Saturday, December 20th, Swap Meet, and Pearls!

Pearls!

We wandered the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet on Saturday for a couple of hours. It was hot and sweaty work, and we didn't get all the way around once, let alone see anything in the outside ring, but since there are a lot of booths carrying similar items I didn't feel like we missed too much.

There was one booth with local handmade jewelry, beautifully presented that stood out from the many booths with loads of imported junky jewelry. I picked out two necklace and earring sets there. they do patterns with cut shells and abalone shell in resin and some beach glass stuff. The prices were reasonable, $15 for the earrings and $25 for the necklaces. The way they had things displayed reminded me of how we do it when we sell our jewelry. There were trays of shell bits with large shells and starfish with the sets draped over them. Nothing was crowded, and it all looked elegant.

We got a couple of Aloha shirts for me. Harry wanted me to look at dresses, but I could tell the styles wouldn't look good on my apple shape and when I tried them, I was right, though it was tough for Harry to give me that feed back when I needed it. So we settled for the shirts in the fabrics I liked.

He got several wooden birds that hang from fish line and flap their wings when the breeze blows. We also picked up some pineapple with flavor powder poured in with it, kind of like getting pre-sweetened kool-aid poured over it. It was good, but a little too sweet towards the end of the bag. We also got two of those neck coolers with the gel in them and appreciated the extra cooling.

We had some conversation with some young men carving wood who turned out to be LDS, which was fun. They know of our wood carving guy on the windward side and tried to get Harry to say what we were charged for our walking sticks, but he declined to share that. They confirmed what I've been trying to tell Harry, that the Hale Koa tree our sticks came from is not the same as Koa wood, which comes from a much larger tree. We've been trying to find out what that tree is, but it turns out it is considered invasive and undesirable, so it isn't featured anywhere.


Our first stop was at the Coral Jewelry place. Harry wanted me to see the jewelry there. They are very nice, but very adroit at getting you to choose a piece and then making a deal you can't refuse. The girl who waited on us claimed to remember Harry from 6 or 8 years ago, and when her manager sweetened the deal for me she squealed, jumped up and down and hugged me over and over at the wonderful deal I'd just been given. The necklace and earrings were going to total over $500, and I refused to commit to it, feeling like it was too much for jewelry for me, but I did like the pieces I picked out. Harry was more interested in us picking out some pearls anyway.

We went on to the Macadamia Plantation and looked at the pearl shop again to get the information for the wholesale place where you make an appointment and look at bulk pearls. The idea was to get pearls and have them drilled for me to string. I really hadn't fallen in love with anything when we were there before, but had decided the pink pearls were my favorite. This time, while we were getting information again from the guy in the shop (turns out he is the younger brother of the guy in the wholesale place) I spotted a necklace in the case that I instantly fell in love with. It had a variety of colors ranging from cream to pistachio, to dark blue with iridescent overtones, like the aurora coatings added to many glass beads. I took a photo of it so we'd have something to refer to at the wholesale place. We then called and were able to make an appointment for 45 minutes later.

The Necklace that inspired me

We went just down the road to the wood carver's place then and ordered a carved bracelet for me. I gave him a lot of leeway in the design, which he says makes a lot of woodcarvers nervous in case you don't like it, but he says it doesn't matter to him because he can always sell it if you don't like it. He usually carves the couple's names with a heart in the middle and "Hawai'i" and the year. I told him I would remember when and where I got it and didn't need our names on it, but would like a flower at the center of the design and then as he suggested ideas of what could be carved around it, I liked the idea of fish and beach things because I've enjoyed the snorkeling and the fish so much. We are going to give him plenty of time so he can work out the design.

At the pearl wholesaler we found Alec to be very pleasant, knowledgeable and nice to work with. He helped me construct a beautiful necklace that I was in love with. However, we never told him our price range and when we were done the finished result was 6-8 times more expensive than we had planned on! Harry insisted on getting it anyway, which was hard for me to be comfortable with. We found out we could get them drilled and strung by an expert for only $20, so we decided to do that. The finished necklace would retail for double what we paid though, and will be an heirloom piece for me to pass on in the family. Later I realized Harry doesn't hesitate to spend the same kind of money on 'baubles' (The roadster) for himself, so I felt more comfortable about it after I thought of that. Since he will retire shortly, this will be the last splurge...

Other side view of the pearls