Star-Advertiser / BUY LOCAL – This family’s all business, and so far, business is good
Mahalo Erika and the Star-Advertiser for featuring our family!
BUY LOCAL This family’s all business, and so far, business is good
By Erika Engle
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 17, 2015
Eleven-year-old Kia’i Tallet’s entrepreneurial spirit has fostered interconnected businesses that her family runs from their farm in the Hamakua District. Kia’i Tallett is pictured with her parents Sally Lundburg and Keith Tallett at Keolamauloa Farm on Hawaii island.
This is an unusual take on a family business because it’s actually three businesses: his, hers and hers (their daughter’s). While the businesses are as interrelated as the family members, it is the 11-year-old who has been the driving force.
Young Kia‘i Tallett learned hand-knitting, or knitting using her fingers as opposed to knitting needles, when she was 5, said her mother, Sally Lundburg.
She now uses knitting needles “because it goes faster,” Kia‘i said shyly. Kia‘i wants to open a real shop, Lundburg said, but of course, she’s 11.
So in January they started an online shop at Etsy.com, a marketplace of handcrafted items, supplies for crafting all manner of products, and more.
All three businesses are active via social media portals Facebook and Instagram, and e- commerce-capable websites are in the works, but Kia‘i’s Etsy shop was the first out of the gate.
When Pixsea Handmade opened on Etsy, it was stocked with Kia‘i’s goods including knitted beanies, cuffs, pouches and other accessories, and hand-felted flowers called Pixsea’s Posies. The patterns for the work are of Kia‘i’s own design. Also, though, you’ll find rings Lundburg and her husband, Keith Tallett, a board shaper, made using castoff resin from his business.
Pixsea Handmade’s Pixsea Posies, felt and vintage button hairpins, created by Kia’i Tallett. photo: Sally Lundburg
“We had a bunch of sales,” Lundburg said, convincing the family they were onto something worth pursuing.
There also is a formal element to the family’s endeavor.
Since it’s really Kia‘i’s shop, “we have an agreement with her” wherein their daughter gets a cut of any items her parental units sell from Pixsea Handmade.
Resin rings and earrings by Hawaii island-based Kalakoa Designs. The rings are made of waste resin. photo: Sally Lundburg
Merchandise in the shop ranges from $10 for a knitted cuff with a vintage button to $55 for dangling earrings of wood and resin, with other items in between.
Upcycled resin and driftwood earrings by Kalakoa Designs. photo: Sally Lundburg
Both Kia‘i’s parents are surfers as well as exhibiting artists whose shows have included group exhibitions and awards from the Honolulu Museum of Art as well as the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Lundburg said.
Also, Keith Tallett is a skills trainer for children with autism in a local public school, and Lundburg is a freelance photographer and videographer.
Kalakoa Designs was inspired by a resin ring Keith Tallett made for Lundburg as a gift. Keith Tallett, a second-generation shaper, leads Manukai Handboards, making the bodysurfing equipment using old surfboards, foraged and discarded wood, as well as old wet suits.
A surfboard save from the landfill for many more years of fun. photo: Sally Lundburg
“Our goal is to keep waste out of the landfill and off the beaches, and make shapes that are fun to ride,” Lundburg said.
Freshly sprayed Manukai Handboards by second- generation shaper Keith Tallett. The handboards are made from cast-off surfboards and reclaimed wood at Tallett’s family farm in the Hamakua District of Hawaii island. photo: Sally Lundburg
Manukai activity on Instagram has drawn not only the attention of, but an order from the upscale Roberta Oaks boutique in Chinatown. The Manukai items should be in the shop by summer, Lundburg said.
During the course of “glassing” the boards, some resin will fall to the floor, but Keith Tallett and Lundburg got inspired and started shaping the chunks of resin rather than just throwing them out.
Kalakoa Designs rings were forged out of that waste resin, as well as from containers of several layers of different-colored resin that had hardened.
Ding to Ring – Fixing an old board with red resin resulted in a beautiful of red and orange rings. photo: Sally Lundburg
“Now we have molds out, so when he’s doing glassing, he can take clear resin and take color and pour it into the mold.”
“We use a bunch of things to capture the leftover resin,” including ice cube trays, Lundburg said.
Kia‘i Tallett works on new designs while wearing one of her knitted headbands festooned with a Pixsea Posie. The 11 year-old’s work is sold in her online Etsy Shop as well as at Big Island Grown in Honokaa.photo: Sally Lundburg
Kia‘i had been using vintage buttons for her knitted pieces and her handmade flowers, but they realized they can mold their own buttons using Keith Tallett’s unused resin.
The resin “is pretty toxic … so we’re not having her pour the resin, but she can be part of the finishing process,” Lundburg said.
Plants around the Hamakua farm where the family lives inspired Kia‘i to have some resin poured over a hapuu frond. The first result, a squared piece of resin that looks like beach glass with a frond in it, appears on the Pixsea Handmade Facebook page.
Soon a whole selection of botanical resin jewelry will be available in the Pixsea Handmade Etsy shop, Lundburg said.
Upcycled resin and reclaimed wood rings and earrings by Hawaii island-based Kalakoa Designs. photo: Sally Lundburg
“I think we make a good team,” Lundburg said. “Keith is practical and steady, I’m kind of visionary and Kia‘i is very businesslike.”
WHERE TO BUY
» Big Island Grown, Honokaa
» Anima Mundi, Seattle, Wash.
»www.etsy.com/shop/PixseaHandmade
» www.pixseahandmade.com
» www.kalakoadesigns.com
» www.manukaihandboards.com
» Email: sallylundburg@hotmail.com
» Phone: (808) 776-1535
Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.