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Fabulous Large Hand made Work of Art - Inlaid Teak Wood

Black Coral Fan 22" x 15"; 10 years old - Antipatharian: Deep Water Coral - Taken at 190 ft deep from Au'Au Channel between Maui & Lanai. RARE - Black Coral grows about 2" per year. This one is approximately 10 years old. It is no illegal to harvest any coral in HI unless it is 1" wide at the base and 48" tall.

Ngatu is the Tongan name given to tapa cloth or decorated bark cloth. It’s rare to find one as large as this, which hasn’t been cut up into smaller sections. Ngatu is made from the bark of hiapo (paper mulberry tree). Only men may tend hiapo while it is growing but, once it has been harvested, only women may turn the hiapo bark into ngatu. The process of making ngatu begins with stripping the bark from the tree and then separating the inner and outer bark. The stripped bark is then cut into strips and beaten - which transforms the strip into a wider piece resembling a fibrous fabric. When a number of pieces have been produced, they are dried and placed under a mattress to flatten them. A design is imprinted on the cloth with a kupesi (pattern board) and pieces are joined together with a paste made from arrowroot. After the imprinted design has dried, extra decoration is painted on by hand. Throughout Polynesia, tapa designs greatly impressed early European explorers. W