Faux tapa cloth painting?

does anybody know how to do this? we have about 60 ft by 4 ft wall expanse underneath our west facing window in our basement lounge. we're thinking about doing a tapa cloth design on it. Has anyone got any experience doing this and/ or advice on rollers, stencils, freehand, etc ?

our project : http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=30989&forum=18&hilite=palapala

Mahaloz
Palapala / Lopaka

Check out Howland's method:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=20343&forum=18&start=45

On 2007-04-10 21:58, Howland wrote:
Still working on the old 'Hukilau Hut' as well as converting my basement into a nice, dark tiki room/bar area. I've started (and finished) some faux tapa paint effects on the walls. I've also got 100 feet x 3 feet of lauhala and lots of reed fencing and bamboo to get started with. I did the faux tapa with some little stamps I cut out of a piece of a foam camping mat and glued to small peices of 1/4 in. plywood.

Here I've applied a dark green, almost black wash over the gold/black tapa pattern so it wouldn't be so stark. Also painted the ceiling vey, very dark green.

Here's some shots of the stamps I made. I filled in some of the details on the walls by hand/paintbrush.

Looks like Howland has it figured out. I did a similar deal on cloth on a smaller scale. Created stamps from wood blocks and foam sheets. I needed cotton shorts with a Polynesian print for a firespinning routine and all I could find was microfiber polyester. So I bought plain cotton shorts and stamped a tapa pattern on them, worked out pretty well.

EDIT - Sorry, I gave credit to Hewey instead of Howland

Blurring the fine line between art and crap.

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2009-01-19 05:32 ]

WOW! great work Howland!
What kind of camping mat did you use?