Bob Stoffer, known as “Konabob” to many people in Hawai’i and around the world, had loved Hawai’i and Hawaiian music for a long time before moving to the island. He listened to Hawaiian music at his bakery in the mountains of Colorado, with a picture of Gabby Pahinui and a map of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on the walls, and Kona coffee in the thermoses on the counter.

Ever since living in Waimea for a year in 1985, he had always wanted to move back. In 1995, he did, along with wife Shirley.

Though he was always musically inclined, Bob had never studied an instrument before moving to Hawai’i, and was a rather frustrated musician. One night, after he’d been living on the island a few years, he had a dream that he was playing the Hawaiian steel guitar in front of a large audience. The next day, he asked his mother-in-law if she’d bring over the steel guitar that had been her husband’s and was sitting, unplayed in her garage in Denver.

She complied and Bob played around with it on his own, but things didn’t click, he says, until 1999, when steel guitar wizard Ken Emerson of “Slack and Steel” album fame came to the Big Island from Kaua’i to play a concert in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Bob grabbed the chance to talk with Ken after the show, inquiring about the tuning he used.

“That conversation sparked a fire in me,” Bob says. “I’d tried other tunings, but they were more applicable to Country Western or bluegrass music. Ken’s tuning was the key I needed to unlock that ‘Hawaiian sound’ I had been hoping to find. The steel guitar has a lush, romantic sound that really appeals to me: it’s fretless, so it can evoke emotions in much the same way as the human voice.” Ken later played on one of the first Hawaiian albums to win a Grammy award.

Right around the time Bob went to see Ken Emerson in concert for the first time, he and Shirley also went to hear Maggie Lobo’s bluegrass band, the Voggy Mountain Ramblers, in Kona, with a friend who played banjo and also loved bluegrass music. Shirley, too, caught the music fever, and, soon after that, “I had my mother bring over the violin I hadn’t touched for a dozen years and I started trying to learn fiddle,” she says.

Maggie was losing some of her band members to the mainland, and soon she had new members of the band!

“Maggie took a chance on us. Her generosity was the beginning of my musical career,” Bob says. The group had a standing gig at the Kona Brew Pub for years, and at the
annual Brewfest.

Mainly through kani ka pila (jamming) with kūpuna for years (specifically, Kona aunties Loretta Sherlock, Leilani Belanio and the late Ella Neula), Bob became adept at playing Hawaiian music, and has played in a few Hawaiian music bands through the years: first with Lenard Kaniho and wife, Shirley, in the group Hana Aloha, and currently wth Bobby Koanui and Rupert Adarme in Aloha in Motion Trio. He says he’s also very honored to play steel guitar with The Ladies of Waiku’i (Rolinda Bean, Mana Leonah and Aunty Kaipo Harris) at the Keauhou Beach Resort’s Verandah Lounge.

Bob also plays steel with the Merrie Monarchs Men’s Glee Club, led by Joe Spencer, at Hulihe’e Palace. “My connection with Hawaiian music opened doors for me here that I could never have dreamed of,” he says. “After it became known that my love for it was sincere and deep, I was given access to a side of Hawai’i you just don’t see as a tourist—baby lu‘au, local parties, the ‘inside scoop’ on songs and cultural tidbits shared by local musicians and kūpuna. I’ve even been flown to Okinawa and Lana’i to play for hula festivals! I am so grateful.”

Nothing would please Bob more, he says, than to see the Hawaiian steel guitar regain the prominence it once had in Hawaiian music. “Many times at music gigs I have been asked what instrument I’m playing. People—even many Hawaiians—don’t realize that the steel guitar was invented by a Hawaiian. Joseph Kekuku, of O’ahu, invented the steel guitar technique in 1889. He experimented with sliding different objects—a bolt, the back of a pen knife, a steel comb—across the strings of a guitar to see what sounds could be produced. It eventually led to the use of a highly polished steel bar, as is used now.”

When Kekuku was 30, he played the instrument in vaudeville shows on the mainland—from coast to coast—and then went on an eight-year tour of Europe with “The Bird of Paradise Show,” which had played on Broadway. People all over the world fell in love with the sound of the steel guitar. In the ‘30s, when the steel guitar went electric, it was discovered by Nashville and Hollywood in a big way, and many Hawaiian musicians left
for the mainland.

The lilting, sweet sound of the steel guitar that would always be associated with Waikiki in the memories of tourists and GIs stationed on O’ahu during the war, became harder and harder to find in Hawai‘i as the years went by. The younger generations were more interested in playing rock and roll, and later, “Jawaiian,” a reggae-Hawaiian hybrid.

Today, Bob is encouraged about the future of the instrument. He teaches steel guitar at Keoki Kahumoku’s annual Music and Lifestyle Camp each November, to kids and adults, and says, “I‘m starting to see what I hope is a trend among the younger kids at that camp. Rhythm-based music is still a big part of their lives, but I’m seeing more enthusiasm for exploring melody-based music. Of course, the steel guitar is perfect for that.”

He also has taught steel guitar at the Beamer ‘ohana’s Aloha Music Camp to people who, in general, have come to Hawaiian music later in life, and, like Bob, have a sincere love for the music and the culture. “They are dedicated to perpetuating traditional Hawaiian music, and many of them are also writing their own songs! I really enjoy seeing people blossom at these camps,” he says. Bob is now the on-site manager for Aloha Music Camp.

In 2003, Bob decided he wanted to learn how to play the bass.          This led to his invention of the Kona Walkingbass, a three-string electro-acoustic portable bass. The prototype was a takeoff on the Hawaiian pā kini bass, which is similar to the washtub bass of the Appalachians. Bob’s first attempt also had one string, and was made with a piece of two-by-four and some weedwhacker string. It also had an ‘ukulele pickup.

