Aloha!
Well gang, I am back from my travels in the Hawaiin Islands. This was
truly a memorable trip, and I encourage anyone who is doing a bit of
traveling to contact other Orchid people when they do. What a
delight it was to finally place names with faces.
Maui is a beautiful island and we were invited to visit Will and his
lovely wife Shakti at their home. Another superb jeweler, Peter also
came and we had a lively discussion about art and technique while
sipping great tea. They have a very nice studio which is large and
airy and full of windows. A truly inspirational place to work.
Although I had not planned a trip to Honolulu in my itinerary, we
changed our plans and headed out for one night, arranged by Cynthia
Wiig. If you ever get a chance to visit Honolulu, do so. It is a
huge and diverse metropolitan city. Cynthia was the perfect tour
guide, driving up and down the mountians and explaning her love of the
area. We were treated to a fabulous dinner by Cynthia, Donna Shimazu
and two other Orchid members, Michael and Elizabeth. Thank you
Cynthia for arranging two perfect days in Honolulu. It was a real
treat to see both Cynthia and Donna’s work spaces, both fervent places
of activity. After dinner, we drove to Donna’s house where I gave an
impromptu slide show of my work and of Metalwerx.
From Honolulu we flew to Kona, Hawaii where we met up with John Flynn
and his wife in Hiwa. They have a lovely gallery with their workspace
right inside. We spent a great afternoon chatting about
metalsmithing, challenges in running a business and trying to eek out
a few hours doing our own work.
I’m still a bit jet lagged, but reeling from meeting new friends.
Thank you all for your generous hospitality, and your spirit of
enthusasism. It was an honor to meet all of you, to see where you
work and what drives you to the bench day after day.
Mahalo,
-k