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Ancient Hawaiian Calabashes

Emiliano Achaval

Emiliano Achaval

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Location
Maui, Hawaii
Website
hawaiiankoaturner.com
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...
 

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John Rander said:
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?
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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.
 
And I thought Calabash was a seafood port in North Carolina. Thanks for the history lesson. Mrs. Cooke was the Captain's wife?
 
Don Wattenhofer said:
Anyone wanting to know more about Hawaiian bowls should refer to the excellent article in the Oct. 2017 issue of American Woodturner.
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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!
 
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 Rander said:
Emiliano, any way to download a PDFcopy of your article (I'm not a subscriber to the UK magazine)?
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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...
 
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 Torchick said:
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.
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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
 
John Torchick said:
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.
Click to expand...
I hope you like it!! Aloha from Maui
 
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