While traveling to foreign countries, I always spend hours in those cute little souvenir stores. I am fascinated by all the cuteness overload- beautiful images of famous places, local craft-works that nicely reflect the life of people, traditional delights and that nice particular smell that every store has.
4 years ago (when I was 16) during a cold October evening, I went out to look for a lovely gift for a birthday of my Portuguese twins. I stopped by every single souvenir store in the town, as a little child glancing through the windows trying to see if they have anything worth of my attention. The stores in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, were packed with amber jewelry, mugs, notebooks and pens, there also were some silicone, plastic bracelets... I cannot complain, they had a wide selection but they did not have that one little thing I was looking for (at that time I did not know what it was tho) that would perfectly reflect how much I care about my twin friends and remind them of a visit they had a few years ago in Lithuania.
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However, my search was unsuccessful. That evening I came back home with nothing in my bag thinking that it is impossible that the stores have so much but at the same time- nothing. The next morning I woke up with idea to get them bracelets as in Portugal teenagers have this trend of adorning the whole wrist with colorful pieces of leather bands or beads. The bracelets I have seen in the stores were all result of mass production, they were okey but lacking of a very important feature- LOVE which can be incorporated to a piece of work by human hands (sorry to all machines).
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I have been always interested in crafts: sewing, knitting, crocheting... My hands were already used to threads in general and this material was the one I felt extremely comfortable working with. No surprise that I have decided to make bracelets for my Portuguese twins myself. The same evening I have made 2 friendship bracelets with national ornament and tricolor of Lithuanian flag motif which were knotted from almost 900 knots each. The results were satisfying and I have shipped the bracelets to Portugal. I was so happy how beautiful they were that I did some more of them and showed them to my friends. They bought most of them instantly.
The way bracelets were accepted by my friends and Portuguese twins made me think that it might be a good idea to share them with a bigger audience. It did not take long when I have created my Facebook business page and started selling bracelets on ebay.com. My brother was really kind and helped me with my new logo and a cover. At the same time, I was taking care of "a thing" that could work as a package. After dozens of ruined sheets of carton, I came up with a little carton box.
I did not have to ponder over the name of my business as it came very easily. The idea of a brand name KNITA FRIENDA is that by giving or making a friendship bracelet you, in a way, "knit a friend" (make a friend). Of course, I needed to add some sound to it and letter A worked perfect.
My wish to sell patriotic bracelets made with LOVE since no souvenir store in Lithuania could offer that, came true at the age of 16. My business was doing great since the very first day, I got many orders and I was happy to ship my bracelets to Lithuanians living in Lithuania and abroad, as well as foreigners. My bracelets are worn in Portugal, Lithuania, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the USA, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK.
This photo was send by a Spanish customer who bought 2 bracelets for his Lithuanian girlfriend.
All this time, I have been working alone, because there was nobody who would be ready to sacrifice their patience making thousands yellow, green and red knots a day. Nor that interested and happy while doing it. I will not lie, sometimes it was really difficult, but the hard work paid well by overwhelming comments about the love people feel wearing my bracelets. A year after, I was invited to join a big Lithuanian souvenirs store online and sell my bracelets. That was amazing!
Let me confess, my intention never was to earn millions from making bracelets. It was more of running Knita Frienda from a nice idea of spreading patriotic love and friendship around the world. As I was working alone, it soon became more work-like than actual pleasure of doing what you like. And that was a difficult time.
I have run Knita Frienda business for 3 years when I have decided to stop. I was tired and I felt that it was not something I would like to continue. So I officially stopped Knita Frienda business. I am not sure if I ever start it again but it was a very interesting experience to have my own business at 16!
There were 7 patriotic bracelets left for an emergency which I used meaningfully by giving them to the people I have met on my way in different parts of my country and abroad. The people who got them they were and still are very important to me and by giving a bracelet I used to tell them a story:
Every bracelet has a wish inside it. When somebody puts a friendship bracelet on your wrist you have to make a wish. The knot that is made to tie it up, is where a wish is locked. The only way to unlock the wish is for the bracelet to be so worn out that it breaks. Then the wish you made is released...
Hi, I recently started to work as a curator for the Streemtrail project, taking care of the “business” category. I would suggest to make the first tag of your post (also known as main tag) “business” if you want your post to be considered for submission in that category. As more moderators will join in, there will also be subcategories, like “business/trading”, “business/bitcoin” or “business/marketing”. Also, make sure to correctly cite the source for your pictures or citations from other authors, if you want to increase your chances for submission. Thank you! Your efforts will help Steemit become clearer and stronger.
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@dragosroua!
:))
Thank you :)
Like This Post!
Cool Story & Tips!
Steem On!
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thanks :)
Nice story! Enjoyed reading it! :)
@ana-maria great to hear :)
This is great, best success for your business!
This business is no longer present tho, but thank you!
Welp! I kind of hoped to see more private personal pictures :)
@lastman, well they are personal. Sorry to disappoint you...