The rich colour, geometric patterns, and grid-style composition of this striking bark-cloth design are common in Samoan siapo. Their soft, pliable surfaces invite touching – though as clothing they must have been uncomfortable, and sometimes a little embarrassing, particularly in heavy rain and wind. While processes for bark-cloth manufacture seem consistent across the Pacific, their names and decoration vary between different communities. Nineteenth century siapo were painted freehand using the distinctiveochre and soot pigments and vegetable dyes of this example. The patterns, often similar to those used in Samoan tattoo designs, were refined from those of pandanus or palm leaves, flowers, the spiralling trochus shell, starfish, or abstracted fish or seagull forms. In this example, the geometric fields behind the freehand painted black designs were transferred by laying the bark cloth over ’upeti pattern boards, and rubbing its surface with oil and earth pigment.