Twinkie Chan is, in her own words, "that girl who makes food scarves". She is a crafty entrepreneur, blogger and model with a distinct style and heaps of personality! Polly Noble spoke to her about her business, her fashion and her plans for the future.


  


You've been crocheting since you were a child. What is it about crochet that you enjoy?
Well... if I knew how to sew, I'd probably be doing that a lot, too! Crochet is all that I know :P. But I think it's a very flexible medium. You can make flat things, 3D things, stuff to wear, stuff to decorate your home. I love how portable it is - I can just grab a ball of yarn and a crochet hook and take it with me everywhere! I can crochet in front of the TV, in a car, at a friend's house, on an airplane. I also simply just love YARN and all the pretty colours and textures it comes in. Crocheting is just this amazing visual and tactile experience. What you can make with crocheting is pretty much only limited by your own imagination. I feel like I will never run out of ideas or ever have time to make everything that's in my head!

Your crochet scarves must take a long time and a lot of very close work. What do you do or think about to keep motivated to finish them?
In all honesty, sometimes it's really hard to stay motivated and finish a project. I'll be the first to admit it! I get excited about figuring out and writing a new pattern, but once I have it down, I pretty much want to move onto the next project instead of finishing the first one! You really just have to mentally push through it. There are no real tricks. You just have to tell yourself to have follow-through. If you intend to sell the item you are working on, then knowing you have to complete a project in order to sell it needs to be a strong motivator. Otherwise your shop will always be empty, and you'll never have anything to show for all your creativity. Having ideas is only small part of the process. It's the stick-to-it-iveness that's hard! You just have to be disciplined about it and think about how great you'll feel when you've seen a project from beginning to end. I also watch A LOT of movies on cable while I work!

 

As well as making food scarves and other food related items and writing a blog devoted to unusual foods, you also have tattoos of cupcakes, ice creams and other snacks. What is it about the visual aspect of food you love so much?

I don't know if I have an explanation! I've always loved fake food for as long as I can remember.  I always wanted to buy Fisher Price fake food sets when I was little. I had the full kitchen play area as well as the McDonald's themed play area. When I didn't have a certain kind of food required for a certain play session, I'd make the food out of construction paper or even Play-Doh. Figuring out that you could mix Play-Doh colours was one of the biggest epiphanies of my childhood! I also remember visiting Hong Kong and dying over this little toy refrigerator completely stocked with little teeny tiny soda bottles and plastic foods.

 


You were involved in the recent Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary celebrations. How did you get involved in that? And was it a good experience?
I felt really lucky and honoured to have been asked to participate. I chalk it up to my life on the internet! You begin to make friends with some crafty people, who are friends with other crafty people, who are friends with the shop JapanLA who organized/hosted the Hello Kitty anniversary in LA, and then you find yourself making a Hello Kitty scarf! I have never participated in any kind of fashion show event, though I have been asked many times. I just never feel like I have enough time to provide accessories for a show. However, I could NOT pass up the chance to be part of such an awesome pop culture phenomenon, plus I only had to contribute/collaborate on one single outfit with my friend Marissa, so I decided to bite the bullet! The deadline for our pieces coincided with the deadline for me to deliver the manuscript and samples for my book of patterns to my publisher, so I think my experience with the Hello Kitty event was really tangled up in me trying to finish my book. It was really intense. But I managed to finish everything in time! Going to the opening night of the Hello Kitty show was really cool, and it will be really surreal to see our whole outfit put together on a model for the Hello Kitty fashion night. (By the time this interview goes up, the fashion night on Nov. 14 would have already occurred. If you want details about the evening, please come visit my blog!)

 


You seem to have a very active life with your business, two blogs, and modelling for ShanaLogic. How do you stay organised?
I gotta tell you, some of those things on your list don't take up too much time :P. Shana from ShanaLogic is awesome and has been very good to me. But I don't need to model for her all the time, and that only really takes like 6 hours out of every couple months or so when she sends me a box of goodies to shoot. I LOVE my IEatYuckyStuff blog, but I really don't take a lot of time to update it. I mean, you can't ALWAYS be eating stuff that grosses people out, right? I try. I try! The business really does take up a lot of time, though, from attempting to update my Etsy shop, to taking custom orders, to always designing new patterns, to coordinating my helpers, to working on side projects like my book, to working on expanding the business (still top secret stuff right now).... I'm actually not very organized. I would never tell anybody to run a business like me! My biggest tool for organization is a plain notebook and a pen! I make a lot of lists!

