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The napkins sell for $20-$24 for a set of four, with napkin
rings, or rent for $2 each.They may be ordered online
from www.islandinspirations.com.

Fun and fortune
with fancy napkins

---

Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin

Two guys are selling shave ice on the beach. One guy says to the other:

"You know the bird of paradise napkin fold?"

"Yeah ..."

"How come no one's ever dyed the napkin to look like a bird of paradise?"

Of such idle chatter does inspiration flow.

Jeff Huyett and Greg Schmitz, partners in the Maui Rainbow Factory shave-ice truck, were at work one day last year when Huyett turned to Schmitz with that napkin thought.

Huyett, as a former restaurant banquet captain, had folded thousands upon thousands of napkins. Schmitz was a garment manufacturer in New York before moving to Hawaii five years ago. It was an ideal pairing of skills to launch a napkin enterprise.

The pair came up with three napkin designs, copyrighted them and took them to India, where Schmitz says the best cotton is available for production. In April, they started selling their hand-dyed napkins, which fold into passable renditions of pineapples, poinsettias and, of course, birds of paradise.

Their new company, Island Inspirations, has wholesaled $50,000 worth of napkins in just five months. The items retail at Liberty House, Compleat Kitchen, Elephant Walk, Hilo Hattie and many gift shops. Five more designs are in the works.

The napkins are especially popular with "event planners," people who cater and put on parties, Schmitz says. Set them up with the company's matching banana-leaf placemats and it's hukilau city.

He and Huyett just returned from a trade show in Atlanta and immediately got a request to rent 740 napkins. Luau- and tropical-themed parties are all the rage on the mainland, Schmitz says. "Hawaiiana is where it's at."

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