Volcano, HI

Volcano, HI

Thursday, 22. August 2013

Knowledge is power!

Last Friday, at an ungodly hour in the morning, we went to the market with Randy (the boss of Makai Glass) and two other guys from the studio. We wanted to see where they are managing to sell their glass costing $2000 a piece and how enthusiastic the tourists on the beaches of Maui are for handmade glass. Once a week the big hotel resorts organise an Arts and Crafts market, where the holidaymakers can find everything right on their doorstep. Handmade glass, ceramics, knives, wood sculptures and hammocks, have all been made by local artists for the visitors to enjoy and take home as a souvenir. This is very successful as the tourists are willing to spend quite a bit in order to take home something nice to remind them of their holidays. We watched this colourful scene for a while and took it in turns to cool off with a jump in the sea. 

At the weekends, everything happens by the sea: surfing, swimming, barbeques, eating and lots of fun. So after the market we visited some friends of Randy who live a bit further down the west coast, and once a month they camp on the beach for three days. They’ve grown up here, are always tanned and love to become one with the sea, or so they say.

We had three days left to explore the island before we moved on to Big Island/Hawaii. So on Sunday we got started with the typical tourist day, joined by a nice couple from Seattle/Phoenix who were also on their way to see the sights of the south coast, like Hana and the waterfalls. The next day we visited Rick Strini, a talented and fit glass maker, who’s one of the few people we have met who works alone in his studio from 6.00 – 13.00 every day. This is so that he can catch the best time of the day to go kite-surfing, but in the evenings he works on the computer and packs glass. He’s set up his studio in a great way; even his telephone is right next to the work bench so he’s always easy to get hold of. Not knowing this however, when we stood in front of his gate, rather than phoning him we decided to climb over not realising that it was automatic. (We are very sorry if this has messed up the mechanism and really hope that it’s working again.) In the evening of the same day we met a very interesting gentleman. Douglas told us his life story and said we should be grateful for every day and not be angry too often, as this makes you old and unhappy. And never stop learning, as knowledge is power. We both found Rick Strini and Douglas very inspiring.

The next day we decided to move out of our home for the last night. As everyone is so friendly we would pack up and just see what would happen. In an instant we met so many nice people and immediately got five offers for somewhere to sleep for the night. But first we visited Hot Island Glass Gallery and looked at the beautiful pieces there. Then we visited Worcester GlassWorks, a family run studio which was the first glass studio on Maui. They are really lovely people who have set everything up so well, that it is fun to make glass there. It was Deborah who took us there, and we stayed with her for our last night on Maui. We slept an amazing 12 hours in a heavenly soft bed.