Childhood pleasures revisited
Fun-Maker, located in a back street in Taipei’s Neihu District, has this kind of charm. It draws people from afar, both Taiwanese and foreigners, who come specially to visit this small shop to reacquaint themselves with the sense of peace, joy and achievement that comes from making things by hand.
Fun-Maker is a workshop that makes use of laser cutting technology. Most of its products are wooden utensils, including wooden guns that are used as props in films, as well as lamps, clocks, picnic baskets and boomboxes that are used in daily life.
“Hi!” Joan Yang, one of Fun-Maker’s two owners, smiles as she walks out unhurriedly to greet us with a pot of freshly brewed tea. Much wood is used in the shop’s interior design, and it, along with the hot, fragrant tea, creates a warm atmosphere in the softly lit space. Still smiling, Yang points to the photographs that cover the walls and says, “They represent our customers’ memories, and our own.” They feature people young and old. There are Taiwanese, as well as travelers hailing from Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia and other countries. All of them reveal bright smiles as they pose with their creations.
Co-owner Mac Yu, Yang’s husband, shyly takes a wooden gun off the opposite wall. After giving a simple explanation of how it operates, he aims at a wooden figurine on the table, and with a whack the figurine topples over. It is quite startling. The guns on the wall all use rubber bands for “bullets.” Yu doesn’t say much, but as he gives a quick introduction to each of his proud creations, his eyes fill with eager excitement. His newest contrivance is a submachine gun equipped with a motor, which emits a steady stream of rubber bands even as you move your aim.
In crafts classes that put the emphasis on the experience, students encounter fresh materials that they work themselves.