“I was immediately surprised at how good it sounded through an amplifier, so I decided to make an amplified bass,” he says. He designed it so it was tuned to the Hawaiian “Taro Patch G” tuning and could be “bar chorded” with one finger like a steel guitar. The Kona Walkingbass has three strings instead of the four found on a standard bass. “It made it simpler to play that way—a basic chord only has three notes!” he says. “The average person can learn to play bass in this tuning in 20 minutes.” He’s now sold 250 of the Kona Walkingbasses to people all over the world, including two to the famous Langley Schools in British Columbia, which are famous for their ‘ukulele programs, and two to the University of Missouri Music Dept., which uses them to teach their bass players to “think outside the box”. Since early on, neighbor and world-class fine woodworker, Tai Lake, and his sons, were involved in the process, making furniture-quality “blanks” for Bob’s basses. Out of mango and Big Island koa, they carved this totally new instrument. There’s a video of Bob playing the Walkingbass with Ledward Ka’apana on YouTube that’s received over 15,000 hits.

Bob is one of the few Hawaiian musicians who performs on instruments he has made himself. So far, he has made one acoustic steel guitar, with the help of Na’alehu luthier, Dennis Lake, and three electric steel guitars. He plays one of the solid-body electric steels at his Keauhou Beach Resort sunset gig. “It’s perfect!” he says. “It’s really got that ‘Waikiki sound’.” ϖ

Contact writer Shirley Stoffer at Shirley@konaweb.com.

Bob and Shirley Stoffer founded www.konaweb.com when they moved to Hawai‘i. It’s become a popular forum, especially for people planning to move to the Big Island. Today Konaweb is a community in itself, with over 5,500 members signed up for its forums and an average of 1,500 individuals visiting the site every day. There are even “Konaweb Parties” once a month, where members of the site can meet and talk story. Members on the mainland have even hosted Konaweb parties themselves, to fuel their enthusiasm for the island until they can return.

www.konawalkingbass.com

Konabob’s Famous Lilikoi Cheesecake recipe: www.konaweb.com/forums/cheesecake.html

Aloha in Motion Trio: www.alohainmotiontrio.com

The Ladies of Waiku’i: www.konaweb.com/ladies

…By Fern Gavelek …

It’s both what you see and what you don’t see that create the magic in Chinese brush painting.

“The thing about Chinese brush painting is you imagine what’s not there,” says Shirley Pu Wills of Captain Cook. “A painting of koi fish has no depiction of water…yet, you know the water is there because the fish are so fluid-like.”

The accomplished and award-winning Chinese brush painter relies on her Asian roots for her artistic foundation and the dynamic beauty of living things for her inspiration.

Born of Chinese heritage in Post-World War II Japan, Shirley’s initial exposure to art was the precision, order and aesthetics in Japanese food and gift presentation, textile design and flower arrangement. Showing an aptitude for drawing as a toddler, the young Shirley held her first brush at the age of 4 under the tutelage of a Japanese sumi-e instructor.

A style of minimalist brush painting, sumi-e uses a combination of water and ink. The style originated from the Chinese Sung Dynasty, 960-1279 AD, and, according to Shirley, the words “su” and “mi” come from the Chinese words “sui” for water and “mo” for ink.

While sumi-e captures the essence of an object in the fewest possible strokes, Shirley says her Chinese brush painting is more than that, involving precise—and often many—brush strokes in a combination of styles. While the path to Shirley’s chosen art form has involved living in several cultures and time zones, the South Kona resident takes pride in using age-old and contemporary Chinese techniques and tools for her art.

Having been educated in the ways of Eastern cultures, the soft-spoken and reserved Shirley experienced culture shock when her family relocated to New York City in 1958. The move to the other side of the globe meant the 7-year-old needed to quickly learn English and the American way of life. Often feeling isolated, Shirley found familiarity in art and immersed herself in doing all kinds of painting. “I found a way to connect to the world through art,” she smiles.

For more than 10 years, Shirley studied brush painting in New York City with Chinese masters who were non-English speaking immigrants. “Listening and again speaking” her native tongue of Shanghainese while she learned the ancient art form, Shirley experienced a Chinese cultural revitalization. She was able to paint from her inner truth and honor who she had become.

At the same time, she also developed skills that would lead to a career in commercial art. As a teen, Shirley won a scholarship to Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where she studied portraiture and illustration. After earning a BFA degree in contemporary painting and art education at the Pratt Institute, the young woman answered a New York Times classified ad looking for a fashion illustrator.

“This was the most exciting time in my life,” recalls Shirley. The 27-year-old was interviewed in Washington, D.C., and then flown to Polynesia to work for Liberty House in Honolulu. She stayed in Hawai‘i for three years, relishing the beauty of the tropics and visiting all the islands. At Liberty House, she created “fashionable drawings of dressed female figures” for advertising campaigns. However, Shirley missed her parents and moved back to the East Coast in the early 1980s, settling in New Jersey. There, she married David Wills, now her ex-husband.

The marriage afforded Shirley time to develop a painting career and return to her roots. She explains, ”While in Honolulu, I had rediscovered my Chinese heritage and culture through the late Master Lam Oi Char (artist) at the University of Hawai‘i. I looked further and approached Chinese brush painting as a way to re-connect with my roots as art is my life; it’s what I’m all about.”

Describing her creative muse, Shirley says, “Images come from deep within my consciousness, where dreams flourish, and through my heart, my limbs and fingers. Yielding my brush, I impart my songs from my soul and lay them upon paper.”

Shirley’s efforts at refining her skills paid off. She acquired a well-known reputation as “New Jersey’s Floral Chinese Brush Painting Artist.” She was soon winning awards and represented by the Phoenix and Ceries Gallery through the Asian American Women’s Artists Alliance—a group she co-founded. Relying on her background in art education, the popular brush painter also became a sought-after instructor, teaching at the prestigious China Institute in Manhattan, New Jersey’s Drew University and SUNY, the State University of New York.

