For North Shore resident Arlie Pemberton, a career in jewelry design spun out of a glassblowing elective she took while studying photography at Virginia Commonwealth University.
After that class, Pemberton started to make and sell delicate glass rings with a pebbled design that looked like coral. Today, she is the artist behind her own business, Arlie Glass. She creates glass flowers which hang from hoop earrings. She also strings these flowers together into whimsical lei that celebrate pua, such as puakenikeni, pīkake, plumeria, crown flowers and blue jade.
On Thursday, May 1, Pemberton will be participating in “Lei Day with Arlie Glass,” which runs from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Romer Waikīkī at The Ambassador. Attendees will be able to make fresh flower lei, purchase Arlie Glass and select from a group of flower tattoo designs by Guchi Nico Tattoo. There will also be live music and hula dancing, along with floral cocktails. Valet parking is $10.
Each of the flowers in Pemberton’s designs are unique.
“Everything is handmade and one of a kind,” she said. “Nothing is made with a mold or anything like that.”
To create glass flowers, Pemberton uses a flameworking torch to transform solid rods of glass in a rainbow of colors including pink, yellow, purple, blue, green and white. Earrings retail for between $135 and $318. Lei framed in shadowboxes range from $450 to $3,000.
Exactly how long it takes to create a glass masterpiece varies. While Pemberton can create a Puakenikeni lei in a few days, a plumeria one involves a different technique and can take about a week, she said.
It wasn’t until the pandemic that Pemberton created her first lei of glass flowers. She and her husband moved to the North Shore in 2016, three years after visiting family in 2013.
“I was totally in love with the whole act of making and giving lei immediately,” Pemberton said. “I absolutely loved it. I remember thinking even when we visited Hawaiʻi before we moved here … ʻWow! A glass lei would be incredible!’ ”
While running a business could be a full-time gig, Pemberton is also a mom. She has two kids, who are five and two years old.
“We’re busy,” she said.
Her advice for artists?
“I would say just try and cancel out the noise of what everyone else is doing and just focus on what you love,” she said. “It’s so hard these days with social media. People think they have to be creative in a certain way, because they see everyone else doing things. Do what inspires you the most and it'll all be awesome.”
Check out Aloha State Daily’s guide to Lei Day.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
