>Ed was building a cottage for his just-retired father, and was thinking of something that he might do to encourage his father to take up as a retirement activity. Spotting a wood-turning lathe for sale, Edward suggested that his father take up bowl-making as a hobby. The next day he found the lathe in his own garage, a gift from his father as a way of thanking his son for building the house. It didn't take Ed long to become addicted to bowl-turning.

Almost completely self-taught, Perreira has continued to pursue his interest in making the Hawaiian "calabash" (the Portugese word for a bowl, adopted by the Hawaiians). He regularly experiments with various bowl-turning techniques and the use of exotic native woods. He now uses a huge custom-made variable speed lathe (it looks more like a small truck) that he designed and built out of surplus machine tool and dye-making equipment.

Edward is one of the few bowl-makers that still makes use of what the Hawaiians called a "pewa" (pronounced 'pee-va') or butterfly plug. In the old days, when calabash were handed down from one generation to the next, if a bowl developed a crack (or was made from heart-wood containing a knothole) it was strengthened with a pewa. Today, you can usually find these butterfly plugs only in museum pieces, and in Edward Perreira's beautiful bowls.

This Hawaiian artisan's bowls are finished with a non-toxic food-grade lemon wax finish, and are expected to be used for serving foods and salads. In Hawaii, artistic beauty has always been found in common everyday utensils that were made with skill and aloha. Edward S. Perreira keeps this tradition alive in his work today.