Post #449059 by makrogore on Thu, Apr 23, 2009 1:33 AM

I've been lurking on TikiCentral for too long without finally posting and sharing some mana'o. It's an interesting take on ki'i punohu / ki'i wana that you're doing here. The detail is quite incredible. Still, my favorites are the ones I've done, which attempt to resemble the original ki'i punohu that was found at Kamohio on Kaho'olawe, given a little artistic license. Nowhere near the amount of detail that you have achieved, but I work with a file and a pin to work things out.

For anyone who is unfamiliar, ki'i punohu is the phrase that we use for carved pencil slate (Heterocentrotus mammillatus) urchin spines. They're a particularly interesting thing that is peculiar to Hawai'i, specifically to Kaho'olawe, as the only examples that have been found, to date, were there at a fishing shrine. Some people have postulated that the one piece with a fully carved face is possibly Ku'ula, one of the akua lawai'a, fishing gods. Three or four other punohu spines were found in the same small shrine with some details carved into them, but only one had a well-defined face. I have provided a picture below of some contemporary examples that I have done.

Here is a link to pictures of the original ki'i punohu, courtesy of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum: http://www.hawaiialive.org/realms.php?sub=Kai+Akea&treasure=373&offset=0

Cheers!