From work table to shop
To hawk the products she makes, Lin asked her mother, who had a shaved ice dessert store in the shopping area in Ita Thao, to clear some store space for her art. The area in front of Lin’s little work table was often crowded with customers, and even though she only sold her crafts two days a week, she was able to make an extra NT$20,000 each month. Based on this, she succeeded in persuading her parents to close their business and turn the shop into the Owl Workshop. Her parents, initially hesitant, became employees of their daughter, drawing in customers with knowledge they had gained about owls.
Even though Lin didn’t plan on all this, the owl-motif art work has transformed Lin, her parents, and the appearance of the Sun Moon Lake shopping streets. Lin, who grew up in this scenic area, observes that the souvenirs sold in shops large and small in scenic areas throughout Taiwan tend to be copycat products, with no character.
Unlike the products sold in other souvenir shops, each piece Lin sells comes with a card that explains the inspirations of the work. She hopes that her insistence on handmade owl ornaments can inject originality into this otherwise dull shopping area.
The prices of the ornaments for sale in her shop range from NT$100 to beyond NT$10,000. Since its opening, Owl Workshop has made revenues of NT$200–400,000 a month. As business grew, Lin found nearly 20 residents nearby with skills in handicrafts, patchwork and carving to do some part-time work for her, bringing together villagers from the nearby townships of Shuili and Caotun who had no stage to exhibit their artistry.
In 2008, Lin rented a 350-square-meter workshop in Shuili, a 30-minute drive away from the original workshop, and recruited fellow aficionados of architecture and art history.
“My current works only make up 1% of my target, and I still have many ideas not yet completed,” says Lin, who hopes to have a place to show customers the Owl Workshop’s production process, so they can participate and get hands-on experience, and get to know owls more closely.
To learn more about the habits of owls, Lin joined the Wild Bird Rescue Institute of Taichung (WBRIT), going into the wilderness in person. On a rack in the Owl Workshop are copies of Owls of Taiwan, jointly published by Lin and the WBRIT. Currently, the Shuili workshop, besides being a base for creative work, is also a place to take in wounded owls to be looked after by the WBRIT: outside there are two metal rescue cages, one a meter tall, the other three.
“Owls are migratory birds,” says Lin. Like birds flying south, first Lin came home, and then her brother decided to do the same. Having graduated from Taipei Physical Education College and worked as a rowing instructor, her brother Lin Congwei returned to Nantou County in 2005, and in 2008 started to work with his sister.
Just as an owl perches quietly on branches transmitting its power to the surroundings, Lin conveys her creative power in her hometown. Like the owls she loves, Lin wants to open her eyes wide and protect her hometown.
Lin quietly brings change to the shopping streets in the Sun Moon Lake Scenic Area through her endless creativity.
Figures of owls created by Lin Yi-bei. These adorable, rustic ornaments are favorites with tourists.