Japanese Stuffed Animals?

Amigurumi is the art of crocheting stuffed animals. Talk about a mouthful. Pronounced ah-ME-goo-ruh-ME, the word originates from Japan where the idea of such hand-made yarn toys began. Unfortunately, its not a very well-known product and goes greatly unappreciated in this modern age of mass-produced items cheaply sold by super-stores.

Winnie-the-Pooh
(Original)
Made and photographed by Me!

My mother and grandmother taught me how to knit, crochet, and use a loom at a very young age and I sold scarves for a while to their friends and coworkers who were impressed by a 7 year old knitting shawls longer than she was tall. However, I easily bored of the repetitive, mind-numbing stitches, even more complicated patterns, and stopped selling them, instead only making them for family when the winter season swung by.

My love for stuffed animals takes up most of my room and the collection only grows each year. At the age of 11 I discovered through youtube and artist's blogs that you could combine my two passions and create an immensely gratifying product. I had never even considered it before and quickly taught myself the new style by following beginner's videos and simple patterns. I found the foreign language of round rows and increasing or decreasing slip stitches and hidden magic rings fascinating and studied it for years before producing some of my own original patterns when I couldn't find satisfactory examples online.

Project in progress
Made and Photographed by Me!

These I make for special friends when birthdays and holidays come around. An average original pattern may take anywhere from 3-15 hours of work depending on how complicated the shape and size is. The Winnie-the-Pooh above took me approximately 10 hours, not bad considering how many times I had to redo the head, and was a gift for my god-mother. She also enjoys making crafts and appreciates the work going into it. Part of her job is to interview people for company products and I asked her to survey a few people regarding the stuffed toy.

She agreed and spoke to fifteen people. She told them she purchased the toy when she visited my family and asked them to guess how much the custom-made item cost. Now think of it this way, the toy was small, less than 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide, but it took 10 hours to make. Multiply that by minimum wage, about 80 dollars, plus materials, another 10, leaving a grand total of 90 dollars. Who's going to pay that much when they can purchase a similar toy from Walmart or Target for 8 dollars, that was made in China?

A matching set of "Blob-Bunnies"
Made and Photographed by Me!

Realistically, similar craft products this size are typically sold on Etsy, or Amazon for about 30-40 dollars, depending on how popular the item is. The fifteen people my god-mother interviewed all had varying estimates: three assumed $3 and only one person would pay $19.99. The disappointing results emphasize how people in general these days are unappreciative of the small things in life. Now that things are easily obtained from any main-stream store, not many value the time and effort going into the merchandise, opting to simply grab the cheapest item on the nearest shelf. This experience serves as a reminder of quality vs. quantity in a modern world that relies heavily on company manufacturing to provide basic necessities.