Etsy best sellers interview – Zabbez
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Here it is, another Etsy bestseller interview. I am so excited about it. You will get to know one of the biggest stars in the crocheting world.
If you want to read my previous interviews, you can find them here: Interviews
Today I want to introduce you to a male crochet designer. His name is Bas den Braver, and his brand is called Zabbez. If you don’t know the brand by name, I am sure you recognize the patterns.
Bas den Braver lives in the Netherlands, in the city of Rotterdam. To balance the urban city life, he painted the walls of his apartment green and surrounded himself with lots of house plants. It is this world where his flower dolls come to life.
Bas says he is inspired by nature, plants, and flowers. He loves designing and creating a flower fantasy world. He gets his inspiration even on a refreshing walk in the fields or in a city park. In fact, that is when he gets most of his ideas. Doing crochet and designing new patterns makes him happy.
I have to add that I am so thrilled about this because a lot of crocheters would agree that making dolls from his patterns makes us happy too.
There are not only beautiful flower patterns in his shop, but you can also find a butterfly with a baby, dragonfly, and even sea creatures. Go and check them out, it is really relaxing to just look at Zabbez creations, because each has its own story.
His crochet patterns on Etsy are all available in ten languages (English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Danish).
You can find his Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Zabbez
If you want to win these astonishing patterns for free, you can follow Zabbez on Facebook www.facebook.com/zabbez and Instagram www.instagram.com/zabbez pages, where you can have a chance to win his designs at giveaways.
1. How did it all begin? Tell us your story.
I started to crochet several years ago. I have always enjoyed handicraft and doing crochet was just something that came along. I spent several hours on youtube watching instructional videos on how to do the different crochet stitches and I started practicing. It wasn’t long before I made my first granny square and soon after that, I got interested in making amigurumi.
After I published my first flower doll: Sunflower Sam, the response was so amazing, I knew I wanted to make more and make the happiness grow. Since then a lot has happened. I have published lots of crochet patterns in 10 languages all over the world, I have published several crochet books and I was recently contacted by a kit manufacturer to make crochet kits. The adventure is amazing and it keeps growing. I am very grateful for the opportunities I get and I enjoy every minute of it.
2. What inspires you?
I get my inspiration from lots of places, but especially from nature. I have always loved nature and I love plants and flowers. As long as I can remember I have been growing plants indoor. Watering them, seeing them grow and seeing them blossom. I love swimming and scuba diving too. The fish you see underwater are amazing. It is a completely different world and so colorful. It makes me very happy.
3. How does your every day look like?
I am living a dream. I usually start my day online checking the nice messages I receive from fans everywhere. This is always a nice start of the day. Then I work on translations of existing patterns. Publishing patterns in 10 languages is hard work. I have several translators and lots of testers all over the world. My translators and testers support me a lot and I am very grateful for that. Together we get the patterns ready for everybody to enjoy. Then in the afternoon, I spend time on designing new patterns for my books, my crochet kits or just as separate patterns. And if I have time left, I crochet to relax.
4. What is your favorite yarn?
I love to work with a cotton yarn suitable for crochet hook 2.5mm. There are several brands that offer these kinds of yarns and the colors from all brands are different but equally amazing. Most of the time I use Schachenmayr Catania, but I can easily use any other brand like Durable, Scheepjes or Yarn&Colors; for example. I always say it is very personal and you have to use the yarn that you like.
5. Do you have any advice for other sellers?
Yes, it is the same advice as I have for everybody in life. Enjoy what you do! 🙂
6. Crocheting is considered to be a woman’s activity. I think it is fascinating that you are a man who is so successful in this field. I was wondering how does society feel about this? Do they support you, or do you get any remarks?
My friends and family have always known me as a creative person. At first crochet was just another one of my many hobby’s. With Zabbez it got more and more serious. My friends and family support me and they are very proud of me. I am very fortunate to have so many lovely people around me.
You can Pin this interview for later here:
I am so thankful that Bas den Braver took his time and answered my questions. I think he is such an amazing and inspiring person. You must be a powerful and independent person to not give in to stereotypes and just enjoy what you do. I think this is the foundation of success, and that is why his brand Zabbez is so successful.
