Painting Pareos

After crossing from the island of Moorea we spent a windy, and rainy night in a large bay deep in the Island of Huahini. The next day we skirted around the north end of the island and headed down the easterly shores of Huahini in the inside of the reef, towards the south bay to meet up with our friends on a catamaran, Counting Stars. Played all different types of card games and board games while the parents went to have drinks during happy hour. The next day the two girls, Merin and Isla, and their mom were picked up by a lady who make pareos on the island, and was going to teach them how to paint their own. We made a plan with her to make our sarongs the following day. We then had a delicious lunch at the resorts restaurant with the oldest, Eoin, and his dad followed by an afternoon of swimming in the rain. The next day was full of more rain and wind. Then in the afternoon we were picked up my Natalie and taken to her house farther south down the island to paint our sarongs. When we arrived, we were greeted by her five dogs and the single cat that lived in her shop/studio. But don’t let the single cat fool you, twelve more lived within the house and the grounds but the fluffy black and white one didn’t get along with them so she got a small house all to herself. There were three pieces of cloth stretched taught between their rectangular, wooden frames. We each chose the designs that we liked from her already completes racks and worked with Natalie to put them together in the way that we desired. I chose dark blue and dark purple as my two colors. I have three large flowers with oval like petals diagonally across the middle, a hibiscus flower on the top and a dolphin on the bottom. The big flowers in the middle separate the colors; purple on the top with a blue hibiscus and blue on the bottom with a purple dolphin. The flowers in the middle are brushed with a little bit of blue and purple with the background of the petals remaining white. This makes the flora in the middle the main eye-catching part of the piece. To paint the cloth, we used water-based paints and rubbed the color into the fabric with big paint brushes until the color was dark enough that when it dried, the color wouldn’t completely desert the textile. When we finished we left them with her to dry and picked them up the next day while we had our rental car and were touring the island we stopped by her house to retrieve them. The only thing left to do was soak them in salt water then dry them to allow the color to set. After this I sent mine through the washing machine to take away the crusty feel and salty smell from the beautiful and finally complete piece.

One Reply to “Painting Pareos”

  1. This sounds like another memorable day in Hauhini! I hope to see a photo of your art work in a post!

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