By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Hand-crafted bowls are on display at Na Hana
Lima store in Waianae.
Proud to say
made in Waianae
Artisans and crafters from
By Cynthia Oi
Waianae form a hui to sell wares
up through December
Star-BulletinMENTION Waianae to townies and most of them say "Waianae? That's so far!" The community is about 30 miles from downtown Honolulu -- less than 40 minutes of driving, if you follow speed limits -- and far or not, it is the of location Na Hana Lima, one of Oahu's newest art and craft stores.
Nestled behind the Blockbuster outlet in Waianae Mall, the 1,500-square-foot shop shines as a hopeful star in the dark economic galaxy of Hawaii.
There, 13 artists and crafters, all from the Waianae coast, are displaying and selling their wares for the next two months. If all goes well, Na Hana Lima may set up shop permanently.
"We want people to visit and come to the Waianae coast, experience Waianae. We want to show them the high level of the culture, the arts, we have out here," said Kehaulani Tehotu, a jewelry maker and one of three managers of the store.
The start-up money -- a $75 loan for each hui member -- came through the Waianae Business Center, which is part of the Waianae Coast Coalition.
"Part of our mission is to perpetuate culture and knowledge, pass it on from one generation to another," said Gary Forth, head of the center. The store's products are a tangible part of that mission, he said.
A lot of artists and crafters in the area have home-based businesses, and at the cultural festivals that have run for two years in Waianae, "these people had booths and sold their products," Forth said.
"When another art cooperative came to tell us about their co-op, we thought, why don't we just do it ourselves," he said.
So the hui was formed and the group went out to do, as Tehotu said, "a lot of asking. Asking for help, donations."
Waianae Mall contributed the store site, charging the group only maintenance costs.
With little capital available, the members did most of the grunt work themselves. Furniture and display cases came from their own homes or were donated by others. Woodcrafters fixed up the cases, the women sewed covers for "the really ugly tables" on which goods are pleasingly displayed. Students from Waianae schools helped clean up the space and walls were draped to hide the room's warehouse look.
Three members of the hui were appointed managers and each artisan is required to staff the store.
"Everybody has to put in time," said multi-media artisan Henry Hopfe. "No money to hire sales people."
Hopfe, 50, and a lifelong resident of Waianae, said having hui members staffing is better anyway.
"We know each other, each other's work. We can tell the customers about them," he said.
The merchandise includes jewelry and hair ornaments, shell necklaces and earrings, hala baskets, prints, wooden bowls, koa-carved pendants and boxes, ceramics, nose flutes and stone poi pounders as well as such clothing as board shorts, children's outfits, quilted dresses and tote bags and backpacks.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Dalani Kauihou wears a piece of kapa she made and
models in front of a mirror crafted by Henry Hopfe at the
Na Hana Lima store in Waianae.
Among the more unusual creations are Pearl Pualani Ling Makasobe's works. She creates petroglyph-style images on 'a'aniu, the clothlike sheath of fibers from coconut trees. The pictures represent mo'olelo, or stories, she said.Makasobe, 40, the mother of a 15-year-old girl, works as a customer service representative for Hawaiian Electric Co. The store gives her a place to show and sell her "real work," she said, as well as to share artistic experiences with potential customers and the other artisans.
That's also important to Hopfe.
"I take the time to share. It's not customer and salesman. I try to develop rapport with people, become friends."
He said the store gives the artisans a stable setting to market their work as opposed to craft fairs.
And the goods are authentic Hawaii-made products, he said.
"People come in and look at everything and they go 'All this stuff from Waianae?'" said Dalani Kauihou, a kapa maker and photographer. "We say, 'That's right, not from the Philippines, not from China -- all from Waianae.' "
Kauihou, who grows her own mulberry to make the kapa, said the hui members represent "just a fraction of the many other artists who live on the Waianae Coast."
Indeed, since the store opened last week,scores of others have asked to join the hui, Hopfe said.
The store will operate through December. Beyond that depends on the store's success and hui members' ability to keep it going. The start-up wasn't without conflict, several members said.
"There was yelling and stuff," said Hopfe, chuckling. "Happens when people come together -- stress with getting this put together."
Part of the stress came because of the quick start up. The first meeting of artisans took place Oct. 26 and to take advantage of the holiday season, the hui pushed to open the store as soon as it could.
But ho'opono members recaptured a unity of spirit and purpose, Hopfe said.
That enthusiasm is not at all negated by the impression many non-Leeward residents have about Waianae as dangerous.
"The stereotype is bad. I know I look scary," said the big, rugged-faced Hopfe with a laugh, "but no can help. That's how I was born.
"In every neighborhood you got a handful of guys who steal and stuff. But there isn't too much of that going on here. Maybe the tourist cars get hit, but that happens everywhere on the island."
Hopfe said the false impression of hostility in Waianae is one motivation in creating his art as he has for 40 years.
"Everybody think the Waianae guys only good for collect welfare, drink beer and make babies. I refuse to buy into that; I want to be a counter to that."
The hui hopes to attract tourists; it is working with the Ihilani Resort to steer visitors to the store, said Tehotu. The group hopes local people will come, too.
"We got the best weather, best beaches, the best sun, strong aloha spirit. Now we get this store," Hopfe said.
But will the 30 miles deter customers?
"People ask me where I live," Hopfe said. "I say Waianae; they say, ho, that's far. I say where you live. They say Kailua. I say, ho, that's far."
"But then I say, you not farther away from me; I'm not farther away from you. We're the same distance apart. And that's close."
Craft hui
What: Na Hana Lima, Waianae artisan hui store. Artisans are Birgitta Frazier, Dalani Kauihou, Del Forsloff, Fredlem Pa'aluhi, Henry Hopfe, Joey Lingsangan, Kehaulani Tehotu, Kimo Kauihou, Patrick Pine, Paul Drew, Pearl Pualani Ling Makasobe and John Burke
