Masi and Fijian crafts in colour

from w
I added coloured pencils to the sketch of barkcloth, whale's tooth, garland, etc. to show the real colours. The decorations in Fijian homes are typically in earth colours if there are items such as barkcloth. Here the stencilled barkcloth is not symmetrical in design as shown by the brown painted on the right-hand side. The pignments may be made from mangrove roots or soot mixed with oil. You don't see much masi making in Fiji these days but I was happy to see recently that Lorini Tevi has an on-going project in Suva with a Lauan woman teaching women and girls this craft at Lorini's Ecumenical Centre.