Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 2, 1 February 2011 — WOODTURNERS PARADISE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WOODTURNERS PARADISE

Aīien paying off his finst Mālama Loan, Syd Vienna of Akamai Woods now neaps benefits of his second

By Kathy Muneno

n the rainforest of Paradise Park in Puna, Hawai'i, a chorus of bird song mingles with the humming and grinding of what the forest has left for Syd Vierra. He breathes new life into the core of a fallen tree, and literally turns it into something to behold onee again.

Vierra is a woodturner. M o s t

would say he is an artist - he has awards and honors that say so aswell. But, Vierra savs

otherwise. "I'm having the hardest time swal-

lowing that," he confides. "I think 'artist' means so mueh, and I don't think I'm even close to that." He will eall himself a craftsman, even a good woodworker and a self-taught engineer. But, perhaps not "artist" because he hasn't had any formal art education, or because with only one decade under his belt, he's relatively new to wood turning, or maybe simply because he is humhle, a rellection of his upbringing, in whieh a peneil and paper were his most treasured commodities. Vierra grew up one of 13 children in an extended family, cared for by his aunt. He lived in Nānākuli, in Leeward O'ahu, until the third grade and fondly remembers spending a week at a time at the heaeh - a childhood rich in experiences that fostered a vibrant imagination. When the family moved to California, he gave that imagination shape and form with his paper and peneil. "We were inland and there didn't seem to be mueh to do so you kind of kept yourself entertained so I did sketching. I found peaee in drawing." Vierra says he moved out of his aunt's home just two credits shy of graduating from high school, to relieve her hnaneial burden. He heeame a crane operator, truck driver, self-taught welder and meehanie. "I was born to be a meehanie. Machinery and I are old friends," he says. So maybe it's no surprise he bought his first woodturning maehine a decade ago, on Hawai'i Island, to make some extra money. "It wasn't to do art, the word art never entered my imagination, just a few pieces to sell to make money to put my kids in a good school, to give them better than I had." He taught himself through books and videos, by joining a woodcrafters club, observing and "little by little applying my own skills," says Vierra, who

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Syd Vierra was recognized wilh a first plaee Piko Award at the 2010 Hawaiian 'Ohana for Education in the Arts Market in Waimea. At right, Syd Vierra's traditional forms. - Photos: Courtesy of Syd Vierra

earned his GED at age 30. Within three years he was making a living solely on his artwork - vases, bowls and 'umeke (calabash) - selling for $500 to $1,000 eaeh, under the name Akamai Woods. The wood is "recycled," dropped off by yardmen or found on the ground in the forest. "I won't kill it if it's alive," he says. What the wood becomes is dictated by the wood itself and by Vierra's imagination and that childhood paper and peneil. "The sketching and the drawing, that gives me the background to know, a gut feeling, of shapes and forms." And sometimes he applies a powder dye that turns his pieces an unexpected blue, red, yellow or green. Vierra acknowledges the help of many along the way, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Vierra bought an acre in Puna and literally started building a home around his wood-turning maehine. A year later, in 2008, he heard about OHA's Mālama Loan for business, education and home improvement. He received a $50,000 loan to complete his house and workshop and says he paid it off in eight months. That enabled him to receive another Mālama Loan last year

to expand and buy a custom-built "rare pieee of machinery" that ean turn huge 400-pound logs, Vierra says. Not to make more pieces, but larger pieces, like a 3-foot tall vase that would retail for up to $ 14,000. "I really would like to master the big vases on all levels," he says. "There's no one in the country who makes them. And maybe to dye them to make them even more unique. That's my goal and I'm gonna capture that market." No doubt he will, andprobably sooner than expected. That's his modus operandi. "That's one thing I got from Nānākuli, from my upbringing, is you have to work hard. I'm 48 years old now and still work as hard as I did when I was a kid." And this is his philosophy: "You have to see your vision, you have to believe it and just go for it." Lor more information, visit www.akamaiwoods.com, eall 808-982-5836 or email syd@ akamaiwoods.com. ■ Kathy Muneno is a Contributing Writer for Ka Wai Ola. She is a weekenā weather anchor at KHON2.

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