Shirley says she incorporates two styles into her brush paintings. In the elaborate or linear style, fine lines and soft gradations of dual colors convey meticulous details. The spontaneous style involves more expressive line quality and less detail, emoting impressionistic statements to capture the essence and spirit of the subject matter. “I sometimes work back and forth between the styles and combine them into one piece of work,” she adds.

The technique of applying the brush stroke to paper is key to Chinese brush painting, as is the type of brush and paint or ink used. Shirley describes it as “a very precision-orientated and controlled painting style.”

She explains: “The Chinese Brush has a big belly that holds a lot of water and paint. The side of the brush is used to do strokes of thick stalks while the point of the brush, with varying pressure, will paint leaves of the bamboo. Speed of stroke, the exact amount of water and color, and dancing with the brush with minimal amount of strokes are all the ingredients of a well-mastered piece of artwork.”

The artist emphasizes the brush must be held vertically. This allows easy movement of the wrist and swirling of the entire arm so the “chi” (energy or spirit) flows throughout the entire body.

The traditional tools for Chinese brush painting are called the Four Treasures of the Scholar. They include rice paper, brush, ink stone (originally soot, charcoal or pine resin) and ink slab, where water is combined with black to get various shades of gray. Shirley employs some of the ancient tools and contemporary versions of the originals.

She has 100 different-sized brushes that vary in softness and stiffness, and she uses Chinese painting colors. Shirley explains, “The thick pigment comes straight from the tube and in its dry-brush form has a pastel-like effect. When water is added, the result is an oil painting quality and most times, with more water, it becomes transparent watercolor.”

“I use lots of magenta colors in my paintings,” she continues. Instead of traditional black resources like charcoal, the brush painter uses bottled black ink. In addition to porous rice paper, Shirley also paints on champagne and gold-colored silk mounted on archival foam board because she finds the medium “holds up better in the humid tropical climate of Hawai‘i.”

Shirley returned to live in Hawai‘i in 2003. At that time, she relocated to Kona and was surprised people on Hawai‘i Island hadn’t heard of her art. Resigned to “start over from scratch,” the artist shared her Chinese brush paintings on rice paper at the Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival and did a solo show at the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center.  Her popularity grew as she appeared in juried art shows and taught large classes at Holualoa’s Donkey Mill Art Center. Today, Shirley’s art can be found at Third Dimension Gallery at the Shops at Mauna Lani, the Gallery of Great Things in Waimea and Rumley Art and Frame Gallery in Kailua-Kona.

Returning to the islands has provided inspiration for Shirley, who likes to paint the living things she sees in gardens, like flowers, birds—most recently peacocks— and multicolored koi fish.

“I have a real feel for flowers because they’re alive, like human flesh—breathing and containing moisture,” Shirley states. “As a Chinese brush painter, I try to breathe life into my paintings by capturing the subject’s liveliness and its temperament.” She says it’s like imparting “the spirit or essence” of the subject into
the painting.

The artist enjoys incorporating Chinese cultural themes into her artwork. The large peony blossom is a favorite subject as it symbolizes prosperity. The lotus appears in many of her paintings too.

“In nature, the roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight,” explains Shirley. “In Buddhism, this pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of illusion and into the air of self-realization and enlightenment.”

One of her paintings, “Nine Fantail Koi Fish Swimming Upstream,” illustrates the Eastern myth of achieving success. According to legend, the koi swam up a stream and climbed a waterfall, turning them into a dragon, a strong and powerful creature in Chinese mythology (2012 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon). The myth is a metaphor for the idea that man can achieve his success if he meets his challenge.

The painting depicts colorful koi swimming upstream and gaining momentum, like a man attempting to overcome all obstacles to reach his goals. While there is no waterfall in the painting, it is imagined, along with the vision of the fish flying to climb the cascade, twisting and turning to converge and become a
mighty dragon.

Shirley describes the painting’s symbolism, “Fish denote wealth and the pronunciation for ‘nine’ in Chinese is the same word for ‘everlasting.’ So the subject represents the idea that man can achieve everlasting wealth in many aspects: health, wisdom, prosperity and the riches of having many friends.”

Feeling “art is close to one’s personal, spiritual manifestation,” Shirley recently gifted Sam Choy with two floral paintings. See them near the entrance of his new Keauhou restaurant, Kai Lanai.

“The Chinese literati’s paintings were not commercially oriented, they were given out of respect for others and as an indication of honor,” she says. “After I got to know Sam, I gave him this gift in the same scholarly tradition.”

Chinese brush paintings by Shirley Pu Wills are available as prints, giclees and originals priced from $35 to $12,000. Private instruction can be arranged by phoning 808.936.6291. For more info, visit www.shirleypuwills.com.

Gille Legacy does not have the distractions that the rest of us do. Unable to use his body since birth, he is not confined to it and lives largely—both figuratively and literally—in his imagination. And the peace of that place comes through him and onto the canvas as a tangible connection between that world and this.

Gille Legacy is the man who paints with his nose.

How it Began

Gille, (pronounced Jheel) is the sixth of eleven children born to his French-Canadian mother and father at a small hospital in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick in 1952. It was a difficult birth. During labor, his mother knew something was wrong. The doctors reasoned that she was Catholic, and could go on to have more children, so the baby could be sacrificed. To get him out of the birth canal, they broke Gille’s collarbone, and his skull was crushed by the forceps. A priest was present to issue last rites.

Gille had other plans. Foreshadowing an innate determination to make his mark, he survived.

At home, his mother fed him with an eyedropper. He was kept inside the house. He never went to school or saw a doctor. He was hidden from the outside world and sheltered from his unforgiving father, who continually compared him to an animal. Back then, he says, things were different.

“Back then it happened all over. That was the intelligence of people. It wasn’t as developed as it is now,” explains Gille about his sheltered existence, adding, “If I were born in this day and age,
I would be walking.”

