The very beginning
The story should start when I was in elementary school making crafty stuff (which were mostly greeting cards). My mom worked at a kindergarten and my sis would gave me some stickers from time to time, so I always had a huge source of materials to be creative with whatever came into my mind. My first 'artworks' were for my family. I still remember one of them was a birthday card for my dad's 49th birthday and later I was so happy to accidentally find that he still kept it in his wallet. I was a very little girl at that time but it was my first time knowing that happiness is to make something that people love and keep.
I have never been good at arts.
But that didn't stop me from creating the failed arts. I learned calligraphy, made keychains and bookmarks, polished my nails, painted on my shirts, and created some digital arts. I sent them to my sister and my friends, including my pen pals overseas. It couldn't feel better to receive their thank you messages, such as when my sister said that the drawing I made for her became her profile pics in almost all apps she was on.
Small businesses - Big big love
I used to have a small stationery shop when I was in middle school, then continued with a short-term business in uni's time. Even though it generated some profits, my mind was only 20% business and 80% of it was about arts. Many of the times, I would keep some stuff for myself because it was so cute. And what even made me happier than the seeing new transfers was probably packaging items. So satisfying~
Due to lots of reasons, my businesses couldn't survive for long. However, running a business helped me learn a lot about managing a small arts business - all of the pros and cons. That's why whenever I saw an arts business that I love, I'd absolutely like to support them, in any way - buying a coffee online or buying physical products. I knew from my heart that keeping such business needs much much support.
Sustainability
I once shared my business ideas with my former boss: a business from kindness, and he seriously questioned about the business' profitability. There were also honestly many holes in my plans at that time that made it unsustainable. Even now when I'm writing this post, I know that I will struggle a lot if I follow this direction.
But again, I'm a stubborn person, and I believe that things can improve in the future. Yep, that's kinda like one day your problems will be solved themselves. So if you are reading this, and you share a tiny bit of that belief, let's be friends! Here's to the world where love is spread and kindness is exchangeable.
(づ๑•ᴗ•๑)づ♡