One tiki, two tiki (Tiki business in Las Vegas)

One tiki, two tiki... Polynesian spirit alive and well at Las Vegas' Oasis Shade
**
Jeannette Carrillo, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Home and Garden section, Apr. 8, 2006
**
Like any landslide idea, Valerie Valente freed her mind and let the creative juices flow, so to speak, over a couple of Coronas on a sunny beach in Cancun, Mexico, one afternoon while vacationing with her family. What resulted from that brainstorming session was a solid business plan for Oasis Shade, a mostly palapa-based manufacturing company that specializes in all things Polynesian.

"It's a culture; it's an era," said Valente, who graduated from high school in Hawaii and went on to attend two years at the University of Hawaii. "You think about Trader Vic's and the tiki bars and the culture and how elegant it is," she said. Before embarking on the creative endeavor, Valente admits she never sold anything in her life sans the occasional Girl Scout cookies. Rather, the former nurse of 18 years, who specializes in the care of HIV patients (she continues to volunteer her services today), found a second calling importing, burnishing, painting and creating Polynesian works of art.

"My whole business started with the palapas," said Valente. "And when I'd finish a job my customers would constantly ask, 'How can I make it look so good?' They wanted to add the whole theme and there was no theme in Las Vegas. Nobody carried anything to go along with the theme. You could get the palapas, but you couldn't get the tikis." And what tikis they are, imported directly from Bali, and carved in 360-degree relief by indigenous artists out of 100 percent coco palms. In all, Valentie's tikis represent a variety of authentic characters, from her No. 1 - selling Tahitian tongue tiki, whose lavishly displayed red tongue extends a warm welcome to the toothy tiki whose job it is to ward off evil and bring in good luck.

Other notable figures include the Hawaiian god of war, the famous Easter Island figures, and the Maori tikis and tiki masks adorned with the famous facial tattoos. "One of the pool builders I work with is from New Zealand," said Valente, recalling the events of a recent afternoon that more than solidified her claim regarding her tikis' authenticity. "He came in and saw them and said, 'Oh my God, that's my home. That's the tiki from home,' and he picked it up and took it with him, just like that," she said.

While most of Valente's tikis can be carried away, some, measuring 5-feet-tall, top the scale at nearly 400 pounds. How's that for guaranteed to stay put during a Las Vegas wind? As for price, tikis range from $45 to $400 each, and figures arrive almost monthly from Bali to San Diego, where Valente makes the trip to sort through containers and divvy up the contents with other buyers. When unpacked, "it's like Christmas," she said. "I never know what I'm going to get." But what she does manage to bring back, upwards of a couple of hundred tikis, fly out the door as quickly as she can set them out.

Most of the tikis arrive in their natural blonde wood, or raw, state. From there, Valente takes to burnishing eye, mouth and other facial shadows, along with painting and varnishing them, which coaxes out their whimsical charm. With such an investment, she recommends sealing the tikis once a year with a standard deck sealer available at any home improvement store. The practice, she says, will guarantee a long life, limit the spread of cracks, reduce drying and maintain the overall vivid appearance. In all, "it's an art," she said. "It really is an art form."

Some of her tikis are even signed by the carvers themselves. "If they're signed, it's usually one initial on the bottom. Some of my better ones are signed by Z," said Valente. "I don't know who Z is, but he is real popular." Oasis Shade's retail shop is located at 7770 Duneville St., Suite 1, near Jones Boulevard and Interstate 215. Business hours are Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

[ Edited by: Thomas 2006-04-09 21:33 ]

[ Edited by: Thomas 2006-04-10 13:32 ]

i'm going to go by there this week. i'll post an update.

On 2006-04-10 08:51, pdrake wrote:
i'm going to go by there this week. i'll post an update.

Please take some pictures and post them here!

I saw that article in Saturday's paper just as we were leaving Vegas. My first reaction was "Doh! I don't have time to get over there and check it out!" But on second thought, I couldn't afford any more cab rides anyway. Vegas cabs are freakin' expensive!!