Personalizing a cake or cupcakes is one thing. Personalizing a T-shirt or other item made of fabric is yet another thing.

Altogether different is personalizing candy so that the design goes through and through each piece.

That is what Darci Kiyo­naga does as founder and chief candy designer and creator at Lava­roks LLC.

Candies the company has made are Hello Kitty-inspired, feature the faces of pandas, teddy bears, rabbits or other kawaii (cute) animals, hearts, flowers, pineapples, koke­shi dolls, golf flagsticks, graduation mortarboards, names, initials and many other designs.

The candies are made from sugar, corn syrup, water and a little citric acid, as well as coloring and flavoring.

On a special heated table, blobs of colored and flavored melted sugar are rolled or otherwise manipulated to build the design of the candy from the inside out, and the strategically arranged pieces are then wrapped in an outer layer. The resulting log is about a foot long and about 4 inches in diameter and weighs from 6 to 6 1/2 pounds.

The log is then further squeezed, pulled and stretched until the long thin sections are about a quarter-inch in diameter, and then they are cut into roughly quarter-inch lengths, she said.

An average of 2,400 pieces of candy are produced in a batch, which can take up to three hours to make.

For people into other types of crafting, the end result might remind one of glass millefiori beads, or of beads and other items made from carefully layered polymer clay.

You hear about people taking classes to learn a craft that then becomes their business. Kiyo­naga and her husband did that, but rather than go somewhere for the class, they flew the teacher to Hawaii from Australia.

Of all the things the candy-making teacher taught them, a crucial aspect was design building.

Say someone were to show them a picture of what they wanted — they needed to learn "how to break it down so you can build it," she said.

While keeping their day jobs with state government, the business debuted to the public late last year prior to the holidays.

One customer wanted candies that resembled a character from a historical comic book about World War II, Kiyo­naga said. That lady was Stacey Haya­shi, author of "Journey of Heroes: The Story of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team." Its manga-inspired "chibi" (small and cute) soldier characters were illustrated by Damon Wong.

"I picked pineapple flavor since it was going to be favors for the Able Chapter Christmas Party, the A Company of the 100th Infantry Battalion," Haya­shi said, noting that soldiers from Hawaii typically were called "pineapple" in those days and in more recent times as well. "The timing even worked out so that we were able to get some of it halfway across the world to the town of Bruyeres in France, which the 100th/442 liberated from the Nazis in 1944," and which has a sister-city relationship with Hono­lulu, said Haya­shi. "They said it was good."

A basic minimum order for 80 ounces of candy featuring a simple design costs $136, which would come out to about $1.70 an ounce, not counting packaging.

For more elaborate designs the unit cost still comes out to $1.70, but the minimum order is 150 ounces, she said.

Thirteen flavors are offered, from banana to wild cherry. Ten colors are offered, but those can be blended to create a custom shade.

While Kiyonaga heads the business, she says she could not do it all on her own, crediting her husband, Kyle, for his help, support and encouragement as well as his candy-making skills.

Kiyonaga will be at the New Baby Expo at Blaisdell Center at midmonth, and is a vendor at craft fairs and other events that she announces on her website as well as her Facebook and Instagram pages.

"Buy Local" runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.