Polymer Clay art and jewelry inspired by literature

 Volcanic rocks, hibiscus blooms, sea turtles… I have traveled back through time to the Kingdom of Hawaii with my latest read: Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes’ novel “The Pohaku.” Pohaku is lava rock, the geologic foundation of the Hawaiian Islands, imbued with historical, spiritual, and economic significance. It connects the Hawaiian people to their land and their ancestors, bringing good luck to those who cherish it and misfortune to those who exploit it. In Hakes’ novel, the pohaku becomes a character in its own right — an ancient stone twin-birthed alongside the princess Kaʻahumanu in 1777. The stone is believed to hold the spiritual and ancestral power necessary to unite the islands of Hawaii under one ruler, and is passed down through generations of women, its path tracing their own unique histories, until the day it mysteriously disappears from hiding near Sutter’s Fort, California. 

Meanwhile, in modern day (1992), a teenage girl lies comatose in a hospital on Kaui, her estranged grandmother at her side. The grandmother (Kapuna) begins to tell her the story of the pohaku — the story of her ancestors, their journeys through cultural and geographical disconnection, and the efforts of their Hawaiian maternal ancestors to protect the sacred stone at all costs. In sharing their family’s secret history, Kapuna hopes to build a bridge between the past and present; healing her granddaughter by forging a connection to her sacred story.

So many visions and ideas for art and design from this story! Of course the beauty of the tropical flowers, the ocean, the colors of the sunset, but all with the backdrop of the rich dark color and texture of lava rock, the imagining of volcanic lava itself flowing through channels among the stone.