By Bonnie Cooper
Evenings in Hawaii are perfect for outdoor entertaining or for simply relaxing with friends and family. It is particularly nice to have an outside area that is not only comfortable, but also expresses your individuality. The problem is that the items available in the “big-box” stores here in the islands generally don’t have what’s needed to create your “look.”
If you want to find some unique, Hawaiian and tropical pieces to accent your outdoor area, we have that place right here in Hawaii and it’s called Big Rock. The dedicated staff at the plant, which is part of the showroom in Honolulu, makes nearly all that it carries.
Owners Brian Joy and Bonnie Cooper star ted the business in 1983. Their specialty is Hawaiian cast stone products and stone veneers, each identical to the originals from which the molds were taken.
You will find everything, from various garden border stone edging, benches, moss rock boulders and stepping-stones to tikis, Buddhas, waterfalls, Japanese garden items and hundreds more of unusual things.
Big Rock has also been making beautiful and unique stone bowls for about 30 years. These stone bowl molds were taken from naturally eroded boulders, and then poured in stone colored, lightweight concrete material. Originally, they were used in Hawaiian-Japanese gardens as tsukubai, along with the lanterns and bamboo flumes that Big Rock has to offer.
Now that fire bowls have become such a popular outdoor garden item, the owners have realized that their beautiful stone bowls could be put to another use. Perfect for those who do not want the run-of-the mill modern contemporary concrete or metal bowls that are on the market as fire bowls.
Big Rock makes about eight different beautiful stone bowls of all sizes, with the largest, called the Alii bowl, which measures almost four feet in length, resembling a huge cracked egg! There’s also a round fire bowl that appears to be chiseled from rock.
To create the fire, all you need are simple gas fittings available at your local hardware store, some lava rocks and a propane tank. This is an easy do-it-yourself project, or Big Rock can do it for you, according to the bowl you choose. As the stone bowls are each different sizes, the gas fittings will need to be customized to fit the bowl.
Big Rock also has hollow moss rock boulders, originally designed to conceal irrigation valves and electrical outlets in the garden. These boulders are perfect to hide the unsightly propane tank for the fire bowl.
So, go ahead and buy your outdoor garden furniture in the big-box stores, but come to Big Rock to make your outdoor entertainment area “your own!”
BIG ROCK MANUFACTURING INC.
contact // 834-7625
address // 1050 Kikowaena Place
email // bcooper@bigrockhawaii.com • info@bigrockhawaii.com
web // bigrockhawaii.com
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