nThe paint, or kesa:
\nThe inner skin of the dogo, or mangrove, provides the raw material for kesa, the liquid paint used for printing the patterns. A stone is used to pound pieces of dogo, which are then boiled to form the kesa.
\nThe pigment:
\nThe pigment for the paint consists of black soot and brown clay, or umea, that is dried and scraped to make a fine power. To produce the soot, a wick is prepared from scraps of bark cloth. This is dipped into kerosene and burned in an enclosed tin oven. The soot collects on the inside upper surface of the oven and is carefully removed and stored in a tin. The soot is mixed with the kesa and umea to make loloa – black paint.
\n(Source: Robin White)
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