To Buy Lava Creations or Not?

So, what are your opinions on collecting lava creations from Hawaii?

Personally, I am much too rooted in my own reality to believe in curses, but the idea of owning anything made out of lava from Hawaii just isn't appealing enough for me.

I see things made out of lava all the time "out in the wild" but I cannot even pick one up for the outside chance that I would end up in a horrible surfing accident or have a big spider crawl into my bed...

What are you opinions on collecting lava? Do you buy them? Do you pass them up? Do you have any proof of a curse from buying something?

Aloha!
-CMC

Are you talking about things actually made from lava rock? Or Coco Joe's(hip, etc) items that are as much 'lava' as 'hapa wood' is wood?

Most of the newer black items are resin, and the older stuff is a mix, possibly containing lava, which is the rock of the islands.

I collect lava items, be they real or not. I wouldn't collect the real stuff from sacred areas, and probably wouldn't bring back a chunk.

If you feel you have a problem with these items, you can just send them to me, I will keep them hermetically sealed in my living room, thus keeping any kapu feelings away from you. :wink:

I once had a severe and mysterious illness on my first visit to the Big Island, shortly after picking up a piece of black lava rock from a sacred petroglyph site. After several days of agony, my parents told me of the legend of not keeping any lava rock, so out of caution I threw the rock into the sea then ran to the emergency room. Doctors found nothing wrong with me and I was better the next day.

So I would be careful of the REAL lava rock if I were you!

Montezuma can't hold a torch to Pele for Revenge, I say...

TikiWahine,

I didn't know that the CocoJoes stuff was resin or a hybrid of lava. I know a little about tiki mugs/restaurants, but nothing about the other stuff. So thank you for the input. :)

About 13 years ago I lived with my girlfriend who was born and raised on Oahu. Eventually I told her my story of how I took a small lava rock from the Big Island when I was 10 years old. She got this really startled look on her face and could barely get out the words "do you still have it?" I said I did and she went white as a sheet. She freaked out to discover it was right there in our house.

It was evening, so there wasn't much I could do except call the Hawaii Volcanos National Park to get their mailing address. The guy on the phone was very disinterested in my plight. I asked if they get calls like this often and he dead-panned "Every day." So my gf told me the tradition was to send the rock back with an offering to appease Pele, "traditionally" a bottle of gin (?). Both were in the mail the next day. I suspect the gin was more for the park rangers than Pele, but I sent it nonetheless.

The relationship was soon over, but I did have a string of very good luck after mailing the rock home. I never particularly thought much about the "curse" of Pele and though it was something the tour guides dreamt up to keep people from stealing all their rocks. But no, this is a deeply held belief of the islanders and I was happy to rectify my mis-deed. Just as you shouldn't spray-paint over Indian petroglyphs or dance around during a church service with a pitchfork and devil horns, every belief system deserves respect, however absurd and unlikely it may seem.

So, to answer your question, there are no lava rock products in our house.

My Pal Doug who owns Pacific Blue Traders in San Jose (and another shop in Sonoma soon) contracts people to sculpt for him various tiki gods from both Sandstone and Black Ignious (Lava)Rock.

They are hand made in Java (Maybe Sumatra?)
He's getting 4 containers of stuff in comming weeks.

His website is
http://www.pacificbluetraders.com/

They don't show any of his Tiki Stuff, but there are some Buddas and kooky heads also carved from the stone on his website.

He also has some little huts he's torn down and brought here.

Tres cools

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