In year 2009, I started off doing crafts using felt but I didn’t get any sales during the first 6 months. Which is when I was about to give up from doing crafts, my little housemates recommended me to do plush by using socks. So I just give it a try and there goes my first sale in my web shop.

My inspirations for crafts vary throughout the journey. In the beginning, inspiration came from memory, which turned out in the forms of Lowly Worm, Toothless Dragon, Golden Bug and others. These are not from my own creation but are characters from my childhood memory. After that, I started to find inspiration from my life, which led to the Zebra series that contains Baby Zebra and Angel Zebra. Recently I joined the Handmade Eco challenge contest. It inspired me to use plush toys to convey the Recycle message that Handmade Eco is trying to promote. With the idea of saving Mother Nature, I made an Octopus Sea Angel and named it Benjamin. After the contest, I continued with creating my octopus, beaver, bird and lion plushies to carry the message of recycling to the world. I created these plush toys with the hope that the next generation will be willing to get to know and get involved in recycling activities, while trying to make people feel that recycling is not a boring thing to do.

Crafting has actually become my hobby. Normally after my daily work, I will work on my crafts. On average, I spend 4 hours a day crafting. During the weekends, if I don’t have any other activities, I will just stay home and continue crafting. Sometimes, when I feel tired after working long hours, I will choose to take a nap and then only continue doing my crafts. I will make sure I’m in the mood to do it because I believe the message that I’m trying to bring out will be shown in my work.






--------------------------------------by 張家瑞