Although he had lost all control of movement in his body, there was no loss of intelligence. He could see and understand everything, except why he was trapped in the house and expected to do nothing at all.

When Gille was 17, he had appendicitis. After several days his mother finally took him to the hospital for treatment, after she had been afraid to leave him in their care. This was the first time he saw people other than his family, and he loved it.

Gille’s mother fed, clothed and maintained the large family on $100 a week. Still, she managed to save enough to buy Gille his first wheelchair when he was 22 years old.

Ten years later, realizing she was getting older and would not be able to take care of him forever, Gille persisted in asking his mother to send him to a new rehabilitation center in town. Finally, she relented.

Unlike other forms of cerebral palsy (an umbrella term for having no motor control from birth), Gille did not suffer a loss of oxygen, so there was no brain damage, and his condition is not degenerative. Although his speech is difficult to understand, he speaks fluent French and English and his thoughts move as fast as anyone’s. Although his skin is tan and healthy, he has no use of his twisted limbs, which he likens to the gnarled branches of an oak tree. He sports a “Dali-like” goatee, and his motorized wheelchair is decked out with an iPhone and a sign that says “Google me”.

Gille is comfortable with his body, he says, because he can go anywhere in his mind. He doesn’t know anything different. He’s never been swimming or taken a walk. And although he has bouts of depression, it’s not because of his childhood or the wheelchair. “I got my days, just like everyone else,” he says, and really seems to be the most contented guy you’ve ever met.

The Painting

Although born twisted, Gille was flexible and agile. When he was eight years old, his sister left her paint-by-number set on the floor. Curious, he scooted over to the paints and something
magic happened.

“I dipped my nose in the paint…and a bright light went on inside my head when the image of a bird appeared on the paper. I took that light and shined it throughout the years to create thousands of paintings,” he wrote in “Pigments of Thought,” his latest book.

His mother saw joy in his painting and encouraged it. By his late teens, Gille’s self-created painting style—he paints in oils and has never had the desire to use a brush—was well-developed. When he had the reach and flexibility, he painted large canvases with images of mountains and bodies of water. The mountains expressed his strength, and the water his “ever flowing rush of dreams.” Together, they expressed freedom and a lack of confinement.

“I don’t want to brag, but if you saw some of those paintings, you would be impressed,” he asserts.

Gille’s mother died in 2002. About a year later he started painting images of angels, which now predominate his work. Is he spiritual? Yes and no. Raised Catholic, he rejects church dogma. But when your nose is that close to the canvas you see your soul pouring out, he says. “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing, I just let it out. I live between the lines, the quiet space between the thoughts. Part of the message is for people to just be in that space.”

Some people have called his work ‘healing.’

“You can feel the spiritual energy; it draws you to the painting,” says Tess Rumley, co-owner with her husband Ron, of Rumley Art & Frame Gallery in the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, where his paintings are shown.

“I don’t look at him like he’s in a wheelchair. I don’t see the physical body,” she says. “He is the definition of perfect creativity. Stripped of physical capabilities, he paints from his soul. He is aware and conscious of this. People can connect right away. They can feel
the energy.”

Beyond the Art

Gille was already well established in the art and poetry world when he met his wife, Sandi, in 1998.

“I just looked at him and was fascinated,” she says. “It wasn’t really in the beginning, but now, life with him seems very normal. I’m taken aback by his strength of spirit. It has just been the most incredible adventure and awakening.”

Sandi became his hands and his voice. They have had their issues, like most couples. But they laugh, smile, hold hands, and are inseparable.

“He is in the now, in the moment. There is no 20 minutes ago, no future. He has mastered going inward and has been meditating all his life. He is at peace and doesn’t need any help in that department,” Sandi says, checking with Gille for confirmation, then adding, “He did his work and found peace and now he’s sharing it.”

“My hopes have dissipated,” Gille adds. “I don’t need to prove anything. Inspiration is still there; now I’m just sharing.”

Gille has written five books: pocket-sized volumes of ruminations, poetry and philosophy, with Sandi’s help. In “Pigments of Thought,” his latest, he gives us a glimpse into his imagination:

In one second he had the appearance of an octopus with eight legs and angelic smile and then she who is he turned into me and said to my ego something of this nature:’ Wisdom cannot and should not be seen as a trace in individuality.’ He continued by whispering, ‘It’s a sad thing to have one’s innate wisdom measured by one’s appearance.’

After moving from Canada to California, Gille and his art found an audience at the Promenade in Santa Monica, which led to a documentary of his life being filmed in 2006. They also opened
the Nose Boutique, one of many projects Gille continues to
surprise Sandi with.

“I’m just his hands, helping him to do something big,” Sandi humbly says.

In 2010, Gille and Sandi moved from California to Kona. One day he wandered into the Rumley Gallery, where he met Tess, who said meeting him and seeing his art was like an ‘awakening’ for her.

“When we create from our spirit, our soul, we don’t have to trust it, just let it flow. That’s what Gille does,” she says. “We are all creative, whatever form we choose to express. It’s within us all; we just have to pay attention to it.”

Gille’s paintings have been shown throughout Canada, the United States and France. In 2004 -2005, he was invited to show his work at the prestigious World Conference ‘Chemin du Monde.’  In 2006, he was honored with several private exhibits in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage.

Gille would paint and be who he is regardless of whether his artwork sold or not. What matters, he says, is inspiring others. In 2005, Gille was honored as a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary Clubs in the United States and Canada, for five years of giving inspiring, motivational speeches to school kids, telling them not to give up.

“There are no obstacles, only those you put in your own way,”
he says.

See more of Gille’s work at manwhopaints.com.

Contact writer Cynthia Sweeney at sweeneywrites@yahoo.com.

