Ellen and Ja Bru Rigs attended the 2012 Unreasonable Institute. If you want to read more and connect with her click here to see her Unreasonable Profile.
Ellen Li: Ellen was born in Beijing and raised in a small village in the suburb of this old city. The longest time away from her home of Beijing was when she attended her university in Nanjing, where she would always run away from school to travel to strange places. Ellen is the “quiet” type because she loves to fully concentrate on thinking. However, she also loves laughing loudly, causing her face “to shrink like a Chinese dumpling”.
Ja Bru Rigs: Ja Bru Rigs works with rural women in China to make traditional embroidery into products combined with modern art. Each piece of embroidery tells one story. They come from the rural community’s native culture and match the community’s typical embroidery pattern. Customers can enjoy these stories through different products, e.g. stationary, bag, jewelry, and house accessories. To break the productivity limit of handicraft, Ja Bru Rigs has made it a point of focus to establish a quick, yet complete, cooperation with villages, which enables them to quickly finish large orders in a short amount of time. Today they are selling their products in five main cities in China (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai), and will further explore online markets, such as Taobao and Amazon.