Ancient Hawaiian Calabashes

[Emiliano Achaval]

Yesterday I visited the Honolulu Academy of Arts. My wife's auntie had a vast collection of ancient, most of them pre-contact calabashes. All of them are made out of Kou. She donated her entire collection to the museum. The giant one was made in 1850, and judging by some marks on the inside, was turned on a lathe. Not all of them belonged to her, some belonged to Mrs.Cooke. Folks, these are the real deal...

 

[John Rander]

Emiliano, really nice! Please excuse my ignorance, but I know nothing of the history of calabash making in Hawaii. Are these turned from hardwood or cut from gourds and polished?

 

[Donovan Bailey]

Beautiful...no other descriptive word applies. Thank you for posting these pics.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Emiliano, really nice! Please excuse my ignorance, but I know nothing of the history of calabash making in Hawaii. Are these turned from hardwood or cut from gourds and polished?

All of these were hand carved with stone tools except the giant one. Pre-contact means before Capatain Cook discovered Hawaii. Kou was the preferred wood of the native Hawaiians, considered a hardwood, yet very soft compared to Koa. I will be talking a little about the history of the Hawaiian calabash in Raleigh at the Aaw symposium.

 

[John Torchick]

And I thought Calabash was a seafood port in North Carolina. Thanks for the history lesson. Mrs. Cooke was the Captain's wife?

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

And I thought Calabash was a seafood port in North Carolina. Thanks for the history lesson. Mrs. Cooke was the Captain's wife?

She was from a family of missionaries, like my wife’s family...

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Anyone wanting to know more about Hawaiian bowls should refer to the excellent article in the Oct. 2017 issue of American Woodturner.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Anyone wanting to know more about Hawaiian bowls should refer to the excellent article in the Oct. 2017 issue of American Woodturner.

Or issue 308 of Woodturning UK magazine, my article, The Hawaiian Calabash.

 

[John Rander]

Anyone wanting to know more about Hawaiian bowls should refer to the excellent article in the Oct. 2017 issue of American Woodturner.

Thanks for the reference. I just downloaded the Oct. 2017 issue; the article on the umeke la'au is quite interesting! As a new turner here I just haven't started looking through the earlier issues, the hint was helpful!

 

[John Rander]

Or issue 308 of Woodturning UK magazine, my article, The Hawaiian Calabash.

Emiliano, any way to download a PDFcopy of your article (I'm not a subscriber to the UK magazine)?

 

[Roger Wiegand]

Those are stunningly nice! I'll think about doing it with stone tools next time I'm feeling sorry about how long it takes me to hollow a vessel!

On a side note, I'm sure all the people living in Hawai'i for the previous 6-1200 years would have been amused by the notion that the islands needed to be "discovered" by Capt. Cook.

 

[John Torchick]

Woodturning UK magazine

Is it in English? OK, need to research it. The islands weren't discovered. They weren't lost. The Hawaiians knew about them for centuries.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Emiliano, any way to download a PDFcopy of your article (I'm not a subscriber to the UK magazine)?

You can buy individual single copies if you do it thru the app on your tablet or iPhone , or go to the www.thegmcgroup.com on your computer. Subscription is a little cheaper per issue...

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Is it in English? OK, need to research it. The islands weren't discovered. They weren't lost. The Hawaiians knew about them for centuries.

Last time I went to England everyone spoke English...

 

[John Torchick]

Met a fellow from England; he said they spoke propah English. An Australian said the Aussies and Americans were two separate cultures separated by a common language. Cheers! And g'day, mate.
Edit- need to read the article.

 

[John Rander]

You can buy individual single copies if you do it thru the app on your tablet or iPhone , or go to the www.thegmcgroup.com on your computer. Subscription is a little cheaper per issue...

Thanks fro the info!

 

[Dave DeJong]

Met a fellow from England; he said they spoke propah English. An Australian said the Aussies and Americans were two separate cultures separated by a common language. Cheers! And g'day, mate.
Edit- need to read the article.

We had an engineer from England come around on occasion to the place I worked. This chap had a very very heavy English accent. He was a very personable funny guy and it was my job to work with him and I enjoyed his company. He told me that he would only allow his company to send him to English speaking countries although once in a while he got stuck going to the Bronx. The thought of him with his heavy accent communicating with people from the Bronx struck me funny

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Met a fellow from England; he said they spoke propah English. An Australian said the Aussies and Americans were two separate cultures separated by a common language. Cheers! And g'day, mate.
Edit- need to read the article.

I hope you like it!! Aloha from Maui