Early Hawaiians believed that birds had symbolic spiritual power and their feathers carried magical properties, including keen eyesight, endurance and speed. These qualities would add to the value of garments utilizing feathers, which were created specifically for chiefly rank and status. When the early Polynesian settlers came to Hawai‘i, they brought with them the knowledge and craft of feather work. Widely recognized throughout the Pacific as masters of the craft, Hawaiians produced the most advanced feather work. Exquisite feather capes, helmets, feather lei and other garments were used primarily by the ali’i (the chiefs and nobility) of ancient times. The ahu’ula—Hawaiian feather capes—became a sacred symbol of power to the ali’i. Large feathers were also used for royal standards or kāhili, a tall, feather-topped staff used by the ali’i to symbolize status, royalty and lineage.

A great majority of the feathers were collected from endemic birds such as the Hawaiian honeycreepers found throughout the Islands. Collecting feathers was left to experienced feather gatherers called po’e hahai manu. The process of collecting was quite elaborate and time-consuming—it could last decades and even generations. These collectors spent long months in forest habitats, catching their elusive prey with fiber nets and nooses. Breadfruit tree sap was glued to various tree limbs that the most desirable birds were known to frequent.

Only a few treasured feathers could be gathered from the wings, neck and tail of the gold yellow mamo bird and the pale yellow ‘ō’ō bird. The ‘i’iwi and ‘apapane honeycreepers were sought for their red feathers, and because they were more plentiful at the time, they were usually killed and eaten.

All these prized birds, once abundant in Hawai‘i, are now more uncommon. While the scarlet ‘apapane is not endangered, it is a protected species with only 3,000 left in secluded areas of Hawai’i. The crimson-colored ‘i’iwi is considered a vulnerable species. Both the ō’ō and mamo are now extinct.

Creating the garments and other adornments required thousands of feathers. One cape alone used more than 60,000 feathers. An intricate mesh backing was made and the feathers adhered to this mesh with natural olona fibers. Striking designs of geometric patterns were created utilizing mostly the yellow and red feathers, which were symbolic of nobility and royalty. The designs were carefully considered and chosen to convey symbols of the garment wearer’s lineage or clan, as well as his ‘aumakua or spiritual connections to the universe.

Today, artisans are continuing to practice Hawaiian-style feather craft. Goose feathers are dyed to resemble the colors of the original native birds, and gathering feathers is easily accomplished by purchasing them at a variety of online sites that specialize in selling feathers from every type of bird imaginable. The common goose feather can be dyed into the popular red and yellow colors symbolic of Hawaiian ali’i. Turkey and pheasant feathers are also utilized for natural colored and patterned feathers.

One of the most respected experts of feather work on Hawai‘i island is Aunty Doreen Henderson, who founded the Lei Hulu Halau of Hilo (lei school). This halau has a genealogy that includes Aunty Mary Lou Kekuewa and Paulette Kahalepuna, better known as the “Feather Ladies of Kapahulu,” the main proponents of perpetuating this art in Hawai‘i. “I have taught at the community center for over five years and in other places for over 30 years, and I want to share this knowledge with everyone that is interested in learning,” says Aunty Doreen. She currently offers free classes to seniors over 55 at the Kea’au Community Center every Wednesday morning, and they are filled with many new students and graduates of her credentialed program. Her full curriculum entails making over 13 traditional lei and adornments, which can take an average of two years or more to complete. The center is busy and full of friendly faces sharing their aloha and enjoying time together while creating beautiful pieces of feather work. Many from Aunty Doreen’s halau participate in community outreach demonstrations for the cruise ships, Imiloa Center, Lei Day at the Lyman Museum and various senior group programs.

Laura Marable, one of Aunty Doreen’s students, has taken on the craft as a way of making a supplementary income. She also teaches to perpetuate this craft and sells her work at various local shows including the Merrie Monarch festival and teaches an introductory two-day class in the Puna district.

“I took an intensive, credentialed class in feather working through Aunty Doreen,” says Laura. “Since she gave a more traditional approach to learning feather craft, all her classes focused on traditional costuming and approaches to the craft. In my class, since they are shorter projects, I let my students decide if they would like to make the lei kamoe, the lei poepoe, or for the more adventurous students, the hat band or humu papa.” The lei wili poepoe is made with the feathers standing up for a more fluffy effect, and the lei kamoe is made with the feathers laid flat on top of each other, creating a smooth,
velvety texture.

The best part of learning a new craft like feather work is that you pick up a lot of knowledge and history about the early Hawaiians, their culture and lifestyle. Although ancient Hawaiians reserved the use of feathers for their ali’i, today feather work is available to the general public. Once utilized to show rank, lineage and status, they are used in modern times primarily for decorative purposes and creating a unique identity for each wearer.

“Feathers have recently become very popular and are turning into one of the hottest fashions trends of the year,” says Laura. Today you can see trendy feather details in hair extensions, fashionable feather earrings, necklaces and other accessories. Feathers are even being woven into clothing and shoes, creating fun and quirky details on these garments. The increase and visibility of feathers in clothing and accessories has, in turn, created more interest in Hawaiian feather work, both in learning to make the various ornaments and in finding feather art you can purchase directly from a crafter.

Contact writer Noel Morata at emorata@yahoo.com.

Resources:

Learn more about feather making and the history

of this craft by visiting www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/about/featherwork.htm

Read more in the book, Feather Lei As An Art by Auntie Mary Louise Kekuewa and Paulette Kahalepuna, published by Mutual Publishing, LLC

Take a class or the credentialed program with Aunty Doreen Henderson at the Kea’au Community Center every Wednesday morning. For more details, contact her directly at 808.982.5571.

Laura Marable’s classes in feather craft are offered regularly in the Puna area. Contact her at bigislandfeathers@gmail.com.

For feathers: www.hawaiianfeathers.com

Scattered around Hawai‘i Island, small groups of women—and a handful of men—are using passion and knowledge, skill and patience, hands and hearts to save what they say is a dying art.