 


Do you find it confusing to do all of the various activities you're involved in or do you feel it keeps you interested?
I feel that it keeps me interested! All the stuff I do basically relates to each other. One helps grow the other. Making stuff is one thing, but promoting it is another, so I try to do a little bit of both. My hands would probably fall off if I just crocheted all day, so doing stuff like blogging or photoshopping pictures or doing interviews is a really nice breather!

 


You have a pretty distinctive personal style. What inspires your look?
Okay, I used to REALLY hate pink. Like in college, I did not want pink anywhere near me, and I did NOT want the word "cute" to be said anywhere near me. But I was also never really great at adopting punk or goth styles authentically. It never felt like me. It felt like I was trying to be somebody else. I went on a trip to Hong Kong at some point during college (my family is from there) and I ran into a ton of clothing with pink and strawberries all over it. It DISGUSTED me! But for that very reason, I loved it! How my style has evolved today is really kind of like how you hear a word that you hate, for example "hella," but then you find yourself saying it all the time ironically, which eventually leads to you saying it earnestly. I love pink and cuteness now! I think of all the kawaii/lolita/Harajuku stuff as the opposite side of rebellion, rebelling against what people typically think of as alternative clothing. Now I just want to wear stuff that makes me smile. If other people happen to like it, hey, bonus! I am certainly inspired by Japanese street fashion and clothing for 2nd graders, but I never was an extremist, so I think I just borrow bits and pieces from various styles rather than subscribing to just one label. I still wear jeans and t-shirts!

 


You're currently working on a crochet pattern book. How did that come about? And when is it due to hit the shelves?
I used to work in publishing, and my friend Kera and I had wanted to do a book with the company she worked for years ago. However, the guy who is now my manager (I know, it's weird that I have one) really thought that I should hold off on a book. Fast forward to the beginning of 2009, and I guess he had a change of heart! ;) I had always felt a bit conflicted about the book. It kinda feels like giving away your secrets. But even after the first patterns are out, I will always have new designs, so it's not really like giving everything away.  There's always more in this noggin! Plus I know that there are lots of people who don't have the cash to buy my finished pieces, so it will be great to share my ideas and techniques with them, too. My publisher is Andrews McMeel Publishing, and the book is slated for Fall 2010. You never know what might happen in publishing, but I do hope we stick to that date. I'd love for the book to be out before the holidays in 2010! I am so curious about what it will look like! It doesn't even have a proper title yet. Suggestions, anyone? We're working on it...!

 

Do you have any advice for other people with crafty businesses?

Oh man, I would never claim to know anything at all about running a business. I don't even know how to use Excel or Quickbooks! My only advice is pretty general. (1) Once you start selling your art, you become a business and your art becomes a commodity. Making art becomes a job. So be prepared for a lot of hard work in order to be successful! Sure it's fun and you get to be creative, but don't be afraid of the hard parts, too! It will be worth it!  (2) Find your niche! There are a kabillion crafty businesses out there now, which is awesome, but you need to figure out how to stand out, how to brand yourself, basically. In the beginning I would stick to one distinctive style, or one distinctive item that you can become known for. That way, people remember you more easily. Strike out on your own, and don't copy a trend. Trends die and new ones are born, so don't be a follower, be a leader!

 


Finally, what is next for Twinkie Chan?
I don't really want to spoil what we've been cooking up! Nothing is set in stone (or on paper) yet, but let's just say that I am working on a HUGE expansion to increase production. I've been taking meetings with companies, and I think we're close to something exciting. It's all kind of scary and new, and I don't want to jinx anything. Just keep your fingers crossed and your eyes peeled for amazing announcements!

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You can find out more about Twinkie Chan at her blog, or her Etsy shop. Want to make your very own Twinkie Chan lollipop brooch? Check it out here!