Taunina Telegraph

Taunina One Year On

Here at Taunina we’ve all been so busy with our daily activities that Taunina’s first birthday flew by without anyone noticing! Besides being a good excuse to have a party, birthdays also offer us an opportunity to reflect on the past year’s highlights – and the low-lights – and to look forward to the next year ahead. So, armed with a cup of our favourite fruit tea, we put our feet up and took five minutes to cast our minds back a year.

The Taunina artists joined Taunina full-time in September 2011. When asked whether they felt they had learnt a lot in that year, the answer was a unanimous “Yes!” Of course, the best way to gauge just how much the they have learnt is to compare the first bear they made to their most recent one. When most of the artists looked at their first bear, they laughed in disbelief. Each artist has developed her own signature stitches, style and motifs, making it easy for those of us lucky enough to work with these treasures on a daily basis to immediately identify its creator.

The artists all agree that at first it was an adjustment to work in a close-knit team with such a strong focus is on quality and excellence. Fortunately they rose to the occasion and the result has been is a strongly bonded and hard-working team, always willing to hone and improve their skills. “We really are like a family,” says Nomgcobo, “Over the weekends we actually miss each other and often phone one another!”

After much hard work and several late night shifts, we launched our website in November 2011, and received many compliments for it. Thank you especially to designer Suzi Aldermann of Slice Solutions (www.slicesolutions.com) and digital communications specialist, Bronwen d’Oliveira. We can highly recommend these two talented women!

Very few years pass without any sadness, and in the Taunina family’s case it was the unexpected death of Mercy’s husband, Godfrey. Mercy, we acknowledge the grace and dignity with which you have dealt with your pain.

On a more joyful note, we were delighted to hear of the arrival of Olivia, daughter of Taunina co-founder Karen Jansen. Karen is based in Austin, Texas and is Taunina’s logistics expert. Congrats to you and Don, Karen – we’re confident that Olivia will soon be a discerning soft toy collector!

In February the Taunina team grew by two more members, Nicola Frost and Mzo Jilaji. Nicola is our resident graphic designer who makes sure that all the communications we send out are just as beautiful as our soft toy collectables. Mzo, the only man in our team, is a pillar of support when it comes to administration and ensuring that everyone has the supplies they need.

Much of the second half of our first year was spent refining our product range and ensuring that any logistical hiccups are ironed out. One year on, and we are now truly ready to bring you the most beautiful collectable soft toys in the world!