Hawaiian quilting is literally a labor of love with deep roots in the culture of these islands. Created completely by hand, often with many hands contributing to the effort, Hawaiian appliqué quilts are rarely found for sale, since most are gifted to family and friends, and then handed down from generation to generation, according to Kathy Tanaka, member and spokesperson for Ka Hui Apano O‘Waimea quilt
club in Kamuela.

“Most of Hawai‘i’s master quilters have been practicing their art from childhood, a skill learned at the hips of their mothers and grandmothers who patiently and lovingly shared their knowledge of the craft and wisdom on how to—and how not to—work on a quilt,” Tanaka says.

One of Ka Hui Apano O‘Waimea’s founding members, 92-year-old Stella Akana, is among the kūpuna in the group who advise those new to quilting: “Always quilt with good thoughts. If you are angry or agitated about something, put it down,” a sentiment that is based in Hawai‘i cultural traditions and the belief that what you do should be done from the heart with aloha. Only then is it pono (in perfect balance and harmony, proper, righteous, good).

“Stella’s work is absolutely perfect from the patterns to the stitching,” Tanaka says. “She continues to be extremely active and creates large quilts (queen and king sized) in half the time it takes most of us,” she adds.

And time is exactly where patience comes in! To create the larger, queen and king sized quilts requires a minimum commitment of two years and often up to five years, depending on how much time you spend on the project each day, according to one of the group’s long-time members and past presidents, Irene Kubo.

Ka Hui Apano O‘Waimea, the oldest quilt club in the state of Hawai‘i (founded in 1972), is one of five formal clubs dedicated solely to Hawaiian quilting on Hawai‘i Island with locations stretching from Volcano Village to Waimea. Currently, Ka Hui Apano O‘Waimea is comprised of 45 members with 20 or so actively attending monthly meetings held the last Saturday of the month at St. James Episcopal Church in Waimea. Members bring quilts in progress, share ideas and talk story from 9 a.m. to noon.

Kubo, who served as president for nearly two decades (“Most of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” she recalls), joined  Ka Hui Apano O‘Waimea in 1976 and says that one of the group’s objectives—and indeed, its biggest challenge—is perpetuating the art of Hawaiian quilting by encouraging more young people to get involved.

“Most of us are retired with time to devote to quilting; we need more young people to keep it going. About five to 10 years ago we enjoyed a swell of strong interest in the art of Hawaiian quilting, but now it’s waned again; it seems to come in waves,” Kubo says. “It’s not only the beauty of the art, but the camaraderie we all enjoy that we want to share and perpetuate—not to mention quilting is the best and cheapest therapy there is,” she quips.

An encouraging sign: the club’s current president Cyndy Martinez oversees monthly meetings with both daughter and granddaughter at her side.  In addition to family recruits, the club generates new interest by its Hawaiian Quilt Show held every other February (on the last Saturday of the month) at Kahilu Hall in Waimea. The next club show takes place in 2013, according to member Mary Hinck, as this February, 2012, the group is joining forces with all North Hawai‘i quilting clubs to present The Festival of Quilts, featuring quilts of various styles and techniques. The one-day show, she says, will take place in conjunction with the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Waimea on Saturday, February 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. While most of the quilts will be on display only, a small number will most likely be offered for sale, as well, Hinck says. Clubs presenting their work are the Sew N Sews of Waikoloa, Anuenue Quilters of North Hawai‘i, Mauna Kea Quilters, Laulima O Hamakua, Sew Fun After School Program and Ka Hui Kapa Apana O‘Waimea.

History of Hawaiian Quilting

Traditional ancient Hawaiian bedcoverings were made of kapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of native trees. Strips of this bark were beaten and felted together to make a smooth cloth that was soft to the skin. Kapa moe was kapa made into a bedcovering. Kapa moe was made in layers similar to today’s Hawaiian quilt, which emerged in the 1800s. The layers of Kapa moe were connected only at one end so individuals could adjust the number of layers required, depending on the temperature outside. Often the kapa was scented with fragrances made from native flowers, and the top sheet of kapa was dyed and stamped with an overall graphic design. Some quilts suggest the traditional Hawaiian appliqué designs found in kapa moe, but the kapa designs were geometric as compared to the flowing designs of Hawaiian appliqué quilts emerging over the past two centuries.

It was following the arrival of the first New England missionaries to the islands that native Hawaiians began to use fabric. The missionary women taught them the fine art of needlework through their patchwork quilts which were made from scraps of fabric—an early American tradition.

It did not make sense to the Hawaiians, who had no scraps, to cut up bolts of fabric into little pieces and sew them back together. A popular story says a breadfruit pattern was the first truly Hawaiian quilt design, and it remains the “trademark” design of a Hawaiian quilt. Some Hawaiian women laid some fabric on the grass to dry, the story says, when they noticed the leafy shadow cast upon it from the branches of the breadfruit tree overhead. A Hawaiian woman went to the fabric and cut out the pattern, then laid it onto another fabric and stitched it, thus the birth of the first Hawaiian quilt—an appliqué quilt, as opposed to patchwork. From there, many designs based on plants and flowers were created by the talented Hawaiians, who caught on quickly to the process.

Now, in Hawaiian tradition, you should start with a breadfruit design and you will have a fruitful life, never hungering for wisdom or knowledge. This tradition of starting with the breadfruit is a very spiritual journey and will ensure that Hawaiian quilting becomes a part of your life.

Today’s quilters like to flock together in groups. The first club, Ka Hui Kapa Apana O‘Waimea, was formed on July 29, 1972. With a State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Hawaiian Cultural Studies grant, the Hawaiian Civic Club of Waimea initiated a two-year workshop studies program on Hawaiian Quilting. The evident widespread interest in Hawaiian quilting encouraged those involved to continue by creating an organization devoted exclusively to Hawaiian quilting. Ka Hui Kapa Apana O‘Waimea was founded as a non-profit organization with two essential objectives:  to gather members of mutual interest in friendly fellowship and to preserve, perpetuate and encourage the art and culture of Hawai‘i in the field of Hawaiian quilting. To accomplish these objectives, the organization developed a system for its members to share their Hawaiian quilt expertise and knowledge. Through generous cooperation, members contribute Hawaiian quilt patterns to a collection file that the organization maintains and makes accessible for use by all members. Over the years, this process established a large pattern library that forms the foundational structure for continual instruction.

