This weekend is one of the largest miniature shows on the east coast, Philadelphia Miniaturia, which is held not in Philly but in Cherry Hill, N.J. The show featured many high quality artists.

I was searching for object that could work in the Hawaiian Culture museum I am building. Not surprisingly, I did not find any Hawaiian themed objects but I did find out that other participants in the Flower Show were also there looking. What I did find were many friendly and helpful people and I was able to buy several turned wood bowls from two different artists. Their wood pieces resembled those I have seen in the Penn Museum collection (see the next blog entry) and in the digital database of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii.

First the wood pieces. I bought two bowls from “RJT Miniatures.” Rob and Kate Tuckham came all the way from British Columbia with their wonderful wood designs for the show and actually had a bowl made of koa, a Hawaiian wood.

I also bought a rimmed bowl from Bear and Lisa Limvere of “Standing People Designs.”

Their works are also beautiful and they were very helpful, showing me a lot of different minis as we tried to find something that was close to the shape of real Hawaiian artifacts. I chose this rimmed bowl.