KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — For the past few years, the artisanal scene in Malaysia has been growing rapidly. Every other week it seems, there would be a calligraphy, painting or crafting workshop going on, or bazaars filled with artisans selling their handmade goods.
With all this happening, it’s often hard to track what’s going on in the world of artisans so Atikah Hamdan decided to start Makers Malaysia, a community page or group that gathers handmade sellers, crafters and artists based in Malaysia.
“It came about after seeing that Malaysia lacked proper support and motivation for small handmade shops – I felt this was true after seeing my sister start ayaminlove, our illustration and paper business, where I still design. I created Makers Malaysia to hopefully help crafters by promoting their shops, to get them to increase their interaction with other sellers as well as buyers. I also post details about handmade markets happening around Malaysia and inspirational quotes for makers and art lovers,” said Atikah who is currently based in the UK.
Atikah works alone, posting and managing all the feature applications on the Instagram page. Her sister helps out by sorting out the required shipping and printing (such as giveaways, etc.). Atikah stays in the know by checking up on the makers she follows and she gets notified by the sellers themselves to help promote an upcoming market or sale. She also tracks the hashtag #makersmalaysia, which crafters use to alert Atikah on a certain post.
She features someone at least once a day on Makers Malaysia and Atikah will notify them via email or Instagram’s direct messaging.
“I track the tag #makersmalaysia on Instagram, and sometimes post from there. When I find any new makers that I want to feature, I add their names to my post queue. However if someone urgently needs a promotion or wants it by a certain date (e.g for a market) then they can apply on the form in my website, www.makersmalaysia.wordpress.com for a special or collaborative feature.
“Special features come in deals and sellers can choose their date, time, caption and picture. Collaborative features mean that the shop agrees to having a discount (chosen by the seller!) for 24 hours, and buyers will get their discounts by showing the Makers Malaysia feature to the shop. I do encourage crafters to contact me if they have any ideas on collabs as I am totally open to new projects,” she said.
Atikah mostly works on Instagram although she occasionally posts to Facebook. She also uses the WordPress site to process features and for any updates such as the online Makers Malaysia Charity Auction that she is organising for February. The proceeds from the inaugural auction will be channelled to MAKNA. Interested parties can donate items and participants can bid for them.
On the Makers Malaysia Instagram account, Atikah features all sorts of crafters and small businesses that focus on handmade products like bakers, painters, jewellery makers, illustrators, sewers, clay artists, florists, designers and lots more. People who work with paper, watercolour, spray paint, fabric, clay, wood, leather, even concrete are also featured.
“I am always amazed with the creativity and the quality of the works of Malaysian crafters. To qualify for a feature however I will require that the business has high quality photos for me to post, to keep the coherence of the pictures in my profile,” she said.
Initially, the objective of Makers Malaysia was to share the lovely talent of Malaysian crafters. She then realised that these crafters either mostly work alone or do not interact as much. Because of that, Makers Malaysia was started to bring together a craft community that will support and motivate each other.
She felt it was important because working together is pivotal to learning, growing and expanding your business. Through interacting with more makers and art lovers, crafters will be able to open up new opportunities by collaborating with other businesses or by joining any markets they see being promoted on Makers Malaysia. They will also be able to discuss any problems or difficulties they encounter with their shop.
Being part of a small handmade business, Atikah knows that there will be times that they will need support and help and she hopes to create a fun, friendly environment where crafters can feel comfortable communicating any problems or even to celebrate together with Makers Malaysia.
Atikah also wants to make it easier for buyers to browse a selection of handmade products by lots of different Malaysian sellers, and accept “Shop Hunt” requests, where she posts that someone is currently looking for specific type of shop, e.g string artists, and this also encourages crafters to be more active and promote their shop if it’s relevant to the “Shop Hunt.”
“Currently, I think the craft scene in Malaysia has a lot of potential -- there are so many talented people out there! It’s great to see people try new skills, or when crafters hold workshops to pass on their knowledge. I think the biggest problem is having a solid platform to showcase their talents and creativity.
“It’s great to discover and see more craft & small business communities, especially new ones! Another problem with the craft scene in Malaysia is that buyers sometimes underestimate the amount of time and effort put into a product, and the impact it has on the crafters’ lives — and do not understand why some products would cost more than those widely sold by big companies. Every product is unique as each is made by hand. There is a quote that goes:
“‘When you buy from a small business, you are not helping a CEO buy a third vacation home. You are helping a little girl get dance lessons, a little boy get his team jersey, a mom or dad put food on the table, a family pay a mortgage, or a student pay for college.’,” said Atikah.
For Atikah, she feels that most of the Malaysian crafters are up to international standards. There are some who do need improvement, which she recommends they facilitate by reading up and learning about certain aspects of the business like photography techniques, marketing, etc.
It is also quite beneficial to keep up or “follow” successful international shops to emulate them. She feels that it’s always important to do the best that you can without giving up, and she knows that this can be especially hard when starting a handmade business. Crafters can also improve by being more open to asking for help and to giving help — Atikah thinks that this is essential in any work.
For more information, check out www.instagram.com/makersmalaysia or www.makersmalaysia.wordpress.com