The group participates in numerous community festivals each year, Badua says, offering free classes and small samples to festival-goers. In addition to these annual festivals, they take the art of Hawaiian quilting into classrooms at local schools and to various clubs and organizations on the island.

“Whenever and wherever we have an opportunity to teach, we do it,” says Badua, who took over the leadership reins from Kubo in 2000, holding them through 2010, when Martinez stepped in. Teaching is one of the best ways to spread awareness and appreciation for this Hawaiian art form, she says.

Contact writer Margaret Kearns at margaretekearns@gmail.com.

Find a club near you on Hawai‘i Island and find locations to view year-round displays of this treasured Hawaiian art form in the listings that follow:

Hulihe’e Palace in Kailua-Kona.  75-5718 Ali‘i Drive. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed major holidays.  The summer palace for Hawaiian Royals, original furnishings and artwork are on display. For more information visit: Hulihe ‘e Palace.

Lyman Museum & Mission House in Hilo. 276 Haili Street. Open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed major holidays. Featuring numerous examples of traditional Hawaiian art and furnishings, including Hawaiian quilts. For more information visit: Lyman Musuem.

Aloha Quilters of Kona. This club meets at Wallace Hall in the Christ Episcopal Church, Konawaena, on the third Saturday of each month (except November and December). For more information, contact: saraalv07@msn.com.

Ka Hui Apano O ‘Waimea. Members meet at 9 a.m. on the last Saturday of the month (except November and December when they meet on Wednesday) in St. James Circle at St. James Episcopal Church, Waimea. For more information, phone: 775.0765 or email:
rktanaka@hawaii.rr.com.

Mauna Kea Quilters’ Guild. Established in 1977, the group meets the second Saturday of each month (except November and December) from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the Thelma Parker Memorial Library meeting room, Waimea. For more information, phone: 937.2159.

Tutu’s House. A non-profit community center in the Kamuela Business Center, 64-1032 Mamalahoa Highway, Waimea. Offering numerous classes and presentations, the Tutu’s Quilters class meets each Monday at 9:30 a.m. For more information, phone: 885.6777 or email:
tutus@tutushouse.org.

Volcano Quilt Guild. Located in Volcano Village, this small group meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month. For more information, phone 967.8080.

Hawaii Island Quilt Supplies (Some retailers listed below offer classes, as well. Contact them directly for details):

Dragon Mama, 622 Kamehameha Avenue, Hilo, 934.9081.
Specializing in Japanese fabrics and kimonos.

Fabric Gift Shoppe in Kona Old Industrial Area, 74-5599 Luhia St
Unit D-5. 329.8177. Great selection of fabric, notions and patterns

Kilauea Kreations, Volcano Village, 967.8090, and Kilauea Kreations II, 680 Manono Street, Hilo, 967-8090. Featuring
Hawaiian prints, batiks, and Moda hand-dyed fabrics.

Kimura’s Fabrics on Highway 11 in Kainaliu Village, 322.3771.  Kimura’s stocks a huge selection of fabrics as well as notions, craft supplies and Hawaiian quilt kits.

Quilt Passions, Kailua-Kona, in King Kamehameha Mall. Offers classes for adults and keiki (call for times). Open Mon-Fri 10 – 5; Sat. 10 – 4 329.7475 www.quiltpassions.net

Top Stitch, 64-1067 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, 885.4482.  A small shop with many supplies for both Hawaiian and American quilting styles. They sell fabrics, notions and gadgetry for the quilter and carry an extensive inventory of Hawaiian appliqué pattern books, Hawaiian quilt block patterns and Hawaiian quilt pillow kits.

She walks through the treasure-filled rooms—fingering the china, straightening a photo frame, smoothing a quilted bedspread and then opening wide an upstairs window. As the fresh air fills the stately bedroom, Aunty Fanny turns around and grins. If only rooms could talk.

Fanny Au Hoy has been telling the stories of these rooms since 1977, when she began volunteering as a docent at Hulihe‘e Palace. Recruited by her mother, the late Aunty Lei Collins, who was then palace curator, Fanny learned about every artifact in each room. She became a walking encyclopedia of the palace history and the lives of those who lived there, so that Hawai‘i’s kings and queens could come alive for visitors.

Downstairs, she would point out the spectacular trunk used by Queen Kapi‘olani to carry her belongings to England in 1887 for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Upstairs she told of Princess Ruth, who outlived three husbands and preferred to sleep outside in a thatched hale.

Thirty-five years later, the rooms still resonate with stories as Aunty Fanny relays tales of interesting visitors and unexpected donations. She relishes memories of merry celebrations and recalls a host of challenges presented by a slew of natural disasters: two hurricanes, a devastating earthquake and
a tsunami.

“It’s easy to fall in love with Hulihe‘e Palace,” Fanny says, her eyes glistening. “It really is the jewel of Kailua-Kona. I have always embraced it and wanted to make it more beautiful.”

With that in mind, Fanny followed in her mother’s footsteps, succeeding Aunty Lei as palace curator, administrator and docent coordinator starting in 1988. Working with the Daughters of Hawai‘i, who operate and maintain both Hulihe’e and Queen Emma Summer Palace in Honolulu at no cost to the state, Fanny held the post until last fall, when she decided to retire.

“Of course you never really leave,” says Aunty Fanny, 78, a life-long Daughters of Hawai‘i member. “I want to say mahalo to our palace kūpuna, past and present, for their guidance and belief in me all these wonderful years.”

