Shahd Alhamdan
One Saudi lady has used online platforms to successfully turn her
passion for crocheted toys into a startup business, under the name
Ahad Crochet.
Founder, Ahad Yamani, succeeded in returning an old phenomena that had
largely vanished to the Saudi Market by using Instagram, WhatsAap, and
Esty, an online craft shop. Her brand sells several sizes of crochet
toys, tablecloths, books with crochet characters, and giraffes.
Saudi Gazette caught up with Yamani in Besat El-Reeh, held at the
Jeddah Centre for Events and Forums, where she was showcasing her
products. Yaman, who is currently spending her annual vacation in
Jeddah and will go back to Germany soon to complete her studies in
medicine, explained that the idea came to her a year ago.
“In Germany it is very cold in winter and you get bored of staying at
home all the time, so I decided to learn crochet from the internet. I
learned the skill during my pregnancy, so I started to make a crochet
toy to my expected baby girl. I crocheted a giraffe - now my best
selling,” she said.
She produced several toys for her friends and family members upon
request, but stopped for awhile because of her studies. Although she
ceased making toys, the demand did not cease, so she decided to launch
her own business, especially with a number of Saudi children book
authors contacting her asking for her to make dolls of their
characters. The result of this collaboration was a book titled ‘Eid in
Jug’ and a pretty toy called Sama.
“The book is about Eid Aladha habits for adults and children.
Honestly, I liked the idea because it has a purpose behind it which is
encouraging children to read. The first toy, I made it by my self but
after that I started seeking for females to produce it in the Kingdom
and it was hard because it was difficult to find women knew how to
crochet these days and it is precise work,” she said.
Currently, a group of women living in Rebats, as well as some female
Yemeni refugees are working with her.
She explained that one of the struggles that she faces is that people
don’t appreciate the amount of work that goes into a doll, and so
think her prices are too high.
“Crocheted toys need precise time and high effort. To finish one toy
you need around five weeks, and not all the materials with high
quality are available in Jeddah; some of the materials are brought
from Germany. For each book I produce around 10 toys only. Today, we
have five books and one of the stories has around 8 crocheted
characters.”
Prices depends on the work. You can order your toy through Instagram
by following @Ahad_crochet.
