Takahashi Treasures: bringing your creativity to life

About Darlene
Prior to starting her company Takahashi Treasures, Darlene lived all over the world. Back then she dedicated her time to social development studies and teaching in places like Australia and the Middle East. While originally from Canada, she spent most of the last 10 years living abroad. She lived in Abu Dhabi for well over seven years before meeting her then-boyfriend and eventually moving overseas and settling down with her now-husband in Kloten, Switzerland.

Her Story
It’s been over three years since Darlene moved to Kloten. After moving here, she worked as an English teacher at a daycare and at a hort, until the moment that her husband and her decided to start a family. Since a little more than one year, Darlene is a stay at home mom of a beautiful little girl with a sibling on-the-way.

While being a stay-at-home-mom is a full-time job on it’s own, Darlene always liked to stay busy. She loved doing arts and crafts, and every free moment she had was spent making beautiful trinkets for her friends and family. Eventually, one of her friends who knew about this hobby told her about a machine that allowed her to take her hobby to the next level; this was the beginning of the Takahashi Treasures journey.

Her Business
The machine that her friend told her about is called the Circut. It is a machine that lets her make designs on a designated program on her computer and have the machine cut the vinyl prints with these designs. After hearing about it, Darlene immediately bought the Circut. Her first project was to make this friend, who is a French teacher in Canada, end-of-year gifts for her students. The gifts were little bags with an Eiffel Tower and the child’s name printed on it. After doing a few of these projects, her loved ones were encouraging here to make a business out of it.

After registering her business, she created her own Instagram account and Facebook page, where she encouraged people to place orders. In the mean time, Darlene has designed and created anything from birth stat-pillows, to welcome mats, to wine glasses, to baby-onesies, to company goodies. Her latest project has been little valentine’s tic tac toe tokens for children.

Present Time
Currently, Darlene focuses mostly on the English speaking Swiss market. However, she has also provided goodies for customers from countries such as Canada and Brazil. She will certainly also be open to creating personalised items for German customers soon, as she is taking German classes a few times a week to brush-up on her language skills.

Next Steps
Darlene would really want to build her own clientele for Takahashi Treasures. To do so, she wants to expand her social reach and maybe even create her own webshop. In the future, she would love to see local shops carry her items.

For more information on Takahashi Treasures or to place orders, feel free to visit our Instagram account or go to our Facebook page. You can also contact her at takahashi.treasures@gmail.com.

Written by Bonita Rouwit

All photos are copyrighted Takahashi Treasures

• arts and crafts
• Business
• Circut
• entrepreneur
• sewing
• Takahashi Treasures
• women empowerement
• women entrepreneur