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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE



Hawaiiana
lights his way


His rep as a rep led him to upscale illumination. Greg Elterman is a lifeguard-turned-surfwear rep-turned-lamp maker.

The Hawaii-themed, handpainted ceramic lamps his Aloha Electric Lamp Co. makes in Haleiwa are sold in upscale stores such as Macy's at Ala Moana, Martin & MacArthur and Tommy Bahama and in specialty stores across the mainland.

art
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Greg Elterman, president of the Aloha Electric Lamp Co., left, shows off his merchandise. Dan Tilton of Fyrewerks Ceramics, right, makes the lamps and Elterman markets them.




Designs include Hawaiian women in nostalgia-based settings, a pineapple, an ukulele, a tiki and one called "Surf Trophy," borne of his design for a Roxy Pro surf tournament. The company also makes bamboo pole shaped lamps more than 4 ft. tall with handpainted shades.

The lamps range in price from $385 to $665 at Macy's Ala Moana in the Kuu Home island-themed home furnishings department. "The best selling lamp is the wahine water bearer," said Tiffany Kim, buyer for the department. That one is at the top of the price range.

They are very well made. You can tell the quality of the ceramic," she said. "It's high-fired and there's a difference between that and low-fired. You can even tell by the sound of the ceramic. They're all hand-painted and he has beautiful shades to go with them," Kim said.

"Half the lamps we sell go to the mainland," Kim said.

Macy's rings up those mainland-customer sales even though the lamps are not featured on Macy's Web site and are only sold in the Ala Moana store. There are some in the Tommy Bahama section at Macy's Kahala Mall, used for decorative purposes.

The Aloha Electric Lamp Co. Web site at www.hawaiilamps. com displays most of the company's designs and contact information for Elterman but some of its functions are works in progress.

The company was riding an epic wave of success, building a list of more than 400 accounts through trade shows and other contacts, until last Fall. "We were doing $20,000 to $50,000 a month wholesale until Sept. 11," Elterman said. The resulting downturn forced the operation to scale down from six artists and two production managers to three people, including Elterman.

Piracy has also crunched into the company. The high-end price of Elterman's lamps has spurred low-priced knock-offs. Imitation in this case is not the sincerest form of flattery, so Elterman has sought legal advice about how best to fight back.

Competition is not new to Elterman, whose business roots took hold in the highly competitive world of surf apparel and accessories. Having "repped" for another company in the mid-'90s he joined Keoni Lucas and Christian Kennel, founders of Pu In Sai Clothing Co.

Eventually the founders moved on to other careers. "We still have some distribution but it's basically dormant," Elterman said, though a local licensee owns the rights to produce merchandise.

Local pop culture and a song by the late Israel Kamakawiwoole made the phrase widely known for its sexual connotation but the company name started out as a surf term meaning to ride inside the barrel of a wave. Acknowledging that sex sells, Elterman said, "We were doing pretty good with it there for awhile, but then we couldn't find an investor, which we are still actively seeking."

"It was hot and it still could be," Elterman said, but in the late 1990s he found "I didn't have time to do both. Pu In Sai wasn't making me a living and my lamps were."





Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com




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