We take for granted the woven coconut papale (hat), lau hala mats, woven lau hala tote bags with bamboo handles, and similar items.

Something that is not yet a household concept in Hawaii is traditional lau hala weaving using sterling silver and gold wire.

It is elegantly beautiful.

Kauai’s Donna Lee Cocket uses .925 Argentium sterling silver wire, which won’t tarnish, as well as 14-karat gold-filled wire, for her creations.

"Engineering the bracelet took some doing," she said.

"I could see in my mind’s eye a solid silver clasp … and then I got this message while I was sleeping. I figured out how to make the clasps and jumped up out of bed. It was 2:30 in the morning, and my husband said, ‘What are you doing?’" But she had to act on the inspiration right then, she said.

Her clasps are handmade of sheet silver that she grinds and polishes and stamps with her logo.

The most popular weave is called the Maka Moena, which is a "fancy Hawaiian (term) for basket weave," she said. "It shimmers like diamonds," which likely lends to its popularity. Maka Oeno is the "papale" weave, and Puoa is the pyramid weave, just to name a few of her designs.

In addition to her lau hala-style silver and woven gold bracelets, she makes bracelets of braided wire featuring Tahitian or South Sea pearls, earrings, pendants and similar pieces, ranging in price up to $250 for a 16 mm-wide bracelet.

Bracelets are purchased for birthdays, anniversaries and graduations, of course, "and you know –and I just get a thrill out of this — people buy small pearl bracelets for babies," she said. "I make them adjustable to allow for growth," but "grandmas always want to buy their granddaughters their first jewelry," she said.

Having been known as the "Lauhala Lady" for 25 years, she needed a new name for the jewelry she made in this new medium.

"Gula" would be "gold" in Hawaiian, but as there is no g in the Hawaiian language, she uses Kula. Kala means not just money, but something of value, or shimmering. And, since she’s from Kauai, her brand name is Kula Kala ‘o Kauai. She wanted people to know that not only is it made in Hawaii, it is made on Kauai.

The glimmering jewelry has given Cockett a third career.

Cockett was a personnel manager for the old Inter-Island Resorts company and for City Mill Co. and transitioned into lau hala weaving after taking a class.

"We moved to Kauai in the early 1980s, and nobody would hire me; I was too high-powered," she said.

She saw an announcement for a lau hala weaving class and decided to attend. "I’d never had time for myself or my friends or family" doing her management jobs, but taking this little time out for herself, "I absolutely fell in love with lau hala."

She threw herself heart and soul into the ancient cultural tradition.

Later, studying under Kumu Auntie Elizabeth Maluihi Lee and further through the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, she became a master lau hala weaver. She also studied traditional weaving in Samoa and with Tahitians, Maoris and aborigines in Australia.

She taught at various hotels on Kauai, from the Coco Palms to the Marriott, Hyatt and Sheraton.

She would weave customers’ names into lau hala bracelets and became known for the personalization she offered. "I sold lau hala to a lot of different people," she said, and met Hawaiian cultural leaders including the late George Naope and the late Dottie Thompson, who headed the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo.

"I love weaving and did this until 1999, when my father died," she said. Almost immediately her mother needed full-time care.

"When Mama passed in 2004, I didn’t want to continue with lau hala," she said. The dust from stripping the plants bothered her sinuses.

Life has a way of weaving its own design into our lives.

While serving as a caregiver for a friend who had cancer, the friend offered to show her "something about jewelry." She gave Cockett tools, materials and, more important, books on metal-smithing. Cockett saw jewelry made from wire and immediately knew she could do it, and practiced on inexpensive wire from the hardware store until she thought she had it down.

Her friend advised her to learn about fabrication, so "I boarded a plane" and enrolled in the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco where she again threw herself heart and soul into translating an old cultural practice into a new and precious art form.

“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.