Long before lauhala was an earring, it was a mat. A hat. A sail strong enough to pull a canoe across open ocean. The hala tree — pandanus — grows along Hawai‘i’s shorelines and into its valleys, dropping long leaves with edges that need to be stripped and softened before any hand can weave with them. The kūpuna knew this. The weave was practical first, sacred always.
What you wear when you wear a piece of lauhala jewelry is that whole lineage, compressed into something small enough to sit at the wrist or hang from an ear. The weave is the same weave. The plant is the same plant. Only the form has changed.
From mats to adornment
Traditional lauhala work was made for use. Floor coverings inside the hale. Sleeping mats. Fans, baskets, the wide-brimmed pāpale that shaded weavers in the same fields where the leaves were harvested. Jewelry, in the way we think of it today, wasn’t the point — Hawaiian adornment in older times tended toward lei, kapa, bone, shell, and feather.
But the weave traveled. As contemporary Hawaiian makers reached for new ways to honor the old craft, they began wrapping lauhala onto hoops, around bangles, into small pieces that could be carried into modern life. The hands stayed the same — splitting the leaf, smoothing it, plaiting it tight against a base. What shifted was where the finished weave came to rest.
How a lauhala piece is made
Every piece begins with the leaf itself. Hala leaves are harvested, the spiny edges and stiff midribs stripped away, then softened — often by being rolled, dried, and cut into even strips called koana. From there, weaving is hand-by-hand, strand-by-strand. There are no shortcuts. A single hoop earring can take an hour of steady work; a full wrap bangle, much longer.
The pieces below are all hand-woven in Hawai‘i. Each one carries the small, honest irregularities of work made by a person and not a machine.
Four pieces, freshly made
These are our newest lauhala pieces — each one woven by hand, finished with shell pearls or shell charms drawn from our own Pacific waters.
Hand-woven lauhala on a gold-plated hoop, finished with a Hebrew cone (Conus ebraeus) shell — a small Hawaiian and Pacific sea snail named for the dark, ink-like markings on its shell. A piece that carries the leaf and the shore together. $49.99
Two rows of hand-wrapped lauhala set with natural shell pearls in yellow, beige, or brown. The double row gives the weave more presence at the ear — you can see the texture from across the room. $44.99
A full-wrap bangle on a gold-plated base, hand-woven in deep black or red. The most labor-intensive piece in this group — every millimeter of the wrist is covered in plaited hala. Sized 8.5″ or 9.5″. $59.99
A lighter take — half the hoop wrapped in hala, the other half polished silver, finished with a single shell pearl in dramatic black or sunny yellow. The everyday piece in the collection. $39.99
Wearing the weave today
Lauhala jewelry doesn’t ask to be precious. It asks to be worn. The leaves were grown to be useful; the hands that wove them were trained to make things that move with you. A pair of lauhala hoops will get into your routine the same way a favorite shirt does — until one day you realize you’ve been wearing the islands without thinking about it.
If you’re new to lauhala, start with what feels like you. The half wrap hoops are the gentlest way in. The bangle is for someone who wants the weave doing real work on the wrist. The Hebrew cone earrings are for the person who likes a small story hanging at the ear. They’re all the same lineage, just different ways of carrying it.
See the full lauhala collection →
Bring the islands home: Explore our Lauhala Jewelry — original designs from our Native Hawaiian–owned studio in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i.