Liz Napoleon’s business, J.M.S. Specialty Creations, is not named for herself, a family member or a loved one.

The initials stand for Just My Style, she said. Her Hawaiian jewelry, lei, accessories and decorations are “all in good taste,” she said.

Many offer an explosion of color, even among the pieces colored only by nature.

Among her wide-ranging, handmade products, are lei made from Niihau shells, kahelelani shells and kupee shells, among others. Her shell work include lei that range from fine and dainty to big and bold, as well as earrings and other jewelry to complement the leis.

Her earlier career was wholesaling toys.

“My kids were young then, so I knew what was trendy,” she said. Whatever the stores didn’t want, she’d sell to the public at swap meets.

“I could have gotten into Beanie Babies” and made millions of dollars, she lamented.

She turned to crafting in 1992, thanks in part to a friend she met at a flea market who shared his vendor-table space with her.

“He would help me out,” she said. His talent was finding castoffs from trees, bushes and other plants, turning them into items performers could wear, she said.

He inspired her to make things with Fimo, or polymer clay. “He was like, ‘Liz, go classes,’” she recalled. So she did.

“I went to Luana at Ben Franklin and learned 105 flowers,” she said. Locally, flowers made from Fimo often are strung into lei or used in making jewelry, hair adornments or other accessories, but there are likely millions of other things creative people make with Fimo and similar products.

“I had no confidence in myself, but I did a craft fair at Ko Olina and made all the money back for my classes and my supplies. That’s what got me started,” she said.

Soon after, she was “discovered” by the TEMARI Center for Asian and Pacific Arts, which hired her to teach Fimo classes.

“I never was a teacher,” Napoleon said, but TEMARI encouraged her to just teach what she had been taught.

Napoleon had gone from student to crafter to teacher.

Her TEMARI contacts “really got me where I’m at today,” she said.

From her work in Fimo she branched out into making other types of jewelry and accessories.

She now offers a line of what she calls Island Angels, which can decorate tables, desktops “or you can hang it on the tree or use it as a little treetop,” she said. Island Angels start at $7. The decorative angels made with wire, nylon and other materials come in colors representing each island. She also makes other types of versatile Christmas ornaments.

Many of her items can be used multiple ways; her “bobby pin boutonniere” can be worn in one’s hair, on a hat or visor, or as a boutonniere, depending on the occasion.

“I use quality stuff,” she said. “I do my own drilling” for the freshwater pearls she uses, and gets her shells from around the Hawaiian Islands, but she wants to have shell sources “from all the islands. That is my goal.”

This year she also has new koa, mother of pearl, abalone and pearl bracelets, which she will offer at $15, or two for $25. Other handmade items are available at various prices, and top out at $2,000 for a Niihau shell lei.

“I have something to fit every budget,” Napoleon said. “I want everybody to enjoy what they have, and make some things affordable.”

One way she is accomplishing that is by selling her designs mostly at lower-cost craft fairs.

“I had to change my strategy,” she said. The more expensive the booth, the more expensive her prices have to be. “If you don’t make your booth fee the first day, the second day, you’re fighting to break even,” she said.

Some of the lower-cost but well-attended craft fairs at which Napoleon will be a vendor leading up to the holidays are listed along with this column. She also will be at the HouseMart Ben Franklin Crafts store in Enchanted Lake most Saturdays from Nov. 7 through the first half of December, though the miniature craft fairs themselves will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 20. Other Ben Franklin stores also stage similar events for crafters in their area.

Napoleon is old-school, meaning she does not have a website. “I’m computer illiterate. … I don’t even know how to Instagram,” she said. However, she does have an email account, and shoppers who find her at craft fairs can pick up her business card to keep abreast of her schedule.

“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.