Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Hand carved blocks Aloha Shirt Kahala Sportswear

Vintage Tahitian fabrics were the inspiration for these stylized flowers and leaves on 100% cotton in Kahala Sportswear's Spring 2010 Aloha Shirt line.

I carved a sheet of blue foam from Fiberglass Hawaii in town for this design using a dremel tool.
They also carry great acrylic paints by Nova which I use in other projects.

There are probably 3 shades of blue here with white.

Designed in Kailua, Oahu near the beach.

Organic Cotton Aloha Shirt Print with hand carved hibiscus motifs

When Dale Hope told me that this hand block printed design called "Alcove" was going to be printed onto organic cotton, it was exciting to be part of a truly wonderful movement in the apparel industry.

The great people at the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative have been very kindly spending time communicating with me about their organic cotton. I've learned from reading their "From Field to Finished Product" web page that cotton mills have to be shut down and cleaned for organic cotton.

The Hawaiian Hibiscus flowers ,Hibiscus brackenridgei (Ma'o hau hele)growing in the Kalama Beach area of small beach town Kailua, on island of Oahu, area were the inspiration for the motifs here.

There is a huge story with 100s of people involved in the making of just one shirt,"Alcove" and I'm so proud to have been part of the process.