Blog — Ulana lauhala

So... I wanted to make at least one more hīnaʻi lauhala for donation at the Hawaiian Church of Hawaiʻi Nei workshop to make kaula and hīnaʻi lauhala to help with the re-interment of Iwi Kupuna. I hoped to get three done but ended up with two. The one pictured above was made with 1 inch koana 12x12 mauʻu. The other one, that I forgot to take a picture of, was 10x10 mauʻu. I delivered them to the workshop at Huliheʻe Palace today. That's not the strange thing afoot though... I was recently surprised and "volun-told" for pāʻū committee involvement at the next Kona Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade. I had always thought my...

The Hawaiian Church of Hawaiʻi Nei is putting on more workshops to help with the care of Iwi Kupuna. My cousin had sent me info for when they were doing workshops in Hilo back in September 2021. I wasn't able to go. Instead, I sent him one which he took to Maui. I probably won't be able to attend this one coming up at Huliheʻe Palace in March either, but will try to make at least one hīnaʻi lauhala for donation. While one won't be able to keep the finished product(s), this is still a great opportunity to learn the skills and enjoy...

I stopped by Kimura's Lauhala Shop the other day to pick up our coffee. Yes, I buy our coffee from a lauhala store. We drink 100% Kona Coffee. It may be considered premium coffee, but it tastes great "black" and we love supporting local agriculture. Also, the natural caffeine levels in fresher coffee makes it more cost effective and convenient, IMHO, as one doesn't have to drink as much to get the same wake up kick in the morning. Kimura's prices are very reasonable. The coffee doesn't travel far from farm to roaster to their store. I digress... Stopped by for...

These pictures were taken over the past weeks and during my visits at Māʻona Community Garden.   I almost always forget to take "before" pictures.  The picture (above left) is an "after" picture but one would never know we actually thinned the puhala. The above right picture is the underside and one can see the stubs of branches we cut from the trunk.  It had been so tightly packed with branches that very little ventilation was causing the leaves to rot before truly drying.  The picture below is some but not all of the green waste. With devastating invasive species such as...

Not in the socio-political sense... Papale are literally like snowflakes.  No two are exactly alike.   One can try to make a copy of a certain papale, it is pretty much impossible to ulana two identical papale.  The materials are actual natural plant materials prepared and ulana by human hands.  Although skilled and experienced weavers can have consistent tension and technique, they are still human beings and not machines.  Each papale is as unique as an individual snowflake.  From far away, snowflakes look alike but magnified under a microscope each is incredibly unique. A while back my FIL sent us a...