Samoan Handicrafts : An Insight

Samoan handicrafts offer an excellent variety of contemporary crafts such as jewellery and ladies hand bags as well as traditional crafts including fans, mats and wooden bowls.

The main material used is the leaf of the Pandanus plant. This is prepared by bleaching in the sea and sun to make it soft and workable and then woven using intricate patterns into all sorts of wonderful items. Coconut fibres and shells are used as additional decorative items. Wood carvings are also common are can be seen made in the villages, notably at Saletele on the north-east coast of Upolu. At Satui'atua on the south coast of Savaii, the Women's Association do demonstrations of traditional tapa cloth making - tapa is the traditional paper cloth of the South Pacific with intricate stencil patterns from local dyes and is used as decorative clothing and wall hangings.

You'll find a huge selection of handicrafts at the Flea Market in Apia but you won't get the best prices here. And you certainly won't find buying such a memorable experience as from the villages themselves. Many villages around Samoa operate Women Societies when the women get together in a small fale on the side of the road and sell their goods to the general public. Here you'll get to see the handcrafts being made, and get to meet the artisans themselves. And without a middle man to pay, prices are even better.