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Turkish mother-of-two Deniz Hurter is delighting little ones across the kingdom with her collection of cuddly crochet characters, as well as raising awareness about the popular amigurumi trend.
The 34-year-old ‘crocheter’, who got hooked on the hobby after her first son Semih, now five, was born, has been putting her amigurumi skills to the test, producing cute and cosy toys for toddlers.
“Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting small, stuffed-yarn creatures,” explained the former Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain communications executive, from Saar.
“It has become very trendy in the past years. I stumbled into it five years ago when I decided to take a career break and find something to do while my son was napping.
“By sheer coincidence, I came across a crochet kit at a variety store and immediately knew that was it! I was truly drawn into amigurumi art and, to my surprise, seemed to have a talent for this soothing and newfound passion of mine.
“I made one amigurumi after the other and gave the toys away to friends and family as gifts and soon other people were requesting them.
“It is more of a passion or a lifestyle even and once I started crocheting, I couldn’t stop!”
Amigurumi vary in size, shape and theme. While the art has been known in Japan for several decades, the craft first started appealing to the masses in other countries, especially in the West, in 2003.
By 2006, the art form reported to produce some of the most popular items for sale on Etsy, an online craft marketplace, where they typically cost between BD4 to BD38.
Deniz’s toys, which are priced from BD5 to BD20, range in design including tiny elephants, hippos, rabbits, sheep and bears. She also has foxes, horses, knights and dragons too.
“All you need is a hook and yarn, which is one of the things I love about crochet, because you can create beautiful pieces simply by basically ‘shaping’ yarn,” said the self-taught crocheter who picked up the craft by watching YouTube videos and reading books.
“I mainly create animals, dolls or any character you can think of. The best part is that children can choose what character they wish, which colour it needs to be, what size it should have and so on.
“I guess this is the reason why they love these toys so much – because they are made according to their imagination. It is something they cannot find in stores - truly unique and personal.
“What gives me absolute joy is to see the shiny eyes and big smiles of children when they look at my toys,” she said.
“Very often I receive pictures from mummies showing me how their kids sleep with my toys or holiday photos with my amigurumis, which makes me extremely happy.
“My journey as Mami Gurumi has been very fulfilling to me. It allows me to express myself on a creative level and meet many wonderful people on this remarkable island.
“Some of them became good friends and I am immensely grateful for that and cannot wait to see what the future will bring.”
Deniz moved to the kingdom in 2013 from Germany with her German husband Alex, 37, who is a sales manager for an automotive and logistics company in Saudi Arabia. Her sons Semih and his three-year-old brother, Aren, both attend St Christopher’s Junior School.
Deniz has a BA in English Linguistics from the University of Mannheim in Germany and a Master’s in English Literature from the University of Westminster in the UK.
For more details, follow @mami.gurumi on Instagram or Mami.gurumi.bh on Facebook.
