Hawaiian Theme
Janet Duhe
I am heading a girl scout camp this summer with a Hawaiian theme. We will
be visiting a local petrified forest/lava rocks, hopefully securing the
talents of some local hawaiian dancers and singers and we need craft making
ideas! I was thinking of leis, coconut dolls or something. Does anything
have a clue as to where I might get supplies and patterns? I am thinking
of having the girls cook poi, yuck, but where do I find the ingredients?
Any other suggestions? Would appreciate it. Perhaps there is a website I
could hook on to? Thanks. Janet
"Mad"
Janet Duhe writes:
<snip>
> and we need craft making
> ideas! I was thinking of leis, coconut dolls or something. Does anything
> have a clue as to where I might get supplies and patterns? I am thinking
> of having the girls cook poi, yuck, but where do I find the ingredients?
> Any other suggestions? Would appreciate it. Perhaps there is a website I
> could hook on to?
First, where are you doing this? In Hawaii, or on the mainland USA, or
somewhere else? Not clear from your post, and makes a big difference.
**** crafts ****
Leis? Flower-and-leaf leis come in several kinds, twist/wrapping,
sewing on a thread, sewing to a backing, and
there is at least one good book on lei-making techniques.
The newer, fancier lei-making styles do things like
disassemble the flowers, and just use parts of them,
to control the color and shape of the lei.
Check your library and inter-library loan.
There is also a tradition of feather leis, I think the feathers are
cut to shape and stitched to a flat cloth band. I could be wrong.
And I remember learning to make leis from crepe paper
(Dennison Mfg. might still have instructions for that),
and from Ric-Rac (again, check with the company that
manufactrures it).
And there were seed leis, made from Job's Tears (pearly
gray teardrop shaped seeds), False Wiliwili (like shiny,
lipstick-red lentils, but maybe a third of an inch across),
a shiny black seed I don't remember the name of (you
could use apple seeds instead, I think), and others.
I think you had to boil the seeds, to soften them, so they
could be strung like beads, then when they dried, they
hardened back up, and retained their color and glossiness.
Never got to do it myself.
If you have access to scroll saws, you can cut the inner shell
of a coconut into pendants and buttons, and polish to a
glossy brown-black.
You could polish kukui nuts, but if you're not in Hawaii,
you'd have a hard time getting them.
**** Food ****
Kukui nuts are edible, in very small amounts.
They have so much oil in them, that eating more than two
will probably give you the runs, so I was told.
Poi's relatively easy. Here in Lansing, Michigan,
there are at least two oriental food stores that
stock raw taro root. Steam, then peel and mash,
adding water as needed. Leave it sit for, what?,
a day or two?, to ferment, or eat it fresh.
Me, I like steamed taro, plain.
And, yes, fresh poi does taste like old-fashioned
library paste.
Don't know where to get breadfruit, and I just tried
canned breadfruit for the first time. Uggh! Maybe it
tastes better warmed up, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Too bad. Fresh breadfruit is wonderful stuff.
Pineapple, Guava, Mango, Papaya, Banana, Chinese Star Apple
(what the supermarkets are selling as Carambola) grow in Hawaii.
(Watch out for raw pineapple. The juice contains a natural
enzyme, similar to the papain in meat tenderizer, that will
eat thru your skin. Cooking denatures the enzyme.
If your tongue tingles after eating two slices of raw pine,
that's probably that enzyme at work.)
Ramen was popular in Hawaii as Saimin long before it got popular
here on the mainland.
And the stuff they're selling here as Hawaiian Sweet Bread,
used to be called Portuguese Sweet Bread.
**** Web and other resources ****
Hawaiian Electric Company used to give away
a Hawaiian cookbook.
There are a number of usenet newsgroups for Hawaii.
The one I know of is alt.recipes.hawaii .
Try ask for help at alt.culture.hawaii , and hawaii.expatriates .
There is a Hawaii Visitors Bureau, to promote tourism,
and they used to give away packets of maps and posters.
Nowadays they have to charge for them, I think,
but it's worth checking on.
**** other crafts ****
Oh, I just remembered. Hawaiians made tapa, a felted paper/cloth
from the inner bark of a type of mulberry, used for clothing and
other things. When I was a kid in elementary school, we made an
imitation tapa from brown paper bags. Open up the bag. Crumple it
then soak it in some kind of watery paint or dye, which would stain the
random creases to simulate the texture of tapa. After it dried,
paint floral and geometric tapa designs on the paper.
If you can locate an elementary school teacher in Hawaii,
you can probably get better detailed instructions and
design elements.
The missionaries brought quilt-making to Hawaii,
but since all cloth was imported, there were no scraps
to do patchwork. Instead, Hawaiian women learned
applique quilting, and developed a distinctive style,
the Hawaiian Quilt. There are books on that too.
If I remember, Sears in Hawaii sells instruction kits for
making Hawaiian-Quilt-style pillows, small things
rather than fullsize quilts.
There's a book titled "What are Fronds For?" about
palm leaf weaving. The fish and bird decorations
can be done with ribbon instead of palm leaf.
The fibrous husk of the coconut can be twisted
into rope, but I don't know the procedure, and suspect
it isn't as easy as it sounds.
Aloha (from Michigan),
"Mad" ( MadHa...@usa.net )
IrishRose
After snipping most of a wonderful post from "MadHawaiian"
> And I remember learning to make leis from crepe paper
> (Dennison Mfg. might still have instructions for that),
> and from Ric-Rac (again, check with the company that
> manufactrures it).
The way to make crepe paper leis is to take long strips of crepe paper
and zig-zag fold them (you'll eventually get a "square" made up of
layers of crepe paper)....then take a string the length you want your
lei to be, thread it on a sturdy needle which you will thread through
center of the square......gently twist the layers around the string
generally mis-alligning the "corners" of the squared layers....
With "pictures":
zig-zag folded crepe paper - side view: /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/|||||||
(the "ends" will make the square)
zig-zag folded crepe paper threaded: /-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-|||-
At least that's one way.......
Linda
*who is greatly looking forward to getting a REAL Hawaiian lei next
Thanksgiving! :>
-- @->--- @->--- @->--- @->--- @->--- @->---
"Not Everything that is beautiful is good.....
But everything that is Good is beautiful"
@->--- @->--- @->--- @->--- @->--- @->---
"Mad"
Maybe these might help, too?
http://www2.hawaii.edu/recipes/
http://www.dublclick.com/coconutinfo/productsci.html
Aloha,
"Mad"