Life handed Kim Weaver lemons in the form of a work-related injury that prevented her from returning to her job.

She made lemonade by expanding two hobbies into revenue-generating businesses.

She first started the Hana Lima Soap Co. in 2005.

“I was lucky … to be able to take my hobby and turn it into my career,” she said.

“It was scary at first,” said the Maui entrepreneur, “but I grew up seeing my mom (Beverly) and dad (Floyd) being hard workers and going out and achieving their dreams.”

The example they set gave her the internal drive to “push myself,” she said.

Weaver’s jewelry business, Hana Lima Designs, came later.

Her sister Shannon has followed a similar path, becoming a full-time oil painter after losing her job when Aloha Airlines shut down. Shannon’s website featuring and selling her evocative, hula-themed artwork is linked to Kim’s.

“Hana Lima” means “handmade” in Hawaiian, Kim’s bath and body products website explains.

Weaver makes shea butter soaps, glycerine soaps, lotions sold in cobalt blue bottles, Hawaiian sugar body polishes, body mists, tins of solid perfume and something called bath bombs, which the site explains are “like giant Alka-Seltzers for your body. Just pop them in the tub and watch them fizz.”

Her products are sold at various stores and resort shops across the islands, and she is at the Maui Swap Meet most Saturdays.

Weaver’s products also are sold online, but the site layout doesn’t make completely clear which soap bears which fragrance, so an in-person sniffing of the bath and body products at a craft fair or retail store may be preferable.

Her website is popular with repeat customers, many of them on the mainland or points beyond, she said. Japanese visitors are especially fond of Weaver’s slipper-shaped soaps, which come in various colors and fragrances and are packaged in organza drawstring bags.

Weaver’s now-retired mother helps make the bath and body products and can often be seen with her at craft fairs, the Maui Swap Meet and other, similar events. “And when I run short-handed I have my older son, my friends and family (who) all rally together to help me,”she said.

Prices for the bath and body products range from $5 to $10, while the jewelry items generally run higher, given that they’re made using sterling silver or 14-karat gold-filled wire.

Weaver also uses Tahitian pearls, semiprecious gemstones, local shells — many of them plucked from Maui beaches — as well as glass beads with a beach-glass finish, and other elements.

Among the jewelry she creates for Hana Lima Designs are bangle bracelets featuring flattened wire formed into the shape of various Hawaiian islands.

The jewelry line is featured on a Facebook page that also showcases the soaps. And Weaver has joined Etsy, an online artisan community where crafters can promote and sell their various wares.

WHERE TO BUY

» Diamond Head Arts and Crafts Fair, Kapiolani Community College, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday

» Islandwide Christmas Crafts and Food Expo, Blaisdell Center, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

» Native Books/Na Mea Hawai’i, soap and solid perfumes

» Reflections of the Heart, jewelry

» Nohea Gallery, jewelry

» The Academy Shop at the Honolulu Academy of Art, soaps

» Pineapples Boutique, jewelry

ON THE NET

» hanalimabath.com

» www.artbyshannonweaver.com

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