Isle products show bristles with Buy Local businesses

The Buy Local column debuted May 3, 2013, at the suggestion of Honolulu Star-Advertiser Vice President and Editor Frank Bridgewater.

Since then it has been a joy to bring you stories of microenterprises, crafters, mom-and-pops and other small businesses, none of them with a big marketing budget.

As the 2015 Made in Hawaii Festival gets underway Friday at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall and Arena and runs through Sunday ($5 admission), it seemed a good time to review a few highlights from Buy Local’s inaugural year with an eye toward faces you will see again at this year’s festival.

Julie Johnson of Kailua-based Julie’s Hot Glass has been posting updates to her Facebook page as she prepares new inventory for her booth, No. 505 at this year’s festival.

The 2013 column about her noted that mothers generally raise their children to stay away from sharp cutting tools, torches, hot ovens, breakable glass and broken glass but that Johnson uses all of those things to make her living.

Her colorful glass work reflects life in the islands, and other images as well.

The Julie’s Hot Glass website describes her products as including butter dishes, some available with matching spreaders; plates; soap dishes; clocks; keepsake boxes; ornaments and sun catchers; garden stakes; purse hangers and pendants; nightlights; wine bottle stoppers; and military-themed glasswork. She also takes custom orders.

Pahoa-based Filthy Farmgirl Soap Co. has expanded its line of humorously named soaps and body care products made with ingredients that include “no yucky stuff,” according to the label.

The mom-and-pop-and-puppy operation uses mostly vegan-friendly ingredients and puts no chemical fragrances or additives in its products.

There are now two different wrappers of Filthy Farmgirl soaps featuring roosters, though the labels use a different name for the male avians, for naughty comedic value. Such is the case with several animals pictured on the company’s packaging, but many a revered and maligned profession also has received the Filthy Farmgirl treatment.

The company also makes lotions, lip balms and other products with the same philosophy toward natural ingredients.

Kauai-based Salty Wahine Gourmet Hawaiian Sea Salts, another returning exhibitor, will be in booth 454 with its line of Hawaiian salt- and Hawaiian cane sugar-based seasonings.

At the time of the 2013 column, the company had re-branded, changing over from a nondescript white label to a sleek, aqua-toned logo, and the branding and the company’s flavors made a splash at the Summer Fancy Food Show industry exposition in New York.

More than a dozen flavors are offered, from sweet cane sugars flavored with coconut, lilikoi or lychee, to several savory flavorings. They include mango java steak rub, Hot Lava seasoning, which is Hawaiian salt infused with hickory and activated charcoal and kicked up with chili peppers and garlic, and Li Hing margarita salt, among many other choices.

Anyone with a sense of humor won’t want to miss the idkwhat2wear selection in booth 82.

The company name plays off text-speak and incorporates IDK for ‘I don’t know’ followed by what 2 (to) wear, and it came about following an Abbott and Costello-esque conversation about what IDK means.

The various styles of men’s and women’s shirts, hoodies, racer-back tank tops and buttons feature designs that play on words and images.

One new design boldly states, “ProcrastiNATION We’ll rule the world … tomorrow.”

New at the Made in Hawaii Festival will be idkwhat2wear dish towels, and a portion of sale proceeds will be donated to the National Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

There are so many more stories to tell. Please stay tuned to this space each Aloha Friday for more ways to Buy Local throughout the year.

“Buy Local,” each Aloha Friday, is about made-in-Hawaii products and the people who make them. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.