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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Linda Hee demonstrates the use of a table loom while setting up the Hawaii Handweavers' Huiexhibit.

The ins and outs of weaving

Humor is an essential part of the art's main fabric

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By Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Fast fingers and a skilled eye are important to the art of weaving, but good humor -- that's essential. The biennial exhibition of the Hawaii Handweavers' Hui shows clearly the precision and skill required of this discipline, but it also demonstrates that these artists have found laughter in what they do.

Linda Hee, an organizer of the exhibit, wove a wastebasket out of old newspapers and toilet paper rolls. It sits around the corner from her hanging piece: three pieces of woven clothing (they don't fit anymore) that have been striped with bleach shot from a water gun (the gun is part of the piece as well). She calls it "Wash Day Disaster, Jr. Finds the Bleach."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM "Electrician's Christmas Tree," by Sidney Lynch is made of outlets and light switches woven together with wire.

Kathy Tosh's "You Can Take the Girl Out of California but ..." resembles a free-form, rainbow-hued caterpillar with way too many antennae, but look closer and you'll see the meticulous basket-weaving that makes up each component.

Hand-weaving is an ancient art that is found in many forms in every culture, Hee explains. Basketry, spinning, plaiting, loom-weaving all qualify. "Weaving is anything where you have two sets of fibers and they go in and out -- interlacing -- as you weave."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Kathy Tosh's "You Can Take the Girl Out of California, But ..." is an untraditional woven piece, but intricate basket-weaving was used to create the intertwining pieces.

The show's theme -- "Home Is Where the Art Is" -- challenged weavers to create pieces that would be comfortable at home, with some part that was woven. Material was up to them and the variety is extensive. Elaina Malm's "Lion's Roar" is a long, shiny wall hanging woven entirely of strips cut from Lion Coffee bags. It won the Hawaii Craftsmen Award for Creativity.

The Best of Show award, however, went to a traditional piece, Maya Satoi's "I Love Plaits: Blue and Yellow," made of yarn that she spun herself, then hand-dyed, wove into fabric and sewed into pillows.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Laurel Hayama holds pillows made of yarn she dyed with Kool-Aid.

Satoi's piece encompasses that whole of the art, beginning to end; exhibits at the show explain this process in detail. Visitors can try weaving at a table loom and learn to dye yarn using natural ingredients in a workshop Saturday.

Hee says she took up the art in high school, remaining drawn to it by the seemingly endless variety of pattern and color that weaving can create.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Linda Hee wove newspaper and toilet paper rolls into a waste basket.

Laurel Hayama, weaving instructor at the Honolulu Academy of Arts who also helped assemble this show, was drawn by more practical concerns, after seeing what a mess art forms such as painting could create. "Weaving was the cleanest," she says. "After you finish, it's just that. You don't have to clean up."

The Handweavers' Hui, formed in 1953, welcomes the uninitiated to its workshops and bimonthly meetings. Call 626-2487.

Home is Where the Art Is Hawaii Handweavers' Hui biennial exhibition On view: Through May 31 Place: Academy Art Center at Linekona Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays; 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays Admission: Free; parking behind building Call: 532-8741 Also: Free workshop on hand-dying, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

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