We reimagine traditional Hawaiian Lei using Glass Beads as we blend Japanese and Hawaiian art to make our Forever Lei. Our Hawaiian Glass Beaded Lei are unique handcrafted designs made by weaving 8 strands using an ancient Kumihimo technique of braiding. Inspiration for our designs come from traditional Hawaiian Lei, Forbidden Island Shell necklaces and of course Mother Nature.
Our Hawaiian Glass Beaded Lei are unique woven handcrafted designs made by weaving Kumihimo - a Japanese braiding technique with inspiration from the Mother Nature. We reimagine traditional Hawaiian Lei using a blend of fibers, shells, glass beads and anything beautiful to create our Forever Lei.
This is our first new 2024 necklace design we created to celebrate Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo. These designs will be expanding as the year continues to allow us to experiment with braid structures and bead styles (inspired by the original design from Claire at Sulis Designs). As with all our designs if you see something and it isn't available or have ideas we do make custom forever glass beaded necklace lei.
In the braiding world many beaded weavers become comfortable with a few braids. Akalei Designs has more than a dozen unique hand made designs that we enjoy blending into our necklace lei. This is one important collection where the ends are done with a round Kongo Gumi and the middle section is an Hira-Edo-Yatsu Gumi or hollow braid.