Customer Zhang Xinwen (right) experiences tufting handiwork on March 29. Photo by reporter Gao Gao
Reporter Peak
On March 29, in a tufted handicraft shop at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of No. 3 Space on Exhibition Avenue in Urumqi, Zhang Xinwen, 27, with a "click- and-click" sound, embroidered the outline of a small new crayon cartoon pattern on a base cloth with a tufted gun.
"I brushed up on Douyin and came here to experience it with friends during today's break, and I felt a sense of accomplishment by spending a few hours making my own handmade tapestries." Zhang Xinwen said the tapestry would be given as a birthday gift to her sister.
In the afternoon of the same day, after learning about the tufted handicraft shop called "Making a Wool Fiber Art Museum" through online channels such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, zhang Xinwen learned about it, more than 10 customers came to experience it. Hu Jiayu, the owner of the store, said that after work on weekdays, it is the peak time for customers to come to the store to experience.
At the end of last year, Hu Jiayu founded this tufted handicraft shop, which has been operating in less than 4 months using the model of an internet celebrity store, setting off a large wave of tufted handicraft among young consumer groups.
On March 29, customer Zhang Xinwen (right) experiences tufting handmade. Photo by reporter Gao Gao
Tufting was originally a traditional craft of factory-made carpets, but a few years ago, this craft was simplified abroad to creative craftsmanship and became a casual social activity. Last year, this form of leisure was introduced into China and became very popular in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou and other cities.
After Hu Jiayu saw the tufting handicraft on the Internet, he deeply liked this activity and decided that it was worth running. "Young people in Urumqi need meaningful leisure activities, and tufting can meet their needs." She said.
Soon, Hu Jiayu found a tufted gun in Tianjin and an eight-strand cotton thread in Yiwu that could weave a dense blanket. Her parents are both in the art industry, and she decided to use the internet celebrity shop model to run a tufted handicraft shop.
"Tufted handicrafts attract young people who pursue quality life, and they use this form to realize their own creativity, and the blankets they make can be used as carpets, cushions, tapestries, etc." Hu Jiayu said that if tufting is regarded as an art form, it has high requirements for the environment.
Hu Jiayu designed the storefront as a "white box", the walls and floor are pure white, and the roof covered with various pipes is painted blue. A set of chests of drawers from the bottom to the top separates the reception desk from the operating site. She said: "Art is infinitely possible in the 'white box', and the drawer on one wall is easily reminiscent of a Chinese medicine box, embodying traditional elements." ”
A customer experiences tufting by hand on March 29. Reporter Gao Feng photographed
After the opening of the tufted handicraft shop, Hu Jiayu chose to promote it on WeChat, Douyin and Xiaohongshu. At first, she posted live-action shooting content on Douyin and Xiaohongshu every day, counted the playback volume of each small video, and carried out some drainage work. Now, online content is basically updated once a week to attract customers.
There are currently 7 employees in the store who provide technical guidance services to customers, and Su Haitao is one of them. He said that tufting has enriched the lives of young people in the city, and now receives an average of 30 or 40 customers a day, and he provides technical guidance services for more than 60 customers on the most day.
Nowadays, not only Urumqi has opened a number of tufted handicraft shops, but also cities such as Shihezi and Karamay also have tufted handicraft shops. In the face of increasingly fierce competition, Hu Jiayu plans to launch more creative projects to consolidate the position of internet celebrity stores. At present, her tufted handicraft shop has set aside space to introduce projects that allow customers to color the plaster bears freely, and expand the scope of its business.
"We will instruct our customers to weave more artistic works, such as three-dimensional shapes of mountains and rivers." Hu Jiayu said, "Our storefront can become an exhibition place with a little tidying up, and we can organize the exhibition of excellent tufted works from time to time to attract customers." ”