Alola mai Kakou! Welcome to our favorites page! This is where we share what we personally use to create our unique pieces.
Please be aware that there are some affiliated links included below. This means that if you do purchase some of these products then Kapa Curious will obtain a small commission but it will be at no extra cost to you. Some links are simply from other small hand made or large businesses that I prefer to work with but do not obtain any commission from. Hope this helps you in your own art journey!
Essential Books for Hawaii Dyes, Hawaiian Fibers, & Other Things
Understand Hawaiian Culture
Part of connecting to our culture is to understand the day to day life and activities of our people. Click below to purchase.
Lāʻau Lapaʻau (Medicinal Plants)
The tie between the Hawaiian medicinal plants and our natural dyes have been crucial in understanding which plants to use. Click below to purchase.
KC Owners personal favorite
Hands down this one helped me understand that many cultures have various uses for the same plant. It pushed me to be just as creative when thinking about natural dyes.
Bought Multiple for family members :)
The sheer beauty of these pieces took my breath away. I ended up buying multiple of this book to share with my ʻohana (family). Click below to purchase.
A Classic!
This book does have a combination of invasive and native species. But consider this, if all we dye with and harvest for is native plants, it just allows the invasive to thrive. Click below to purchase.
Understanding Hawaii
To understand how Hawaiians created their art, you have to understand their daily life and the plants they used.
Perfect piece of fun
We love looking books that gives us glimpses into other ways of creating art from natural material.
Incredibly helpful
When they say “science” they do mean it and its a great way to understand natural dyes on a deeper level. Click below to purchase.
Favorite Resin Gear!
Epoxy resin
Check out our Blog for tips on using this product. Click below to purchase.
Silicone Cups and stirring sticks
Check out our Blog post on tips to use resin. Click below to purchase.
Deburring Tool!
The tool I never knew I needed for my resin magnets. Read our Blog post on how we make resin magnets and how this tools saves us soooo much time! Click below to purchase.
REsin Mat
Resin can be extremely messy and NOT fun when drying. This mat has been a life saver for my table tops. Click below to purchase.
Must Have Natural Dye & Paint Gear!
Alum
Used to change the color and fastness for our natural dyes, this is extremely valuable to our company. Click below to purchase.
Nut milk bags
Our natural dyes require a means to filter through the bark, seeds, and leaves so we can have just pure color. This is how we do that. Check out our natural dye page to see some of the plants we use. Click below to purchase.
Soda Ash
Shifting our natural dye bathe from liquid to powder form we use a combination of Alum and Soda Ash. Click below to purchase..
Muller kit
A touch of humor. Seriously though, there is something so relaxing using a muller and creating paint from lake pigments. This is the only one we have and we are very satisfied with it. Click below to purchase.
Our Random Must Haves!
Workshop Bags!
With a little Kapa Curious stamp we change these into simple but effective ways for our workshop attendees to keep all of their items in one place. Check out our blog on how we plan our workshops. Click below to purchase.
Safety Whistle when Hiking & foraging!
None of our crew EVER hike or forage without these. Click below to purchase.
microphone
When creating content, having a clear message is important and if we do not use the correct microphone our message gets lost in our videos. This is what we use each time we want to add our voice to our videos. Click below to purchase.
Silica gel crystals
Hawaii has such beautiful leaves and flowers. This helps us preserve tiny pieces of beauty that are later added into our jewelry and art. Click below to purchase.
kapa/Tapa
Kapa and our connection to it is the foundation of our company. Great book to read to understand it better. Click below to purchase.
Soooo Mushrooms?
Did you know that mushrooms make a dye? Click below to purchase this guide to Hawaii Mushroom.
A kapa journey
Worth the investment for any fiber artist, kapa/tapa maker, or curious individual. Click below to purchase.
An undeniable connection
Many of our natural dye ideas and experiments are a result of our study of the lapa’au (medicine) books. Click below to purchase.
If you can find it, buy it
Quick read that is jam packed with great mana’o. I purchased my copy from a used bookstore. If you can find it, buy it.
We like it
Interesting read with lots of inspiring ideas.
UV Resin
Read our Blog post on UV resin and how we use it to create unique kapa jewelry. Click below to purchase.
Nail Star UV Light
Check out our blog on how to utilize UV resin to create unique gifts and products.
Safety Mask
Safety has to be number one when dealing with resin. Read our Blog post for tips on using resin. Click below to purchase.
Rolio Mica Powder
These colors are used to create our magnets, keychains and other resin pieces. We love these as they are not in little pouches and we can recycle the containers when it empties. Click below to purchase.
Gum arabic
When you continue your color journey and start to create lake pigments and then water colors! Click below to purchase.
Imusa portable electric stove
These coiled portable stoves are a staple for our Natural Hawaii Dye workshops. Check out our dye page to see some of the plants we use. Click below to purchase.
Handheld Press
I neither have the room nor the desire to purchase a full printing press so this is my work around And I LOVE it! They have a ton of gorgeous, handmade presses on their Etsy site. Click below to purchase.
cell phone video rig
To create the video or image content you need with just a phone it can be difficult without the proper gear. This is our go to set up that we have used from the start! Click below to purchase.
arches watercolour paper
Our go to watercolor paper/board to use for capturing designs for our print on demand store. Click below to purchase.
reef save sunscreen. Personal favorite!
Reef safe sunscreen is a must in Hawaii but especially on the islands where it is a law. Each employee that goes on any foraging, harvesting, or outdoor work activity is required to use sunscreen for safety. Click below to purchase.
Workshop & product hoops
Little hoops that work wonderful in our workshops and when we feel like making small pieces of art. Click below to purchase.