Contemporary Tiki

TIKI

Made for Today

Created by Rotorua's

TOO LUSCIOUS

www.tooluscious.com

A Contemporary Statement

Photo Courtesy Too Luscious

Manuka Honey Pekapeka

A Pendant

By Too Luscious, Rotorua

www.tooluscious.com

It's All Too Luscious!

A Subtle Adornment

From the Creative Team

at

Too Luscious

Rotorua

www.tooluscious.com

It's All Too Luscious!

A Lime Green Tiki Treat

Earrings by Too Luscious

Rotorua

www.tooluscious.com

Another Luscious Moment

Image courtesy of Too Luscious, Rotorua
Hot Orange
A Tiki Bracelet
From Too Luscious
http://www.tooluscious.com/
You can meet the two talented girls behind the Too Luscious range by clicking on Meet the People in the label line below this post.

Tiny Tiki

Image courtesy Too Luscious, Rotorua

Multi-Coloured Tiki

Resin Treasures

From Too Luscious

www.tooluscious.com

Too see more of the Too Luscious jewellery range and to meet the owners click on Too Luscious or Meet the People in the label line below this post.

Meet the People - 19

Tawa Hunter (left); Aroha Armstrong (right).

Another in the Series Meet the People - Contemporary Maori Doing Ordinary and Extraordinary Things - Aroha Armstrong (Te Arawa) and Tawa Hunter (Te Whanau a Apanui), of Rotorua were casting pregnant women’s bellies in plaster and concrete when they stumbled upon resin. With no information but a whole lot of passion, creativity and determination, they figured out how to use it and the rest, as they say, is history. Pregnant belly castings gave way to the super cool, contemporary resin jewellery range, Too Luscious, inspired by all things Maori. Tawa, 33 and Aroha, 34 have been friends since they were at school and now Aroha is married to Tawa’s brother. Between them they have eight children. Not that that has slowed them down. Since Too Luscious came into being in 2005, it’s been a raging success and the dynamic pair has gone from strength to strength.

“Our first real piece was a hot pink resin tiki and everyone wanted one,” says Tawa. “We’d go out wearing our stuff and people would almost rip it off our necks. That was a great encouragement but we hadn’t even refined our resin processes or our business plan then. We ended up making them as fast as we could and we were just keeping our heads above water.” But they’ve thrived on both the creative and the business challenges and as demand has grown, so has the Too Luscious range. Today they have a tiki in two sizes and 28 colours; heru (hair combs), bracelets, rings, earrings and pendants. “Not all our pieces are based on Maori design but most are – albeit subtly in some cases. We give traditional designs a contemporary twist but we do that with respect. We see our jewellery as a celebration of our culture, of who we are,” says Aroha. “It’s colourful and it gives people permission to have fun.”

All images supplied by Too Luscious
Based on traditional designs like the tiki, the toki (adze), the heru (comb), the pekapeka and the hei matau (fish hook) – even a huia beak – the pieces are sold in over 40 outlets nationwide and internationally via the Too Luscious website. And it’s fair to say that anyone wearing a piece of Too Luscious jewellery definitely gets their fair share of attention. “They’re not for the faint-hearted,” says Tawa with a laugh. “They seem to draw people to you and we get heaps of letters and photos from happy customers all over the world.” Now that Aroha and Tawa have fine-tuned their business, they have plans to “move beyond jewellery.” Watch this space – or this one: www.tooluscious.com

Plastic Maori

Jacob Scott, Karanga (foreground) and Nga Mahanga (behind), 2009. Courtesy of TheNewDowse
Jacob Scott, Karanga, 2009. Courtesy of TheNewDowse
I can’t wait to get to Lower Hutt in the North Island to see what promises to be one of the most exciting exhibitions of contemporary Maori art I’ve seen in a long time. Plastic Maori is now showing at TheNewDowse. Curated by Blumhardt Foundation/Creative New Zealand Curatorial Intern, Reuben Friend (of Pakeha and Ngati Maniapoto/Tainui descent), this colourful extravaganza is an exhibition of works by fourteen Maori artists, who have taken plastic and other synthetic materials and created thought-provoking works that explore the issue of cultural authenticity in contemporary Maori art. From the development of stone tools soon after their arrival in New Zealand hundreds of years ago, the Maori have never shied away from new technology and this exhibition continues that tradition as it looks into the appropriation, commodification and mass production of Maori taonga (treasures).

Says Reuben Friend: “Plastic Maori asks the viewer to consider what happens when synthetic materials replace the customary organic materials used in Maori art. Can a plastic hei tiki really be as valuable as a bone or greenstone hei tiki? Can laser cut sheets of Perspex replace carved wooden ancestral figures? Plastic Maori invites you to consider some of these issues and to observe how each of these artists has negotiated these matters in their art work.” The show includes vibrant and thought-provoking works like Gina Matchitt’s tukutuku panels made out of recycled computer keys; and resin tiki lollipops by Wayne Youle. Aroha Armstrong and Tawa Hunter of Rotorua’s Too Luscious, present resin jewellery based on customary Maori designs; and Christina Wirihana has used plexiglass, brass and plastic grip to weave korapa – the woven nets she used as a child to catch fresh water koura (crayfish). There’s much more – and you have plenty of time to get to Lower Hutt as the show runs to August 9, 2009. www.newdowse.org.nz
The work above – Michael Parekowhai, Pākāhā (the security guard), Kapa Haka Series (detail), 2003. Courtesy of TheNewDowse. "Pākāhā (brown) is one of 15 fibreglass sculptures from Parekowhai’s 2003 Kapa Haka series. These works were modelled after Parekowhai’s elder brother, who was working as a security guard at the time. Each sculpture is named after a colour and has that name written in te reo Maori on its security badge.”