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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...

This is a sort of tangent.  In addition to ulana lauhala, I have a "print studio" called Kamahiunana Risography with an Etsy store, KamahiunanaRiso.  So far I only have two sets of notecards for sale and slowly working on adding new items.  Lauhala has kept me very busy.  I was going to do a lauhala themed notecard set but decided to go back to a project I had started in the 1990s.  It was sidelined due to teaching, grad school, life in general. My next Risograph print project will, hopefully, be a pa'u coloring book inspired by pa'u riders representing the islands.  The coloring...

Wet summers and winters are better than drought. It's actually how it used to be before the vog changed our weather patterns.  However, it's disheartening when I have to throw away 90% or more of the lauhala I gathered due to mildew.  I usually compost all the "less than perfect" lau.  This time I sorted and kept the decent looking ones that I would usually compost. They're still good for weaving but not nice enough to make sellable papale. In the picture below one can see 1) dirt marks that will wipe off and 2) mildew dots that won't. From...

The Sassy Hat is an original style created by my kumu, Margaret Lovett, on Kaua’i. It’s a wonderful style, dressy, and yet perfect for bad hair days. As for the makaloa… Lots of lessons learned! First off, make sure your makaloa is completely dry before weaving. I did a LOT of splicing and covering of the broken pieces. Not fun. The papale still turned out pretty cute. I heard someone in Kona is wanting to hold a “Makaloa Festival.” So if they do, I’ll be prepared with something to wear.