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ABOUT LYNN Kahalu'u resident, Lynn Boyer has traveled within Indonesia and Southeast Asia for twenty years as a landscape designer studying gardens and intimate outdoor spaces. She and her landscape architect husband, Greg Boyer, grow exotic plants in Kahalu'u and Kona and travel extensively in search of garden art, adding a unique quality to the gardens they design in Hawaii. "Traveling provides me with the perfect opportunity to search for, what I consider, miniature pieces of art. The primitive pendants and beads from Tibet, Kashmir, and Northern Thailand and the intricate craftsmanship of Bali silver are things that are becoming more precious with each passing generation. Every country and culture provides a new "treasure hunt" adventure for me and inspires me to create semi-precious jewelry featuring my discoveries". Travels: Bali, Java, Sumba, Lombok, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Raiatea, Huahine, Japan, Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula, Caribbean and a multitude of islands in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. I first became fascinated with jewelry when I visited Bali in 1987 and saw their incredibly detailed silver beads. Soon after, I met a family near Ubud that I now visit regularly to make my purchases. Grandma is alive and well, still working as a silversmith for her son, a 3rd generation craftsman. This past year I had the good fortune of traveling more than usual to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Chiang Mai and Koh Samui, Thailand; Huahine, Tahiti; and Java, Indonesia. I found the jewelry to be as diverse as the people and their cultures. Just the variety of silversmithing alone was intriquing. As my travel adventures expanded, so did my bead collection. My Southeast Asia travels take me through Bangkok where I visit several vendors in the world 's largest, 39 acre, week-end market. I have been working with some of them for six to eight years and I must say, the market is a mind-bender. Even after fifteen years of visiting, there are still areas left undiscovered. I guess that's why I keep going back. My favorite Bangkok vendor is comprised of four brothers from Afghanistan. One brother is back home sending along stones mined and shaped in their motherland while another brother travels within Asia, collecting precious and semi-precious items, including exquisite multi-strands of sapphires and rubies. The other two brothers run two shops in the weekend market and are eager to educate Greg and myself by showing us their prized possessions and telling us a story or two. They are the only vendor that sells highly polished lapis that is shaped in Afghanistan and then sent to China for a professional finish. A few years ago I purchased their extremely small beads after learning how rapidly rare they were becoming because the current generation is not interested in such tedious work. In Chiang Mai I was able to find primitive beads and pendants from nearby Tibet and Kashmir. I also discovered a fine silver factory that creates a heavier, more masculine bead, much different than feminine Bali silver. My current work is a culmination of several years of inspirational travel and non-stop collecting. I hope you find this information interesting and helpful.
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