By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

When Jean Nakasone talks about her store, she sounds more like a social worker than a businesswoman.

Nakasone started Handmade from the Heart with six other crafters in 1992. The idea was to provide a place where crafters, predominately women, could sell their handmade wares and support home-based businesses.

The story really begins before that, though, when Nakasone was struggling through a divorce.

"I had these wonderful four gals from church who just surrounded me with love. They helped me get through it. And they were doing crafts so I started doing crafts."

Nakasone then got the idea of starting a store where crafters could sell their work at affordable prices.

"I swore that I would help women; teach them how to become businesswomen so they can start their own business."

The store has been in the same place, above Fabric Mart behind Cutter Ford 'Aiea, for 11 years, but the crafters have come and gone. Nakasone says that's a good thing. A number of crafters got their start at Handmade from the Heart and then opened their own stores.

"This is what our job is," Nakasone says. "To help them get started small and then go on to their own."

Crafters pay anywhere from $40 to $130 a month depending on the space their work takes up in the 2,000-square-foot store. The store also takes 10 percent of the sales to cover overhead costs. Nakasone and the three women who now partner with her to run the store don't take paychecks.

"The four of us, we make our own crafts and we make money from our crafts, and that's how we find our own satisfaction, our joy."

Right now, the work of 60 crafters is in the store. Everything must be made by hand. Items are screened by Nakasone before they get on the shelves.

What's there? Just about everything. Jewelry, clothing, soaps and candles, pottery, quilts, baby things. Among the more unusual items are aloha-print fabric covers for those cut cardboard box bottoms from cases of juice (or beer). Just slip the cover over the box and you have a lovely serving tray to take your pupu to a potluck. Ingenious.

Nakasone lets the crafters take care of the crafts. She takes care of the crafters.

"There are so many divorces now. A lot of them have been housewives for many years and then, now, they have an identity. Somebody says, 'Hey, your work is beautiful! I want to buy it!' And it makes them feel good about themselves. We all need that, yeah?"

There are men who have their work at the store, and Nakasone is hoping to recruit more senior citizen crafters. But she has a soft spot for women trying to make it on their own.

"There's room for more," she says. "Tell them come."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com