The art of featherworking has a long, cultural history in Hawaii. Rooted in the tradition of their Polynesian ancestors, the early Hawaiian perfected and transformed the art as they created feathered cloaks, capes, helmets, images, and standards for the alii. Many of the items made were considered sacredfrom both the process of their creation to their uses. Despite the influx of Western ideas, and the introduction of Christianity which, for a time, halted the practice of many traditional customs, this artform has survived and flourishes todaythanks in part to those in the community who continue their ancestors' legacy. This new edition of Feather Lei as an Art is meant to perpetuate the art of featherworking and bring it to a wide audience. It provides step-by-step instructions o how to make both traditional (round) and contemporary (flat) feather lei. Vibrant, color photographs complement instructions and provide a visual testament to the beauty of featherworking. Designed and written with the beginner in mind, the aspiring featherworker is guided not only through the steps of how to make the lei, but through the soul-satisfying journey which leads to its completion. Included is an overall look at the history of this ancient art; an explanation of the difference between traditional and contemporary lei; interpretations of the traditional colors used and color combinations; a detailed supply list; how to identify, prepare and work with feathers; how to store feather lei; and examples of what types of featherwork is being explore today.

Painstakingly constructed by hand of plant fiber and precious feathers from endemic birds of Hawai‘i, feather cloaks and capes provided spiritual protection to Hawaiian chiefs for centuries while proclaiming their royal status. Few of the artworks known as nā hulu ali‘i, or royal feathers, survive today except in museums and private collections. Through photographs and scholarly essays, Royal Hawaiian Featherwork highlights approximately seventy-five rare examples of the finest featherwork capes and cloaks (‘ahu‘ula) extant, as well as royal staffs of feathers (kāhili), feather lei (lei hulu manu), helmets (mahiole), feathered god images (akua hulu manu), and related eighteenth- and nineteenth-century paintings and works on paper. With their brilliant coloring and abstract compositions of crescents, triangles, circles, quadrilaterals, and lines, the artworks are both beautiful and rich in cultural significance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, featherworks were key items of indigenous Hawaiian diplomacy, used to secure political alliances and agreements, worn as battlefield regalia, and seized as spoils from defeated chiefs. Later, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the featherworks—used in trading and gifts to foreign visitors—became symbols of Hawaiian heritage and cultural pride. This stunningly illustrated volume also serves as the catalogue to accompany the first exhibition of Hawaiian featherwork to be staged on the U.S. continent, scheduled for a six-month run starting in late August 2015 at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The book and exhibition provide an overdue opportunity for the public to discover the central role these artworks played in the culture and history of the Hawaiian Islands, to explore their unparalleled technical craftsmanship, and to discover an aesthetic tradition unique to the Hawaiian archipelago. Essays by: Samuel M. Ohukaniōhia Gon III, Marques Marzan, Maile Andrade, Noelle Kahanu, Betty Kam, Adrienne Kaeppler, Stacy L. Kamehiro, Christina Hellmich, and Roger Rose.

Describes in detail various aspects of Hawaiian featherwork. Discusses each garment or object in regard to its artistic design and appearance, its symbolic significance, the genealogical and heraldic implications in its design and its practical uses and historic importance.

Lei are the very expression of traditional Hawaiian culture and were once an essential part of community and family life. Following in the footsteps of Samuel Kamakau, Abraham Fornander, and others, the authors have collected here a wealth of written and oral information to reveal the significance of making and wearing lei and their role in Hawaiian ritual and dance. This volume covers eighty-five flowers and plants (and another dozen color variations) used in traditional lei construction. They are arranged according to their Hawaiian names and accompanied by botanical information and descriptions gleaned from legends and chants that illustrate the cultural uses and special meanings of lei prior to Western contact. Many are introduced by poems written especially for this work by master kumu hula, linguist, and ethnologist Pualani Kanakaole Kanahele. The authors present the lei art form in not only words, but also pictures. Lavish color photographs by Jean Coté showcase each plant and lei (shown by itself or worn), as well as places throughout the Islands associated with specific flowers and plants. An appendix includes a complete list of lei plants, basic instructions for their propagation, and other sources for material.

Be inspired and delighted by Collage Workshop for Kids, a colorful art instruction book on collage techniques for children—made in cooperation with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Collage Workshop for Kids pairs essays by educators from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art with instructions on collage technique. Chapters explore favorite art themes for kids and demonstrate how to work with colored tissue paper, newspaper, fabric and buttons, painted paper, torn paper, and more. In each chapter, Reggio-inspired author and teacher Shannon Merenstein explores each technique with original ideas. Members of the museum's education staff offer expert advice on creating art with children. Everything you need to know about collage is in this book, making it a great reference for teachers, librarians, and parents.

Lei expert Marie McDonald's history of the lei in Hawai'i is an entertaining and informative mix of personal narrative, history, and song.

A visual tour-de-force graphic novel from artist and writer Dave McKean (Black Dog, The Sandman). The Raptor, Sokol, flickers between two worlds: a feudal fantastical landscape where he must hunt prey to survive, and Wales in the late 1800s where a writer of supernatural tales mourns the passing of his young wife. He exists between two states, the human and the hawk. He lives in the twilight between truth and lies, life and death, reality and the imagination. World Fantasy, Harvey, British Science Fiction Association, and V+A Book Award winner Dave McKean's first creator-owned character is a wandering spirit for our times. This deluxe, oversized hardcover edition with an exclusive signed tip-in illustration is perfect for fans of Dave McKean's beautiful art who want to experience Raptor in large-scale glory.

The history of Hawaii may be said to be the story of arrivals -- from the eruption of volcanoes on the ocean floor 18,000 feet below to the first hardy seeds that over millennia found their way to the islands, and the confused birds blown from their migratory routes. Early Polynesian adventurers sailed across the Pacific in double canoes. Spanish galleons en route to the Philippines and British navigators in search of a Northwest Passage were soon followed by pious Protestant missionaries, shipwrecked sailors, and rowdy Irish poachers escaped from Botany Bay -- all wanderers washed ashore. This is true of many cultures, but in Hawaii, no one seems to have left. And in Hawaii, a set of myths accompanied each of these migrants -- legends that shape our understanding of this mysterious place. Susanna Moore pieces together the story of late-eighteenth-century Hawaii -- its kings and queens, gods and goddesses, missionaries, migrants, and explorers -- a not-so-distant time of abrupt transition, in which an isolated pagan world of human sacrifice and strict taboo, without a currency or a written language, was confronted with the equally ritualized world of capitalism, Western education, and Christian values.

Outgrowth of the author's thesis (Ph.D.--University of Washington).