I hope you enjoyed my interview. Which of Zabbez patterns do you like best? You can tell me in the comments below.
Have a beautiful day, and enjoy crocheting. I think your to-do list is a lot longer now (my certainly is).
Katja
What an interesting interview, and what an amazing and creative man. I hadn’t come across these patterns before and, to be honest, they’re probably a bit advanced for me (I seem to have got stuck at being intermediate at best) but they are beautiful and I know my mum, who is a much better crocheter than me, would really love the combination of flower and doll. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you very much. I am so glad you like my post. I love these dolls too. I think that if you are an intermediate crocheter, you could make one of those. The patterns are not that hard. I have learned that I improved a lot when I tried new things. Maybe you will surprise yourself with your abilities. 🙂
Have a beautiful day, and enjoy crocheting.
What an insightful interview! These crochet products are real pieces of art, I’ve heard about etsy but never really knew what it was about, so I’m really glad I read this. I have been browsing and found so many really nice hand made products, I’m over the moon with this. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you very much for your comment. I am glad I could show you something new. I love Etsy there are so many unique items there.
Have a beautiful day.
I have a question – did you actually make those dolls yourself? If yes, I think it’s really amazing! congratulations! I thought they were machine-made in a factory. I have 2 more questions: How long does it take to create one of those and how can you mass-produce it? Say if you have 10 orders, would it not take forever to crochet them?
Hi. The good thing about crocheting is that you can not do it with a machine. So these are all handmade by the author of the brand Zabbez. He allowed me to use his pictures.
I think that handmade items are special because they are not mass-produced. I haven’t made his doll yet, but I would say that you would need 15 or more hours to make one. It depends on how fast you are and how complicated the flower is. If it has a lot of petals, it takes longer to make. But if you make the same pattern over and over again, you get faster, because you memorize it, but it still takes time.
Thank you for your questions. Have a nice day.
I really enjoyed your interview with Bas den Braver. I like to dabble in crochet, but I have never really looked into many designers. His works are so cute and I am impressed with his talent. I do good to make a chain and keep it from becoming a triangle. Thank you for sharing his talent with us.
Thank you very much for your comment. I am glad you enjoyed it. You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram for more tips, free patterns and giveaways.
Have a beautiful day, and enjoy crocheting.
Thank you so much for sharing with us the wonderful article .I started crochet 3 years ago I have always enjoyed handicrafts and crochet seems to me to be nothing .I learned to sew it by watching some YouTube videos and practicing regularly .And my first release was through Sunflower Sam .In addition, I have collected some crochet books that I have been able to learn from .To me this seems like a pretty amazing job .And I get the most inspiration from nature .I always loved nature and everything in nature .I always like good brand yarn and colors because they help me very nicely at work .And I think it’s possible to be a very good Etsy best seller .
Lastly, I hope that by reading your article, everyone will find some wonderful tips and will definitely share their new experiences with you.
Thank you very much for your comment. I am glad you like it.
You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram to get more tips and free patterns.
Have a beautiful day, and enjoy crocheting.
Wow! Nice post.
Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful post with us. Your post is very informative and interesting.
I liked your article. I enjoyed the topic. I love handicrafts a lot. I am interested in learning crochet stitching. The crochet stitch dolls fascinated me. I will buy crochet knitting dolls from zabbez’s website to decorate my house. Thank you again for sharing this post.
I think this post will benefit handicraft lovers.
Thank you very much. But you can only buy crochet patterns from Zabbez to make yourself. If you want dolls that are already made, you will have to find a crocheter who would do that for you. I am sure you can find finished dolls on Etsy too.
If you want to learn how to crochet, you can read my blog – How to crochet, the basics or watch Youtube. You can find a lot of really good videos there.
Have a nice day.
Ηe is a really remarkable crochet designer, his patterns are absolutely unique. Great interview from this so talented and inspirational designer ?
Thank you so much. I am glad you like it. I think his patterns are special and different, that is one of the reasons I chose him for the interview.
You can follow me for more Bestseller interviews. 🙂
Have a beautiful day.