MANILA, Philippines - This young La Sallite dreams of one day running her own café, serving coffee, pastries, desserts, and keybies on the side.
Keybies?
These cute little charms, drawn and handmade from 100-percent paper materials, are the unique creations of Micah Valero. She defines a keybie — a term she coined herself — as a flat, computer-generated charm that’s so versatile it can be used as a keychain, earring, scrapbook decoration, or cellphone accessory.
“Making keybies started when I decided I wanted to make something unique that represented my favorite gaming characters. I didn’t want to buy any of their official things because they were expensive, and I figured I could make anything I wanted to if the idea hit me,” she narrates.
That idea soon led to her first keybie creations, mixing her passion for drawing chibi art and fascination with handcrafting. When friends liked what they saw, they started commissioning her to design their favorite characters. As demand grew, she charged them minimal fees for the materials and labor. And, what started as a hobby, eventually evolved into a promising business startup.
Not bad for someone who’s still studying at De La Salle University, taking up a double degree in literature and business management.
Starting with an initial 20 original designs — all chibi anime characters – Micah sold them during Christmas at school and sparked the interest of friends as well as other people.
“They found my designs cute, and were even more interested when they found out I handmade every piece myself. When they asked what they were, I called them keybies,” she notes, adding that the copyrighted name was derived from the words “keychain” and “chibi,” a Japanese anime term that literally means small.
Two years later, her school org, DLSU-Litcircle , allowed her to sell the keybies at the University Fair, “and that was when things started getting big,” she stresses.
An artist-friend took notice of her products and invited her to set up a booth at a new anime convention (Shizen Orchestra).
“I took up the offer, and after enlisting the help of our maids, made enough stocks for it. After that event, traffic to my multiply site (http://keybies.multiply.com) increased, and I got more orders than I ever did before the event,” Micah points out.
She has since rented a space at CSCENTRL in Greenbelt 1, a place selling anime goodies like figurines, DVDs and other collectibles, and signed up for more exhibits and conventions.
The keybies are priced reasonably, too. The small ones costs P45 each; medium-sized keybies are priced at P50 a piece; while the large variants sell for P65. They can be ordered online and sent via Xend, EMS or postal delivery.
As she reaches the point where she can’t handle making all the stocks herself, specially due to a flood of orders following an exhibit or trade event, she has even commissioned the maids and drivers in their village, including their kids, to make keybies, based on her own design patterns.
What makes the keybies click?
Micah says: “They’re cute, cheap, durable, and make a unique addition to any phone, key ring, bag, or any place else you can loop a string around!”
What’s more, she adds, because of the use of organic materials, keybies are also environment-friendly, from the paper pulp to the CFC-free acrylic used to protect the image and make it shiny.
“Though I’ve been looking into expanding my business by consigning keybies to bigger retail stores, I’ve been dreaming for the Keybie Cafe would be to have a cart of its own in malls one day, painted in light pink and black. My biggest dream, however, is to have an actual cafe, one that would sell desserts and coffee as well as keybies side by side,” Micah emphasizes.