It was a very exciting weekend indeed! We went to Siaulai, Lithuania over the weekend to meet with Gintas and the fine folks they have over at our manufacturing plant. We wanted the chance to visit the factory first hand so we could get an idea what its like, how the working environment is, and learn some of the in and outs of the toy making pipeline before placing an order. The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly, and the quality of the toys was excellent. We had a terrific experience overall and Gintas kindly showed us around not only the manufacturing plant, but also the entire lovely city of Siaulai!
Here are some photos to give an idea of what it was like:
After our initial meeting in the offices, we were taken on a tour. This a photo of Nicolas and Gintas next to the amazing embroidery machines. Check out all the different colours of thread. These machines can do any embroidery task.
Next we have the main working area where the toys are sewn together with high quality industrial sewing machines.
Here we have the cutting room where patterns are cut out using an electric blade. The worker wears a sort of chainmail glove for protection and feeds the material through the cutter.
Finally there is a photo of the fabric storage area where rolls upon rolls of fur, felt, linen and and cotton made up a ceiling high array of colors and textures.
There were many more cool things to see as well such as the storeroom filled with fun toys and a child's dream come true, the detail area where workers did little extras to ensure each piece was top quality, and the giant machine that took fabric scraps and whipped it into a fiber filling like cotton candy. It was truely a fantastic adventure for us and great to see everything behind the scenes. We are looking forward to getting our first batch of softies created here!
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