When Kathy Lukens arrived in Hawaii County 25 years ago, she started making hand-dyed scarves for friends and family.
But later this month her audience will expand to the tens of thousands expected to attend the Made in Hawaii Festival at the Hawaii Convention Center on Oahu starting Aug. 18.
“Over the years, I’ve expanded to a lot of accessories,” said Lukens of Hana Lima Hand Dyes, who now creates hand-dyed socks, ties, kimono wraps and other items with ‘ohe kapala stamping.
Lukens still does most of her work in her kitchen, but has kept up with demand.
“We bring a couple hundred items overall, enough to fill six or eight bins when we fly all the stuff air cargo,” she said. “We have a lot of people who come back every year to see us.”
Lukens will join 450 other vendors from all over Hawaii, including 45 from the Big Island, who will be selling their products at the festival.
“Because they reopened it at the Hawaii Convention Center, we decided to re-up and go back to being in-person,” said Avis Mortemore, who runs Laupahoehoe Graphics with her husband, artist Dick Mortemore.
The couple has sold original artworks, paintings, dish towels, bags and calendars at the festival for over a decade, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began, they opted to sell virtually instead. This will be their first time back in-person.
“We have a lot of customers on Oahu, and it’ll be good to see people again,” said Dick Mortemore, who will debut a special collection of cards and envelopes featuring paintings of extinct birds.
He came to the Big Island from Michigan in 1968 and worked with the state Department of Education, guiding tours through the national park for students in the outdoor education program.
He then served as director of the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo, where he was inspired by the animals and local botany.
“When I was at the zoo, I painted lots of tigers and birds,” Mortemore said. “Wherever I happen to be, I can always find something to draw.”
Making his Made in Hawaii debut this year is Micah Kamohoali‘i, a kumu hula and the creator of Dezigns by Kamohoali‘i.
Kamohoali‘i is fresh off a world-tour as the first Native Hawaiian to participate in Milan, Paris, London and New York fashion weeks.
“We were in Vogue and on the cover of Vanity Fair, and Forbes just released a huge article on my clothing company,” Kamohoali‘i said, adding he recently opened two shops on Oahu at Windward Mall and Pearlridge Center.
Growing up in Waimea, Kamohoali‘i comes from a long line of bark cloth kapa makers, with the patterns and technique influencing his work.
“I started to take those old, ancient kapa designs and put them onto modern fabric, so it would bring some awareness to people of what Hawaiian design was,” he said.
Instead of accepting offers to show his work in Australia, South Korea and Dubai this year, Kamohoali‘i opted to reconnect with Hawaii. So far, he’s held fashion shows on Kauai, Molokai and Maui, and is looking forward to his Made in Hawaii debut.
“I’ve been a vendor at Merrie Monarch for 20 years now, and some of the other vendors there said you should do Made in Hawaii,” he said. “We always start our fashion show off with some sort of hula element and talking about our culture and who we are to remind the audience you’re not just watching some person show fabric, but you’re watching culture.”
In addition to fashion shows, art, crafts and a beer garden, Hawaii artisans also will be selling locally grown food and participating in chef demos.
“We specialize in 100% Hawaiian macadamia nuts,” said Matt Holmes of Ahualoa Family Farms in Honokaa, who will be selling everything from flavored batches of macadamia nuts to chocolate mac-nut spread, dressings and pancake mixes.
“Our niche is we do everything in small batches, and are really focused on quality,” Holmes said. “Everything’s made within the last few weeks too versus making it all at once and then storing it for a year.”
Holmes is part of a tight-knit team that took over the businesses in 2017 and sells products at stores, gift shops and to chefs throughout the state.
“We’re one big family,” he said. “And we’ve put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get this factory up and running right before COVID hit.”
But the biggest draw for the festival is the traditional craftsmen whose work reflects a long history of Hawaiian culture.
Manny Mero runs Koa Fishhooks out of Kealakehe, where he makes koa wood fishhook necklaces, earrings and magnets featuring intricate carvings with various tips, including cow bone, water buffalo horn and pink ivory, among others.
After coming to Kona over two decades ago from Oahu, he met a few friends who showed him the trade. While he still works full time at the Four Seasons Hualalai, he enjoys spending his free time creating traditional Hawaiian works of art.
“I do it in stages, where I do all the cutting, all the shaping, and then all the sanding,” Mero said of his process. “I probably could make more money flipping burgers, but it’s something I enjoy doing.”
Mero said the Made in Hawaii Festival allows him to connect with retailers and galleries that sell his products throughout the year.
“Different galleries can order throughout the year. They come on the first day, two hours before the event starts, and they get to browse around,” Mero said. “But for me, I’d rather have the people come to my booth to get the deal instead of going to a gallery and paying double the price.”
Mero shared that koa wood is getting harder to come by in Hawaii, and he often exchanges finished pieces for extra wood from other crafters. While he has a few years worth of koa left, he’s starting to experiment with ebony wood and pink ivory from Africa.
“I don’t know how much longer I can do it before my fingers get all arthritic,” Mero added. “But whatever free time I have, when I’m not babysitting my three grandkids, I just continue to work on it.”
Tickets for the three-day festival and a full list of vendors can be found at https://tinyurl.com/brywxmpe.
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
