Yi Crafts is an East and Southeast Asia handcrafts studio based in north western London founded in 2019. Its focus is on the beautiful but vanishing traditional handcrafts and cuisine of China’s minority ethnicities. Intercultural sharing is constant and often unconscious throughout our daily lives, and hand crafts are the physical embodiment of culture and cultural sharing.

Founder Yiran is a member of Bai ethnic minority, and she has experienced the great diversity within the UK and London, but I have found that the diverse cultures of China’s numerous ethnic minorities are underrepresented, with ‘China’ viewed as a single cultural source. The opportunity to introduce and share the unique and sometimes surprising customs, traditions and practices of her home province inspires her. It provides the chance to understand both commonalities and differences in culture, and to understand our shared history.

TEAM MEMBERS

Yiran Duan - Yi Crafts Founder & Director

Yiran is Mandarin Chinese and English bilingual with strong interests in crafts, textiles and their role in cultural communication and learning. She has built a broad experience of costume making, design and supervision in performance. She is passionate about exploring communication between the East and the West, and her practice has focused on how to combine embroidery and traditional elements from Chinese costumes with Western techniques to explore intercultural connections. As a member of southern China’s Bai minority ethnicity, she is interested in the conservation of ethnic minority craft techniques.

Kyra (Kaibing) Zhang - Studio manager

Kyra Zhang is a London-based artist and community facilitator. Her practice brings people together through making, play and shared experiences. With a background in fine art and over 300 workshops and events delivered, she loves creating welcoming spaces where people can share, try something new and connect with one another.

Yifan - Natural dye & Embroidery teacher

Yifan is a natural dyer based in Bedfordshire. Living by the River Great Ouse, her designs are inspired by local flora and fauna and the changing of seasons. The exploration of natural dyeing led her to Chinese crafts, a traditional culture she grew up with. Yifan desires to share the beauty of natural colours with more people.

Weiyi Cao - Visual Designer & Photographer

Wei Yi studied Design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and specializes in graphic design, product design, and photography. She brings a distinctive perspective to traditional Chinese craftsmanship and excels at integrating classical techniques with modern design concepts.

Shuntao Li - Printing & paper cutting teacher

Originally from Xi’an, China, Shuntao Li is a London-based illustrator and graphic designer. She is also a printmaker working primarily with screen printing. Drawing inspiration from a wide range of artistic sources, she is known for her sense of humour, which infuses her creations with a joyful energy that resonates with viewers of all ages.