90 successors give up making quick money and pursue higher skills.

　　A bear in a scarf, a donkey with eyes rolling, and a doll with a puffer fish stick … … All kinds of handicrafts stand densely together, with colorful wool lying beside them. This is the scene on the workbench of Su Fang, a post-90s worker. Making wool felt by hand is her specialty.

　　Wool felt is a non-woven fabric with good touch and reducibility. Wool felt handwork is the use of wool felt materials to make dolls, dolls, groceries, accessories and other handmade works, which are popular in Europe, America, Japan and other places, and it is still a fresh handmade category in China.

　　Over the past three years, Su Fang has set up stalls and opened studios, given up "making quick money", and devoted himself to building a personal creative brand and pursuing his dreams in starting a business.

　　"Handmaking is what I want to do."

　　Su Fang graduated from Wuhan University of Science and Technology City College in 2012, majoring in environmental art design. When she was in college, she had a soft spot for handcraft. "At that time, I made bags, clothes, fabrics and embroidery."

　　After graduation, as soon as she has leisure time at work, she will still make her own handmade products, and she will always buy all the beautiful materials when she sees them.

　　June 1st, 2014 is a turning point for Su Fang. She took time off to participate in a "Fool’s Market" in the Java Bar on Tianjin Road in Hankou, and met all kinds of handmade people and works. She couldn’t help feeling: "It turns out that doing manual work can also be a job. These people and I live in two worlds completely."

　　After missing two consecutive "Fool’s Fair" due to overtime work, Su Fang realized that his life was limited by the busy bank work. Although I have a lot of income, "this is not the state of life I want." She knows very well that doing manual work "is what she wants to do". Can you develop your interest into a career? With the idea of giving it a try, she quit her job without telling her family and became an independent craftsman, doing manual work in the house she rented every day.

　　In 2016, Su Fang went to Shanghai 1933 Old Square and participated in the market outside the province for the first time. She brought her own work — — A batch of ornaments made of wool felt with embroidery or wool felt with soft pottery. These ornaments attracted the attention of some young people, and many people added her WeChat. At the same time, she also met some companies engaged in the cultural and creative industries and carried out some cooperation. Participating in such a market not only gained confidence, but also let her know some knowledge about the sales of handmade works. "At that time, I learned to calculate the appropriate price of works according to working hours and materials."

　　With the continuous broadening of horizons, the hand-made market in Wuhan can no longer meet the needs of Su Fang’s study, so she spends her travelling expenses and booth fees to attend larger markets in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hefei, Hangzhou and other cities. Su Fang gradually became an insider.

　　Making customized wool felt for pets used to be a major business.

　　"Sasha Vujacic … …” A layer of wool the size of a fingernail, Su Fang pinched and poked a hundred times, and finally made the loose wool become a tight "skin", which was firmly covered on the inner skeleton. This kind of work, Su Fang can do nearly 10 hours on the manual table every day, "like it, so it’s not boring at all".

　　Su Fang brushed the wool on his hand and said that wool has the characteristics of softness and tenacity, and the fiber structure can be closely intertwined; Repeated pricking with a barbed needle at the tip can make the scales on the wool rub tightly and become firm.

　　Out of love for pets and appreciation of foreign artists’ works, in 2017, Su Fang began to learn to make pet works with wool felt. Because of the lack of a guide, her skills are completely self-taught. Without textbooks, she kept looking for foreign books online.

　　Up to now, Su Fang still has a Japanese textbook introducing the works of wool felt pet cats. I don’t know anything about Japanese. "Never mind, just watch the step diagram and learn." Su Fang repeatedly operated and worked out the production skills bit by bit. When she first started practicing, it was common to accidentally poke her finger out of one blood hole after another. Out of love, she often endured the pain and continued to make.

　　Su Fang’s first work was two kittens, which were posted in a circle of friends and were screened by messages such as "cute" and "beautiful". But last year, she tore down these two works because she felt that they were "not good enough". "My current work is very different from the original work, and the comments received at that time were ‘ So cute ’ I don’t want to get such an evaluation. "

　　After getting used to it, the custom-made wool felt for pets has become a major business in Su Fang. Most of the customers are pet lovers, and most of them hope that Su Fang can use wool felt to restore his pet’s appearance as a souvenir. During the production, customers will send photos of their pets’ lives to Su Fang and tell Su Fang the story behind each photo, which also inspired her to create.

　　On one occasion, a customer found her on WeChat more than a month after the work was delivered. The customer told Su Fang that his dog died in a car accident shortly after receiving the work, and every time he saw Su Fang’s wool felt work, it would bring back infinite happy memories. "The customers thanked me for the commemoration, but in my heart, it is because of these stories that I feel that what I have done is meaningful." Su Fang said.

