TRH 5 Year Anniversary Contest
Join us on our 5 year anniversary contest by clicking the tab “TRH 5yo Contest” on our website and stand a chance to win a prize pool worth $500! Follow us on our Instagram for more info 🙂
Hint: you may find answers on our Instagram and blog! All the mighty best to you 🙂
Answer reveal on 3 Jan, 8pm on Youtube Live!
We have come a loooong way!
2021 marks our 5 years in operation of Tiny Rabbit Hole. Once in awhile, we still see our pioneer batch of customers visiting our yarn shop and reminiscing how we first started.
The Beginning
Our humble beginning actually began before my return to Singapore. I don’t think any of you had heard about this.
The birth of the name Tiny Rabbit Hole was conceptualised in end 2014. It was December, and Terrix and I were preparing for our university graduation in Brisbane. I remember that few days later, there was a huge hail storm with ice as big as golf balls falling down the sky during our graduation presentation. We were under a tentage.
View this post on Instagram
During that summer, I was pondering about a name with no particular objective. After much iteration, I came up with Tiny Rabbit Hole.
Why rabbit?
I used to love reading fairy tales. Thumbelina is my favourite. I even made my portfolio page into Thumbelina for my uni submission.
Alice in Wonderland is one of the fairy tales that gives me an unlimited range of impossibilities made possible. And my favourite animation house is Ghibli as animals have their own minds and they speak. The settings are mostly in strange-looking places that I have never imagined!
View this post on Instagram
I know I still haven’t answered the question. The thing is there’s no explanation. I just felt very mysterious that after you tumbled down the rabbit hole, you enter a whole new world. What could you possibly find there?
Why crochet?
I learned crochet when I was 10 years old. I stumbled across a bag kit at a craft store located at Heartland Mall. After that, I was tied down to a $100 crochet kit and struggled for 6 months, on and off school holidays, and finally completed the bag.
During those times, our only source of entertainment was meeting friends, eat and play, read some books, play computer when you can connect the modem, watch TV all day long, and the rest of the time was spent on crafting. I used to make lots of paper stars, roses, origami, pen sleeves, and crochet was my newest addition at that time.
Pen sleeves made for my school graduation using embroidery thread on pencil.
Those times were simple, and not as much distraction as now. Maybe also less stressful in school.
How I made crochet into a business?
While studying Visual Communication, I have learned a lot about art and design existing in different mediums. While it was fun working on the computer and churning posters and books and websites for clients (not so fun with negotiations and a zillion changes), I felt more satisfying working on something that feels like a playground to me.
View this post on Instagram
I believe those of you who started making amigurumi have felt the same way. Creating an animal and breathing life into it, giving it a character and a story. This is how we grew up as a kid with crazy imaginations which went away when we grew older.
View this post on Instagram
Now we become the creators of these toys 🙂 It is super heartwarming when you see the new owners hugging them like their best friends for life <3
My first crochet project
The pink bag that looks ever-so-shiny since the day it was made.
It is now 22 years old but it still looks brand new. I made it using high quality Japanese yarns. Good yarns do not cut corners in production and they’ll last you a lifetime. Handmade items are irreplaceable by machine-made items. There’s a soul in it. It was from this first project that I understood the meaning of quality and sentimental value. It’s not the brand, but the intention of making items that gives a purpose.
My first amigurumi project
It is a Two-Legged Rattle Bunny from Lanukas and the Spring Bunny from @allaboutami.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
I first made them in early 2015. I guess it’s innate in me that bunnies look adorable and I made them subconsciously!
Although the steps to make a bag can be very similar to making amigurumi, they’re not entirely the same. I started relearning how to crochet again. From 8pm to 8am, I worked tirelessly to finish my first project painfully (I refused to sleep until I got it right!)
How we grew?
We started our business officially in Singapore on Carousell in mid 2016, few months after moving back to Singapore. Custom enquiries started pouring in as handmade plushies like what we did was quite fresh in the market.
View this post on Instagram
I started crocheting day in day out. These custom enquiries grew into workshop enquiries. That was when we started our first crochet class right in my house.
View this post on Instagram
We also got scammed a few times. You can read our most memorable scamming journey here. And from then on, our unicorn became our boss.
View this post on Instagram
That said, you never grow until you learn something out of mistakes.
Our milestones
We have been featured a handful of times on news and TV programs such as HDB Tai Tai, CNA Insider and Straits Times! We are thankful for the features. Our Tiny little Rabbit Hole is slowly discovered by unsuspecting individuals across the years.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
We have also done a few fun projects with the community and we hope to do more of them! Such as yarn bombing at Our Tampines Hub, Wildbeary Fam for underpriviledged kids, crochet projects for the Australian Bushfire, and our first Craft Popup.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
The present and the future
We have grown from just a name that I thought I’ll never get to use it, which led us to make OOAK handmade amigurumi, and then to a yarn shop and crochet studio.
It is definitely not easy being an entrepreneur. The amount of blood and sweat, worrying about our revenue, looking for trusted people to work with us, scouting for quality stuff, maintaining our space, managing customers, thinking of new ideas, reaching out to people etc…
Covid has definitely made a change to our business too. We become more digital than ever. We did our first FB live sales for our Dainty Purse. We also finally ran our online classes that we have been discussing forever.
It has been a journey that is never smooth-sailing, therefore life becomes exciting! And we’re lucky to have all of you as our customers and friends who sail through the storm with us.
With that said, there’s a lot more in store for Tiny Rabbit Hole to grow next year and we’re excited to go deeper into our discussions and plannings once our peak season is over! We hope to be more than just a yarn shop. Continue to expect more from us! Let us know what you wish for us to evolve into 🙂
So what does Tiny Rabbit Hole means to us now?
There’s so many speculations from our customers. Some said that it refers to the tiny hole that you need to poke into with the crochet hook. Some also said that it refers to the unicorn falling into the rabbit hole and started their clan in there. Some said that Yuni Chan rented a space with the bunnies. As mysterious as it can be, what will your answer be?
