This week on The Tiki Talk Show, Ryley and Ellie talk to Jayme Blaschke of Lagoon of Mystery, a Texan who took his desire to build an at-home tiki bar on a budget and created a video record to share with others. This week’s artist spotlight is Dawn Fraiser, one of the OG tiki artists who does a variety of mediums out of her home in west Seattle. 

Jayme Blaschke has had an appreciation for Hawaiiana and Polynesian Pop for a while, but it wasn’t until he found himself with an outdoor entertainment space to make his own that his tiki creativity spread its wings. What started as a stereotypical pool-side “tiki” bar has morphed into a fully themed tiki space that Jayme has mostly crafted with his own two hands. The Lagoon of Mystery as his backyard escape is also the namesake for Jayme’s YouTube channel. There he shares his experience crafting a home tiki bar and other DIY tiki projects. From homemade orgeat syrup to crafting and installing a bamboo grid on the ceiling, Jayme takes it all on and provides a good walkthrough along the way. While Jayme’s history with tiki may not be as long as some of our tiki OGs, he has left a permanent mark on tiki and shown others that they too can make tiki a part of their everyday life with their own two hands and an internet connection. 

You can find Jayme on Instagram @lagoonofmystery and on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@LagoonofMystery. 

Dawn Fraiser is one of the original artists of the tiki revival. While many agree that the tiki revival started in the mid 1990s, Dawn’s tiki art predates that. She has seen tiki rise from the grave and grow through the 21st century. She’s a versatile artist working in acrylic, watercolor, cardboard, fabric, and way more. She may be best known for her Lagoonscapes that entrance us with the serene feelings of escape that are so often associated with tiki. Beyond her tiki-tastic paintings, Dawn also creates her own fabric patterns, some of which are available for purchase on Spoonflower, and others are only available when you buy an aloha shirt or tea timer sewn by Dawn herself. She is truly a one-woman show determined to keep classic tiki imagery at the forefront of all our minds. In this episode, Dawn goes beyond talking about her art and tells a few stories of the early days of tiki. 

You can find Dawn on Instagram @Dawnfraiserartistofficial, and purchasing her art is as easy as commenting “dibs” under the post featuring the creation you want to purchase. 

Thank you for joining us on The Tiki Talk Show. If you are interested in being interviewed or highlighted as our artist spotlight, send us an email at [email protected].

As always, you can find us on Instagram @thetikitalkshow and @konacove_hometikibar. We now have a Facebook group to discuss the episodes, guests, and all things tiki revival. Find us at The Tiki Talk Show on Facebook under groups.  

-Ryley and Ellie