　　In November 2017, Su Fang rented a house in Hankou and started his own studio. In order to promote wool felt handwork, she set up teaching courses at a low price in the studio, and only accepted 20 yuan for one class, and prepared materials. Although many people are interested in wool felt handwork, there are almost no repeat customers who come to class.

　　"Many customers think that making wool felt is very simple. They never want to spend hours sitting there poking and poking, and they can’t sit still. Sometimes they even call me to help them do OEM work." Su Fang said, "I feel that doing things seriously is a respect for it, and the performance of customers makes me feel unhappy." After more than a month, she gave up the idea of starting classes in the studio and spent all her time on her own creation.

　　In October this year, a handicraft exhibition will be held in Beijing, and many famous craftsmen from all over the world and domestic handicraftsmen have been invited. Su Fang was qualified to participate in the exhibition. "This is also a recognition for me, and I am looking forward to it."

　　"I hope every work is completed in an exciting state."

　　It is Su Fang’s initial intention to do manual work by improving technology, constantly surpassing himself and making satisfactory works. In order to keep her original heart, Su Fang gave up the market again and again, because she insisted that "making manual work cannot be equated with making quick money".

　　In 2017, she lived in a large handicraft market in Wuhan and sold her own handmade works. At that time, demand was in short supply, which was a common occurrence. On weekends, works that were ready to be sold for two days were basically snapped up by the first afternoon. When it was good, she could sell more than 10,000 yuan a month. The organizer asked to fill the booth, so she could only make some simple and cheap hair clips and rubber band ornaments to make up for it. Sometimes she even deliberately bid up the price of her work so that it could not be sold and stayed on the booth for a while. "At that time, I felt like an assembly line laborer who rushed to order. Although I made money, I couldn’t learn anything." Su Fang said.

　　In the process of attending fairs and exhibitions everywhere, some companies that took a fancy to the manual commercial value of wool felt approached Su Fang for cooperation, hoping to mass-produce with cheap materials. "The Tao is different." Sapanwood declined.

　　"Many people only pursue visual effects in their works, so they choose to be lazy, use bad materials or cut corners, resulting in soft works. But all my works are solid and there are no pinholes. There is no other way, just spend more time stamps. " In Su Fang’s view, "work should be honest".

　　Two years ago, the customization of wool felt pet works was Su Fang’s main business, accounting for more than half of her income. In this business, the highest turnover is a fully customized pet dog with a unit price of 2000 yuan. In her WeChat address book, hundreds of friends met through this business. However, Su Fang feels that the custom-made business is like "proposition composition", and her personal creative inspiration often has to compromise with customers’ requirements, which makes her lose some enthusiasm for her works.

　　Over time, the unhappy mood is getting stronger: if you continue to make pet works, it will be easier to make money, but the creative inspiration will be limited; If you don’t do it, your income will definitely drop in a short time. This year’s Spring Festival, Su Fang was once very entangled.

　　Finally, she chose the latter.

　　Today, Su Fang works with an agent to sell existing works. Su Fang said: "Wool felt is different from assembly line products, and it is not a doll. It not only has a higher degree of fineness and a better simulation effect, but also includes the painstaking efforts of people. The pricing of several hundred yuan and several thousand yuan is not casually shouted out, and it should be calculated according to the cost of working procedures and materials. " She took out a recently made "Big Wolf" and gave an example to the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network. In order to pursue the simulation, the wolf’s teeth were made of soft pottery; The skeleton is also made of imported plastic materials, so the limbs and tail can move. This "Wolf" is one of the "Little Red Riding Hood" series works that she cooperated with her friends. The work process is complicated, the production is fine, and the price is around 600 yuan.

　　Su Fang said that wool felt works are still very small, and many people don’t understand the creativity and painstaking efforts made by the handicraftsmen in a work. Sometimes, some customers like it very much, but they think the price is too high to buy it. Nowadays, she sells her works with the mentality of "following fate", and sells them as soon as she can; If you can’t sell it, collect it yourself, because every work is her "love created in an excited state."

　　In May this year, Su Fang sold a set of original works around dolls in 800 yuan, including hats and decorations, which set a record for the turnover of her own design works. Now Su Fang is living a life of "supporting himself" and writing according to his own ideas, and he is satisfied. She said: "There is always a trade-off between life and dreams. If you want to get something, you must give up something." (Author Wei Xuping China Youth Daily China Youth Network reporter Zhu Juanjuan)