Measuring Growth with Lei

How is growth measured? In experience? Distance? Height? How about Lei?

These three designs were made in collaboration with The Keiki Dept. Leilani was the one with the vision and the idea. She believed in me as an artist and asked me to do the design for her and I am so grateful that she did because the one turned into 3 and I learned a lot along the way!

The first design was Lei Poinaole. It has lei aalii, pakalana, hala, ilima, wiliwili, pikake and maile in it. I learned while designing this print that we can never be too sure that we know everything. I assumed that all of the lei I were using were Hawaiian because they had Hawaiian names and are famous here in Hawaii, but realized later on that two of them (pakalana and pikake) were actually brought here by visitors.

The second lei design was Lei Omaomao. When I designed this one I did my research! I made sure that all the plants I used were native and I fell in love with the challenge! Designing with native plants is more difficult than with popular plants because you have to educate along the way. People arenʻt as quick to love things they can't recognize because it bears no significance to them so as a designer designing new things, you have to spend time building up the significance of your motifs along with the print. This challenge helped me to see that our native Hawaiian plants are lacking spotlight and should be front and center!

The last of the lei prints was Lei Anuenue and was done during the pandemic of 2020. This lei print was inspired by Leilani from The Keiki Department's love for Hawaii. She wanted to capture the idea of being one throughout all the islands during a difficult time. She wanted to inspire and unify through the bright colors of the rainbow and she was a genius because that is exactly what this print makes me think of. It reminds me of humanity and how we are all going through things so we should never forget to be kind and loving to others.

I hope you come to love these prints as much as we do! With all the love and thought that was put into them I hope they can brighten your lives with some color and native Hawaiian goodness!

Products for keiki are available on The Keiki Dept's Website and you can find products of my own with the print here on my website. These pareo will be dropping at 5pm HST on Friday January 29th.