Meet Lei

Aloha, I’m Leilani — Lei for short. 🌺

I grew up a creative kid surrounded by creative women. Some of my favorite memories are going to craft parties with my mom and aunt, making things with my hands and being around women who were always creating something.

Looking back, beads have been a constant thread through so many stages of my creativity.

I made friendship bracelets as a kid, I've used them in macramé pieces, and while I’ve moved through different forms of artistic expression over the years, I always seem to find my way back to them.

Today, I’m a textile and graphic designer by day and the artist behind Hale by Lei. I’ve realized that the way I approach jewelry isn’t all that different from the way I create textile patterns. I play with color, texture, shape, scale and repetition — letting tiny beads flow into larger ones, warm colors into cool, until the piece begins to tell its own little story.

Sometimes that story starts with just one bead. An orange and pink bead might remind me of a sunset, which leads me to chartreuse green, earthy tiger’s eye, and suddenly I’m designing a sunset in a tropical jungle.

That’s one of my favorite parts of creating — seeing where an idea takes me.

Made with Aloha

My Hawaiian heritage also shapes the way I think about making.

When we make lei, we do so with intention — thinking good thoughts, offering prayers and weaving our aloha into what we create. A lei is made with so much love.

I like to think of my jewelry in a similar way: little lei made from gemstones, pearls, glass, vintage treasures and a whole lot of love.

The materials themselves matter to me, too. I’m drawn to things that come from the earth and from life — natural gemstones with inclusions, irregular freshwater pearls, shells, beautiful handmade glass and pieces that already carry a history.

I don’t need them to be perfectly perfect. In fact, I prefer when they aren’t.

Those little variations are reminders that something is real. I choose materials thoughtfully and create pieces I hope can be loved and worn for a long time.

For the Treasure Hunters

That same love of character and imperfection is probably why I love vintage so much.

There’s something magical about finding an object you don’t see every day — something that feels like it has been waiting all this time for you to find it. I’m not particularly interested in what happens to be trendy. I gather things that feel special, things I would want to surround myself with, and things I think deserve to be loved for a little longer.

That’s what I hope Hale feels like for you, too.

A place to slow down. To look a little closer. To notice the colors, materials and tiny details. And maybe, somewhere among it all, find the piece that feels like it was waiting for you.

Hale gives me the creative freedom to build a little world that feels entirely like me — and my hope is that something I have to say through it resonates with you, too.

Mahalo for being here.

Love,
Lei 🌺