Meet Amy Liu | Maker, Creator, Owner of Kyler Handcrafts and Gifts

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Liu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When we started thinking about creating a small business in 2019, we wanted to create a company that represents all the good aspects of our suburban life in SoCal and at the same time combine the individual strength of its two owners. I am a graphic/interior designer and construction manager while my husband Jeff is in the biotech industry. Kyler Handcrafts and Gifts really combines my creativity and skills in design with Jeff’s experience in sales and marketing. We want to introduce a brand that brings high quality, handmade goods to the public and demonstrate all the details and inspirations that goes into every product.

We started with scented candles and diffusers. We regularly burn candles so we know what type of scent we like and how we like our candles to look. It was an amazing and exciting process to mix our own scents and experiment with different wax formulations. To us, this is the best part of a small business, to create and design a product that we can share with others.

We get a lot of questions about the business name, Kyler Handcrafts and Gifts.  Who is Kyler and why is he the name of the company?  Kyler is our beloved golden retriever.  We want to include him in the business because he is the most important member of the family.  Our company name represents the 3 things we love, our dog, handcrafts and gifts.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In creating our first candle, we must have gone through countless number of scents and wax formulas. Now that we have a process, we love to share our progress and behind-the-scene with our customers through social media.  As we grow and evolve, we want our customers to see us as more than a candle company.  We expanded our portfolio to include different types of products that we enjoy in our life.  Our every day is like most small business owners.  Aside from making candles and diffusers, we work closely with our supply chain and vendors, keeping track of inventory and accounting and manage our online website.  On the weekends, you’ll often find us at craft faire somewhere, telling people about our company and the products we offer.  It is exhausting but gratifying at the same time, especially when we hear from our customers how much they enjoy our product.  In a way, it matches up to my personality. I’ve never easily given up on my goals and always stayed passionate on achieving them. Kyler Handcrafts and Gifts is just getting started with no end goal in sight.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
LA offers so much in food, art, scenery and activities. We would definitely hit up the usual tourist spots like Hollywood sign/Griffith Observatory and Santa Monica pier where we can catch breathtaking views of the city and the ocean. We love our Asian foods, so definitely taking them to Han Bat Sul Lung Tang, a small Koreatown restaurant that serves the best korean ox-tail soups in LA and Sun Nong Dan down the street where their Galbi Jjim (Korean beef rib stew) with cheese are not for the faint of heart.

If we want some exercise, a hike up Runyon canyon is fun and we are bound to see a few celebrities along the way. Tito’s Tacos for some affordable and delicious tacos and no trip in LA is complete without a long night at Wi Spa, a Korean spa that’ll melt your stress away

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Along this journey, we have met some incredible fellow small business owners and creators. It’s not an easy journey, but being able to share your journey with others that’s going through the same things, it makes it a worthwhile adventure. We’d like to thank Lacey Benard and Lulu Cheng at Bitty Bao for all the support, advice and encouragement and Kathryn Yi at HelloButter/KaTi’an accessories for being our first vendor buddy and for great ideas on brand expansion. Lastly, we want to thank all the craft faire organizers for giving us opportunities to showcase our products at their shows.

Website: https://kylerhandcrafts.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylerthebrand/

Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylerhandcraftsandgifts

Image Credits
All rights belong to Kyler Handcrafts and Gifts