The morning after the preview party for the 2003 Hawaii's Woodshow, Marian Yasuda was cleaning the exhibit area in preparation for the public opening when a gentleman poked his head in the entrance.

“;He said he was headed to the airport to fly to Maui, but he wanted to take a look around,”; recalled Yasuda, the event's coordinator. “;I was very tired and cranky, but I reluctantly allowed him to come in. It happened to be his wife's birthday that day, and he wound up spending $19,000 on gifts for her right then and there!”;

Organized by the Hawaii Forest Industry Association, the annual juried event showcases furniture, sculptures, bowls, musical instruments and more created by the finest wood artists in the islands.

“;It's akin to an exhibition at a fine-art museum,”; said Yasuda, a former woodworker who operated a custom furniture business in Honolulu for 18 years. “;The creativity is amazing and the quality is exceptional. Even better, most of the pieces are available for purchase.”;

To qualify for the show, entries must be made solely from locally grown woods such as koa, kamani, Norfolk pine, kiawe and macadamia.

This year's 16th annual Hawaii's Woodshow features 107 pieces by 55 artists from Oahu, Maui and the Big Island. The youngest participant is 13-year-old Rachel Dunn, a home-schooled resident of Hawi on the Big Island, who crafts one-of-a-kind pens from coffee, milo and koa wood. Her pens, which are beautiful keepsakes, are sold at Volcano Art Center, the Academy Shop at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and other fine galleries on the Big Island, Oahu and Maui.

HFIA launched Hawaii's Woodshow in 1993 to underscore the important role forests play in the state's economy and ecology, and to respond to concerns about the limited supply of koa and the sustainability of koa forests.

“;At the time, the local wood industry was very koa-centric,”; said Yasuda. “;Everyone wanted to work with it, and a worrisome situation developed when they found it was difficult to find because of the lack of accessibility to trees ready for harvest, that is, dead and dying trees.”;

The bulk of Hawaii's koa supply comes from the Big Island, where most of the acreage is restricted land owned by the state. The only areas where koa is being logged legally are on private ranches.

HFIA saw the need to raise awareness about alternative woods that were just as attractive and durable as koa for artistic and utilitarian purposes.

Hawaii's Woodshow originally was known as the 10 Percent Koa Challenge because entries could not contain more than 10 percent koa, and the rest of their materials had to be locally grown woods.

“;That encouraged craftsmen to experiment with mango, milo, eucalyptus, ohia and other woods,”; said Yasuda. “;By the fourth year of the show, the interest in using other options had grown to the point where the 10 percent koa restriction could be dropped.”;

FROM ITS inception, Hawaii's Woodshow has prohibited the use of rare and endangered native species, including iliahi (sandalwood), loulu (fan palm) and kopiko, a member of the coffee family.

Judging of the entries is based on design concept and implementation. Twenty-four awards are presented, including Novice (first-time participants), Student (participants under the age of 18), People's Choice (chosen by the public) and the Skolmen Award, which recognizes the creative use of woods from lesser-known non-native trees.

Its namesake, Roger Skolmen, conducted groundbreaking research on the hardness, flexibility, tensile strength and optimum growing conditions of Hawaii-grown timber species during his tenure with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Institute for Pacific Islands Forestry from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Summing up wood's appeal, Yasuda said: “;It's a warm and friendly material. Its appearance, feel, aroma and, in the case of musical instruments, sound generate positive reactions.

“;Most people enjoy the beauty of trees in their natural habitat. It's wonderful to see that beauty preserved in finely crafted products with a green approach.”;

In Yasuda's opinion, bowl turners are the best scavengers and recyclers. “;They salvage material from green-waste facilities, landscaping contractors and neighbors trimming their trees,”; she said. “;It's the ultimate trash-to-treasure transition.”;

Woodshow attendees are always surprised and impressed by what imagination and skilled hands can produce. “;They marvel at the incredible pieces artists have created from the same types of trees growing in their yard,”; said Yasuda. “;It's always a delight seeing ordinary things turned into something extraordinary!”;