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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, August 19, 2004

Art for the Hawai'i home

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

Local artisans are responding to our increasing emphasis on the home with all kinds of homegrown furniture and home accents. This weekend's Made in Hawai'i Festival offers a wide selection of home style items, from hand-painted basins to folding screens and yoga flags. Here's a sampling.

Clockwise from bottom left: lavender pillow cover by Janet Holaday, hand-painted basin by Susanne Ball, tropical ash hand-carved lion lamp by Cathy Berenberg, rattan and batik art suitcase by Studio K Maui, stained-glass lamp by Gail Lindstrom and Norfolk Island pine bowl by Aaron Hammer.

Stained glass hula-girl lamp by Gail Lindstrom.

Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Kealoha Pa of Studio K Maui has taken his two-dimensional batik on wood paintings into a third dimension with rattan chests, room dividers and tables. Using wood as his canvas, he works with dyes and resists, creating vibrant scenes featuring Island flora, hula dancers and landscapes. Some feature art with a sense of local humor such as "Suzi Sushi" and "Malolo Airlines."

His chests result from a collaboration with artisans in Asia: They are made of rattan peel, wicker and woven abaca reed. He designs the chests, they fabricate them and send them to him for painting.

Also from Maui, for those who have not had the delightful experience of touring or taking tea at the Ali'i Kula lavender farms on the slopes of Haleakala, a generous selection of lavender potpourri, lotions and potions.

A first-time participant in the festival, Joan Blackshear Designs from the Big Island will bring her line of table linens. Best known for hand-painted silk garments, Blackshear now makes silk and linen table runners, pillow covers and wall hangings. Her unusual dyes include autumnal colors such as persimmon, indigo, autumn gold, mahogany, citrus and birch. Current motifs include fern, heliconia, a hula moon and a contemporary, stylized tapa. "It's really nice not to have to worry about what sizes and silhouettes (of clothing) to make and bring to the festival," Blackshear said.

Hand-painted ceramic sinks have become one of artist Susanne Ball's mainstays. She enjoys painting Hawaiian or ocean-oriented motifs such as underwater scenes on round or oval sinks.

Small Planet Studios, a North Shore company run by Steve Tilford, makes hand-painted bronze and resin nautical-themed mirror and picture frames featuring dolphins, whales, mermaids and sailing ships, as well as bronze sculptures and coasters.

2004 Made in Hawai'i Festival

• Featuring products from more than 400 exhibitors from all over the Islands

• Noon-9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday

• Neal Blaisdell Center

• $2, free for children younger than 6. Half-off coupons are available from First Hawaiian Bank branches.

Each year, the Pacific Handcrafters Guild challenges members to address a particular theme. The theme this year is "What you would hope to find at the end of the rainbow."

Gail Lindstrom sees stained glass at the end of the rainbow. Her stained and fused glass art has also gone 3-D, as she adds materials such as shells and seaweed to her stained-glass windows, wall hangings and light fixtures. She also paints lamp shades with underwater scenes and dancing hula maidens.

Also in the Pacific Handcrafters booth: Kyle Ino and his popular ikebana vases. Ino is now doing wall hangings that look like kimono and Japanese fans in natural raku colors embellished with acrylic paints.

Lamp maker Cathy Berenberg's vision is that of a playful child's room. Her lamp designs include a fire truck, a biplane flying in the clouds and a lion lounging under a tree. Her company, Mary McKee, specializes in lamps carved or turned from colorful local woods such as mango and koa.

In addition to her table cloths and runners, dish towels, napkins and throw pillows, Janet Holaday, who has been with the handcrafters guild since its inception, has expanded her home décor line to include what she calls "yoga flags."

"They are inspired by Tibetan prayer flags and are meant to speak to your higher self. They can hang where the trade winds will catch them and send a breeze of peace and love," she explained.

Lauren Levin of Lo 'Scapes, best known for her hand-painted cotton garments, now has items for the home: pillow covers, wall hangings, shoji screens, sofa covers, place mats and napkins.

For the City & County's Recycled Products Store booth, artist Mark Chai created a kooky, five-foot chameleon from recycled cardboard. The newlywed Chai explained that the critter he calls "Kolohe Kameleon" is just a romantic, looking for a girlfriend.

The Made in Hawai'i Festival, with more than 400 booths, also offers comfort foods, exotic fresh flowers, candles, soaps and lotions and CDs by local musicians.

Reach Paula Rath at 525-5464 or prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.


Correction: The 2004 Made in Hawai'i Festival will be open from noon to 9 p.m. today. Today’s hours were incorrect in a previous version of this story.