I Melted a Mountain into a Lake
an interview with Archie, Designer at A Little Better Handmade Stuff — living in Tainan 002
Archie is from Taipei, Taiwan. He is the owner of A Little Better Handmade Stuff. The main products under the label are wax candles in shapes of little mountains.
Why did you move to Tainan?
My business grew beyond the size of my workshop in Taipei! Tainan attracted me here with her beautiful buildings and cheaper rents .
Do you like it here?
I do! I like Tainan’s weather and its slow tempo of life. It rains less and there are many old-vintage houses not as tall as the huge buildings that block the blue sky from our sight.
What are your sightseeing suggestions for visitors of Tainan?
Take a stroll in the alleys and lanes! I often ask my friends who come visiting me to go out and explore the city on their own. They would often come back with some amusing finds: an interesting building or some good-looking ruins. There’s a joint for barbecued snacks on Kangle St. that I like, and I almost always share them with my friends.
What prompts you to start making candles?
Graduating from college, I helped out at a friend’s gift store as a staff. We wanted to design a new product for the coming Christmas shopping season and decided to experiment with the craft of candle-making. The original design at that time was a house-shaped candle, which is not very complicated to make. I devised a way to create its mold with origami. I folded sheets of aluminum into the shapes I want and hold it with tapes, then poured hot wax into it. The first attempt was not successful as the tapes detached in the heat, so I did it again in a pool of water as coolant and it worked! I had made my first Christmas house candle.
Because of the way I made it, it had so many layers, which let it look so much alike with mineral. Once, a customer had it confused it with quartz or some sort of crystal and questioned its composition, and it brought me into the world of candle-making.
How did you get the idea to make them in the shape of little mountains?
Half year later, I wanted to hand make a gift for Mother’s Day. Candle-making came into my mind. Since my candles have a mineral-like texture, I found it fitting to shape them into little mountains. That was the first idea, and the beginning of this series.
Do you enjoy nature and being outdoor? I saw there were lots of plants outside your place and the indoor was decorated with natural elements like dried leaves and fruits.
Well, I used to be a typical city dweller who occasionally admire a pretty potted plant but never had too much thoughts about them. I started having an affinity for plants when I went to university in Hsinchu where the campus was surrounded by farming fields. I wandered around on my scooter, and had an urge to want to know more about the different flowers in the wild, so I got myself an encyclopedia of wild flowers. Later, when I was in the army as a conscript, I was assigned a position to clean up the weeds and realized how little I know about them. That prompted me to read even more. I became more acquainted with botany.
The time-lapse video of the candle “Yushan” melting you posted on Youtube was exquisite! I want to know the reason behind having miniature figurines in that scene. And on another video you used an intriguing sound effect with adults and children laughing in the background, how did you come up with the idea?
The figurines were an old habit from my field of study. In interior design, we often use them as scales when we had to produce model of a room or something else. They looked just about right standing next to my candles.
I recorded the audio piece when I was in Canada visiting a friend during a summer vacation. We were on a week-long road trip and tried so many things. We swam in a lake with cold water, possibly below 10 degrees Celsius. I was trying to capture that moment in a video and some families were playing with water in the background. That’s how the sound was recorded.
When my mountain candle melts into a puddle, the pool of liquid wax reminds me of a lake. That’s why I used the sound we recorded in Canada for the video’s background. For me, the meaning is quite poetic: I melted a mountain into a lake.
Where could we buy your products?
I consign at some shops and I also sell them at craft fairs and markets. I considered selling them online but I prefer having my customers see the products and feel their unique textures in person before getting them.
Can you share a few tips about selling at craft fairs and markets?
I routinely go to two creative markets: Simple Market and Hand-in-Hand Market. The visitors in Simple Market are the best fit for my products, as they usually are shoppers looking for a gift to buy on-the-spot. My candles are not usually in the impulse buy category, so shoppers’ intents are crucial in securing sales. On the other hand, I like Hand-in-Hand Market for their nice atmosphere. I met lots of friendly and interesting vendors there.
I noticed that you also teach at a few craft workshops. How did it begin?
In the beginning I had a few invitation from craft workshop owners. But I am a practical person and will not hurry on something unless I am 100% confident, so I kept refusing their proposals. One day I felt I was getting ready and had enough time to prepare for the first workshop, and so it began. My workshops are not designed as classes, but rather as an unique candle making experience that results in something that resembles my styles. Therefore, I name it “buy 2 candles and get free experience”.What’s interesting is that among the 5 or 6 workshops that I held, the majority of participants were female, but there’s always at least one guy.
What inspires you?
I guess most will tell you it’s daily living that inspires the most. For me it’s the same. For instance I once had a lot of shopping receipts (they double as lottery tickets in Taiwan) and found that I didn’t win anything after spending so much time checking each of them. It made me feel infuriated. I tore down every receipt and dumped them in water. It was not enough to quench my anger, so I twisted and kneaded, and somehow I got myself a pen made from these receipts. I am a collectors of small twigs and one day I sat down and thought about what I can do with them. The receipts came into my mind and they inspired me to make a twig pencil.
What is it like to be working for yourself?
Not being forced into doing something I don’t like, being able to choose what I want to do and have freedom in pursuing my own goals. I value these highly and am therefore satisfied to be able to work for myself and no one else. When it comes to the cons, sometimes I hate myself for going overboard with something insignificant. I would compare my candles with others out in the market and, despite knowing that we have different target segments, be saddened by the fact that my products are not selling good as the competitors.
What are your next plans?
I am looking for a new apartment. Hopefully I can have my craft workshop open for a few more days a week after the move. In addition to having my candles on display, I might provide simple meals for dine-in or delivery. When I do deliver to your place, I will just transfer the food to your container without providing any eating utensils.
How would you describe yourself?
I am headstrong and I hate doing anything against my will. In some way, I am a selfish person. When I moved to Tainan, I started living away from home. It gives me freedom to practice my own ways of life. For example, now I eat plenty of vegetables and use cloth napkins instead of paper ones. I start to live attentively and follow the ways of the heart.
A Little Better Handmade Stuff Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/albstuff
Text & photo: Huiwen Chen
Editing: Rosa & Sanford Poon
Chinese version: http://hwchensfotostudio.blogspot.tw/2014/07/living-in-tainan-x-interview-002.html
