goodbye john poynton

                        

last year I blogged here about meeting John Poynton, a well known artist in Samoa. Today I heard the sad news that John had passed away earlier this month. Warm thoughts for a truly talented gentleman. Goodbye for now John...

netball tournament

the netball players representing Samoa at the tournament had to wear a puletasi for the opening ceremony. 

I made my daughter's puletasi top using New Look 6808 and a white & black stencil ink print cotton from Samoa. This was a very quick pattern to make up and resulted in a nicely fitted top which was then teamed up with a plain black lavalava. What a great sight to see all the Samoa players dressed in their puletasi. When moving as a group they looked both elegantly colourful.

A day of spectacular netball, with the mens games being a crowd favourite. My daughters team did really well, taking out their division winning all their games. Now that the tournament is over, it's time to get a break from netball until next season.

john poynton

one of the highlights of my Samoa trip was meeting John Poynton, well known artist in Samoa. I met him completely by chance at a local cafe and I got the opportunity to view his portfolio of current work. I bought 3 works: 2 watercolours and a pen drawing and got them framed as soon as I got back home. Here they are on display.

nothing new

( a great place to swim on our family land in Samoa )

no completed projects to talk about. The school holidays are ending and there's been mending, laundering and ironing of uniforms. The summer uniforms come out and the winter ones get put away. Then there's the mammoth task of sorting out all the photos that I took in Samoa. Thought I'd share a photo of a great swimming spot on our family land in Samoa.

My daughter has been selected to play netball for Samoa in her age group team for the Pacifc Challenge Tournament. That means that I'll have to make her a puletasi. I'll post a photo of her outfit when I'm done.

more from Samoa

dogs and pigs snooze in the quiet shade on a very hot day.

each village has at least one tremedous church structure - strong and proud

palms, breadfruit, papaya trees grow everywhere

an average Samoan village house

a view of the sea from our family land

tatau and the turtle

at the Faleolo Airport is this sculpture of Samoan warriors wrestling a large sea turtle. The warriors bodies are tattooed with Samoan cultural patterns and designs known as 'Tatau'. Legend has it that the tatau came to be in Samoa when  Taema and Tilafaiga, female siamese twins who were joined at the spine. When the twins were grown, they decided to travel away from Ta'u, the island of their birth. As they were swimming, the spar of a canoe struck them and severed the join between them.

After several adventures on other islands, the twins reached Fiji where they meet two tatau (tattoo) artists, Tufou and Filelei, who taught them the art of tattooing. They also taught them a song to recite when they were tattooing someone. When the twins returned to Samoa, Tilafaiga became a war goddess, while Taema became a tattooist and teacher of the art that she had learned in Fiji.

Have a look at the Samoan turtles pond in the grounds of the Malua Theological College. 

first sights of Samoa

the warm, enveloping heat is a very fine welcome to Samoa. The sky is clear and sunny. The palms nod in the afternoon breeze. Picture perfect!



the puletasi

The puletasi or pea is a traditional outfit worn by women/girls in Samoa. It's basically a top (can be varying styles and lengths) with a full length lava lava skirt. This outfit is worn on formal or special occassions, ie. church, weddings, funerals, parties etc.

For my puletasi, I used this fabric and a vintage Knitwit pattern to make up my top. The top is a very simple, pull over the head A-line style with bust and body darts to give it shape plus a matching long belt to tie at the waist. The lava lava is made up in a plain black poly cotton with waist darts and ties to ensure that it stays put.

lava lava

I have a great selection of lava lava ( also known as the pareo, sarong, sulu etc ) that I've collected over the years. They're bright, bold and very colourful. At Spotlight today, I bought some cotton voile in 2 distinctive prints, each measuring 1.9 metres of 115cm wide fabric and then quickly hemmed the edges at each end to make up 2 lava lava. These are destined to be worn around the pool and beach in Samoa.

In the South Pacific, the lava lava is more than just an accessory for the beach or pool. It's an article of clothing that's worn by both men and women in everyday life. Although a lava lava is simple to make, it's being able to tie it (so it looks stylish) that's the real challenge. For the uninitiated, it can seem pretty daunting to find a flattering way to make a simple rectangle of fabric work. To get you started, there's 24 ways to tie a lavalava. My favourite lava lava styles are in the photos above. Let me know if you have a favourite way to tie a sarong.

tapa cloth

This tapa cloth measure approx 3 metres x 5 metres, is at least 25 years old and kept in a wardrobe. It was once on display but had to be taken down when it started to come apart in places. I don't have the know how to repair it, so for now it will just have to stay where it is.

Tapa cloth is also called bark cloth and is widely produced throughout the Pacific Islands (both Polynesia & Micronesia). In Samoa it is called Siapo, and is made from the bark of the mulberry tree. The bark is stripped and then pounded until it is flat and is cloth like in appearance. The tapa cloth is then dried and bleached by the sun before the designs are applied with printing type plates or drawn freehand. The patterns on the Samoan siapo depict various aspects of the Samoan way of life. It's uses include clothing, burial shrouds, bed covers, ceremonial garments and so much more. You can read more about the making of tapa cloth here.

While in Samoa, I'm attending an official chief (matai) ceremony, so the pressure is on to make an appropriate traditional inspired outfit (puletasi) to wear. After weeks of indecision, I was thinking about tapa cloths and patterns when I came by this tapa styled polyester cotton mix fabric. There's 3 metres of 90cm wide fabric in teal, copper & black and it's enough to make a top to go with a long, plain, black wrap around skirt.

muu muu dress

the muu muu is a unique, loosely fitting dress associated with the Hawaiian Islands. The muu muu was introduced by Christian missionaries, who for the sake of modesty wished to cover the bodies of Hawaiian women, who often wore only grass skirts. Then it was a very fashionable item of womenswear particularly in the 1950s -1970s, where it was worn for relax/lounge/sleep/beach wear. Imagine paying $1.89 for a dress?

The muu muu embraces colour and patterns. The brighter and bolder, the better! You wouldn't feel out of place wearing the loudest colours and brightest, boldest patterns in the Pacific Islands.

I've had McCalls 2250, a modern muu muu pattern, sitting in the pattern drawer for almost a year. I bought it at a closing down sale (it was $2) along with quite a lot of cheap & cheerful, bright, bold island prints from a retiring dressmaker. The shorter version would make a nice coverup for wearing over a swimsuit after a swim. Hooray for the muu muu - it's a true timeless classic!