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Beauty by the sea

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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Designer Jean Wall commissioned a mermaid and fish crafted of recycled glass and copper wire for the entry of an Aina Haina home. Artist Dale Marie Cronn completed the work for Wall and her partner, Joan Robinson-Whitaker, of Designer for a Day.
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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM

From her view mounted on an expansive wall, Launa the mermaid has one hand poised above as if beckoning and the other welcoming fish as they swim to her underwater.

She also welcomes anyone who enters the foyer at the seaside Aina Haina home where she resides.

Launa, the creation of artist Dale Marie Cronn, is made of recycled glass and copper wire. She measures about 8 feet from head to tail and weighs a hefty 200 pounds, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at her.

HALEIWA ARTS FESTIVAL

» Where: Haleiwa Beach Park
» When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,July 16; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., July 17
» Info: www.haleiwaartsfestival.org

The artwork hangs on a 20-by-20-foot wall custom-painted to resemble an underwater ocean scene, flanked by sea grass and fish, also made by Cronn.

The mermaid sculpture was commissioned by designers Jean Wall and Joan Robinson-Whitaker of Designer for a Day as an art piece for a client’s foyer makeover.

Cronn met the designers at the Haleiwa Arts Festival last summer. (She’ll also be at this year’s event, July 16 and 17.)

While Launa’s not the first mermaid Cronn has created, she is the largest. It’s also the artist’s first piece commissioned by interior designers.

“I was inspired that I was going to get to do such a large piece,” she said.

A self-taught artist, Cronn has been making sculptures from recycled glass pieces (a combination of wine, beer and artists’ glass put into a tumbler to create a beach-glass look) and copper wire for the past 20 years.

It all started when she began collecting beach glass as a hobby after moving to Hawaii from Southern California. Cronn, a former North Shore resident who now lives on Hawaii island, used to make beach-glass jewelry. The first mermaids she made were between 6 and 10 inches.

Then she moved on to larger pieces.

“I wanted to go bigger,” she said. “I wanted to do sculpture. I love what I do, and I just got these ideas in my head, so it evolved over the years. I love that I can do something different every time. Each piece is one of a kind.”

The ocean has been a constant source of inspiration. Besides mermaids (including one she made for the 2004 film “The Big Bounce,” starring Owen Wilson), she has created sea turtles, dolphins, tropical fish, geckos, hula dancers and hearts.

She makes the sculptures by hand, without a form model or mold. Recycled glass and copper wire are her materials of choice. “With wiring you can do just about anything, and with glass I can play with the color.”

For her colorful fish sculptures, she uses art glass from artists set aside to be discarded due to flaws. The top of a vase, for instance, might become the mouth of a fish.

“Everything I collect is something that normally goes in the trash,” she said. “I think it’s important, when you can do it, to recycle.”

While it is a creative process, the work includes the tedious task of stripping copper wire and unwinding it before she can twist it into shape.

Creating Launa took about 300 hours, with each piece of glass hand-tied into her tail. She’s really wired; just her hair alone includes an estimated 1,000 feet of copper wire.

Cronn says while many of her works are commissioned through online correspondence, she enjoys being able to meet people, especially at the Haleiwa Arts Festival, and seeing them make a connection to her art.

At the festival, Cronn will have pieces on display that range from $6 for simple ornaments to $200 for the tropical fish and $4,500 and up for elaborate sculptures.

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