As a Daughter, Aunty belongs to an exclusive group of women who are directly descended from a person who lived in Hawai‘i prior to 1880. The organization strives to perpetuate the memory, facts and spirit of Old Hawai‘i, and “to preserve the nomenclature and correct pronunciation of the
Hawaiian language.”

Fanny says her goal was always to “leave the palace better,” so it could be enjoyed for generations to come. “And that’s what I set out to do.”

In the 1970-80s, when Kailua-Kona was “hardly a tourist hub,” Fanny and Aunty Lei made a great team. Using knowledge gained from their sales and ambassador jobs with Aloha and Mid-Pacific Airlines, the women came up with a plan to raise needed operational funds for the palace.

“Mom and I knew our small admission fees and tiny gift shop couldn’t support the palace, so we decided to connect with travel desks and the Hawai‘i Visitors Bureau to attract business,” recalls Fanny. “We soon found we could get additional income with incentive tours.”

Relationships made with concierge and tourism professionals blossomed and soon the palace was called to serve as a location for corporate parties. “Before we knew it we had become an event venue—and really the most affordable one on this side of the island,” states Fanny. “Caterers and event planners were very attracted to our historic quality and seaside location.” To accommodate on-site functions, the caretaker’s cottage was converted to the present-day Kuakini Building, with a kitchen and improved restrooms.

Fanny considers the idea of opening up the palace for rentals as an important legacy left by the mother-daughter team. In addition to weddings and local fundraisers, today the palace serves as a reception venue for world-class events like the Ford Ironman World Championship and the Hawai‘i International Billfish Tournament. “Our rental business enabled us to increase our revenue to continue the Daughters’ mission and do daily maintenance on our buildings and grounds,” she adds.

Upkeep on the 1838 Hulihe‘e Palace, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1973, is no small endeavor. Any repairs or restoration must be done consistent with how the palace looked in the mid-1880s. That date, which covers the time when King David Kalākaua lived there, enables the palace to preserve its two oceanside lanai, stucco exterior and Victorian-era grandeur. It’s also why Aunty Fanny oversaw the building of the palace’s “cookhouse,” Hale Kuke, in 2006. While used as badly-needed office space, the addition is a reconstruction of the Merrie Monarch’s cookhouse, circa 1885, which served as the palace’s kitchen.

Ten years apart, Hurricanes ‘Iwa (1982) and ‘Iniki (1992) brought flooding to the oceanside palace grounds and Fanny remembers how the people of Kona turned out to help with sandbags and cleanup. “Henry Cho from the County and Jeff Lee of The Club showed up with helpers and their efforts prevented severe flooding in the basement,” she said.

The palace wasn’t so lucky during the March 2011 tsunami, when the basement filled with five feet of water. Before the tsunami sirens sounded, Fanny recalls coming to the palace with her husband Sam at
10 p.m.

“We were soon joined by palace office manager Anita Okimoto and others,” said Fanny. “We filled a truck and two sedans with precious artifacts, computers and office equipment.”

The group returned the next day to find the basement filled with ocean water and swimming fish.

“Our volunteers came down and helped with the cleanup. Even people passing by stopped and lent a hand. We were blessed that no water entered the ground floor. There were dead fish everywhere and so we didn’t have to fertilize the grounds for awhile,” chuckles Fanny, with her trademark sense of humor.

The tsunami came not that long after repairs and restorations were completed from the October 2006 earthquake. While Fanny was devastated when she saw the damaged Hulihe’e after the earthquake, she thinks of it as a blessing in disguise. “We got some much-needed, modern repairs and re-enforcement done by restoration experts,” she says of the 2.5-year project.

Technology and education makes restoration of historic things easier today, according to the long-time palace administrator. “When we had the gold leaf picture molding restored in 1979, we had to send it all the way to Europe,” she remembers. “After the earthquake, our architect located a gal born-and-raised on Maui who was schooled in this particular technique and could take care of it for us—so much more convenient.”

Sharing stories of how the community pitches in, Fanny says a Kailua-Kona resident and woodworker, Charlie Emmett, volunteers to repair broken palace furniture. “He was recruited by our Calabash Cousin Shirley Finan,” says Fanny. (The Cousins serve as a support group for the Daughters.)

Ken Smith, a repeat visitor from California, is attempting to fix Princess Kaiulani’s music box–a gift the late princess received from Robert Lewis Stevenson while studying in England. The box is displayed in the Second Floor Sitting Room.

People from afar have lent a hand, too. “Some time ago, a Boston resident wrote to us offering to donate Lokelani china. He saw a story about us in a magazine with a picture of the same china in the Kuhio Room,” Fanny said. “It’s always gratifying to know our efforts are appreciated and to get a donation to add to our collection.” Recent donated acquisitions include a yellow mamao feather lei and a pocket watch belonging to Prince David Kawānanakoa.

Of course, dollar donations are appreciated too and, while sizeable contributions are few, Fanny recalls getting a gift from a visitor who never entered the palace. “He was walking his service dog on the grounds. When we asked him if he would kindly remove his dog, he asked us some questions about the palace. A couple days later, he called us and offered a sizeable donation to be used for a specific purpose, something he saw we needed to have done. It was a nice surprise and much appreciated.”

Even though Fanny has retired as a palace employee, she is still volunteering and willing to lend a hand to her successor, Casey Ballao. During a recent palace visit, she checked to see if the furniture had been polished while Calabash Cousins, who were staffing the palace during a busy “boat day,” flocked to her for hugs and catching up on news.

“The palace is in good hands,” notes Fanny, looking all around the downstairs entry hall. “Now all we have to do is embrace what we have, feel the spiritual mana of where our ali‘i walked and share all that is Hawai‘i Nei.”

Contact writer Fern Gavelek at ferng@hawaii.rr.com.

More info at http://daughtersofhawaii.org