Over pipikaula quesadillas and cups of 'awa at Kapahulu Kafe, Lorenzo de la Vega Nefulda and R. Kupihea Romero sketch out the logistics of their joint project — Booth 245 at the Made in Hawaii Festival at Blaisdell Center.

Crammed with local independent companies hawking liliko'i butter, T-shirts, bead jewelry and koa boxes, the Made in Hawaii Festival isn't the first place you'd think of going to buy art. But Nefulda and Romero, along with Solomon Enos, are Hawaiian artists looking for more exposure than the local gallery scene offers.

But Made in Hawaii? "Hey, with 30,000 people going through, with even a fraction of that interested in our art ..." says Nefulda, who, like Romero, has a fine-arts degree from the University of Hawai'i. The two created a piece for the recent show "Collaborations" at Kailua's Balcony Gallery.

While past festivals have included crowd-pleasing art such as gyotaku (fish prints), digital photography and utilitarian ceramics, Nefulda's unglazed, gold-lear-coated porcelain, Romero's masculine sculpture and drawings and Enos' vivid paintings of a dream Polynesia may be a first for the event. Exhibiting at a commerce fest may be a way of reaching people who may not be aware of First Friday gallery walks in Chinatown.

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.