Textiles - Felt And Bark Cloth

Felt is a fabric formed by applying pressure to hot, wet fibers (usually wool). The fibers become interlocked, and the process cannot be reversed. In Polynesia, bark cloth was traditionally obtained from bark stripped from trees of the mulberry family. The bark was first soaked for several days to make it soft and flexible, then the rough outer bark was scraped from the inner bark. The inner bark was next beaten with mallets to form sheets of cloth, which were treated in a variety of ways before use.