ASI 75 Exploring the Fascinating World of Washi with Victor Vélez

Jeff: 0:06

Welcome back to Art Supply Insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow and today we're talking with Victor Vélez. Victor is the founder and CEO of Hobby Art International Supply. Some people know them as HAI Supply. Victor, how are you doing today?

Victor: 0:24

I'm doing all right, Jeff. How are you?

Jeff: 0:26

Fine, did I butcher your last name? Did I get it right, vélez?

Victor: 0:30

Yes, that's correct.

Jeff: 0:31

Oh, you guys, I'm terrible with people's last names, so thanks so much for coming on today. Can you tell us a little bit about HAI, who you are? What is it that you do?

Victor: 0:42

Sure. So HAI is short for Hobby Art International Supply, and we are a company that is focused on mostly embellishments. We started with washi tapes, we found a really big audience with our sequins, jewels and gems, and we've been around since 2016. So we're approaching seven years. I think this year if I'm counting that correctly, october we will be is when we celebrate our anniversary, and what's so cool about October is that we have every year a scrapbook expo. Comes by my hometown and it just works out so perfect because every time that they would be in town, we're partying anyway.

Jeff: 1:44

So you say your hometown. Where is that at?

Victor: 1:47

It's in Sacramento, California, Northern California.

Jeff: 1:51

Oh, a scrapbook expo. Is that a big show that comes to town?

Victor: 1:56

Oh, they come to town, they go all over the country. I think they may also do Canada, I'm not quite sure. But yeah, they are quite a circuit that people are part of, and I only have a small Prius. I can't load all of my things in there. So I'm very fortunate that this happens to be one of their stops.

Jeff: 2:23

That's great. You said a word that I'm not real sure I understand. You said washi tapes. What is washi tapes? What is that?

Victor: 2:37

Well, washi. So these are like two separate things. So you have the washi paper and then the washi paper you turn into whatever. So the washi paper the most common form that we see it, as is rice paper. So rather you're talking about just straight rice paper that you can decorate and something that would have a print already on it. People use it for journaling, to highlight things in their calendars, assembling stuff together. Some people use a more lightweight form, and when I say lightweight I'm talking about the pack, when it comes to the tape to hold things down on there, the tools for stamping, you know, or you want to hold the magnets in place. I forget what those tools are called.

Victor: 3:33

And washi traditional washi has been around for ages, traditionally made from the bark trees of what is it called In Japan it's Kozo, Gampi and Mitsu-mata trees and the factory. They grow the trees in their facility, in their yard, and they're not huge trees like how we're used to seeing, like big trees in California, red wood stuff like that. These are literally small trees that are probably as big as any given forearm. By the time they get to a certain height, they're chopped down, steamed to loosen the bark, ripped by hand, beaten to a pulp, to the finest shreds, and then they make paper out of that. It's quite a process.

Jeff: 4:26

Wow, have you actually seen the process being made?

Victor: 4:32

I have, and it's incredible the process. It does take a long time from A to Z, but because those trees are growing year round and this company's getting that stuff year round, all handmade, mind you, there is no electronic machinery. When it comes to the traditional paper and the traditional paper, it's very strong fibers, some of the strongest that I've seen. I believe they're industrial grade. Well, one of the products that we offer would be considered industrial grade.

Jeff: 5:07

Wow, and it's all done by hand.

Victor: 5:11

For the traditional washi tapes. Well, of course, excuse me for the traditional washi papers, yeah, they're all done by hand. Now there are plenty that are done by machine. There's no shortage of that. The ones that are done by hand, those are more true to tradition processes, and you can really feel the difference in the quality of the paper. Rather, you're rubbing it with your hands or just the sound of the paper carrying and is that?

Jeff: 5:47

do you sell exclusively the handmade paper?

Victor: 5:51

I don't sell them exclusively. I do have one set which is called. It's a six by six Japanese handmade paper. I believe that's the title. I couldn't make that any more forward than that. But when you have it in hand, that's when you actually feel the difference between commercial washi and this kind of washi.

Jeff: 6:23

Okay, so there's washi paper and there's washi tape. Is that? Did I get that right?

Victor: 6:30

That's correct. So there's adhesive versions of washi, so it basically would go through the same process. The tapes are typically done with the rice paper as opposed to the bark, and what happens is you run it through the machine and you print your style on there. That same machine applies the adhesive at whatever grade, turns into a roll and then you cut that however you see fit. Or one of our newer products is a six by six adhesive washi sheets, and those are made from rice paper and the adhesive on that is just as great a quality as all of the other tapes that we apparently offer.

Jeff: 7:26

So you said an adhesive washi sheet, and why would you need an adhesive washi sheet as opposed to tape?

Victor: 7:39

Well, they basically they don't exactly serve the same function. So, when it comes to the tapes, you have a roll and the roll is going to be continuous. And when it comes to the sheets, when we introduced the washi sheets initially, they were used to easily decorate a card. So it takes up so much more space or, excuse me, it utilizes so much more space on a card to design, decorate, and you have a whole sheet that you can really play with. You can run it through punches so seamlessly and die cuts as well.

Jeff: 8:23

Wow, there's a whole lot of this stuff that I have absolutely no knowledge of at all, and I was looking on your website and I saw these words at washi pool. What is a washi pool?

Victor: 8:39

Yeah, so a washi pool is a system that we had implemented a little over a year ago and what it is?

Victor: 8:47

It is a program that targets particularly small businesses or independent artists or creatives that are looking for a new avenue for offering their products, whether it's a drawing or something that complements whatever they have in house, and they don't want to have a huge risk of purchasing hundreds of tapes at a time if they don't know how it's going to work out for them.

Victor: 9:24

And I had worked out a deal with a few people when I first started this, which is if this select group of accounts or clients that I've had great relationships with are interested in doing some kind of custom tapes that would work well with their audience, because every region is different, with their styles and what they're fans of. So rather, we're talking about Michigan. You know, with the Great Lakes, great Lake designs are super popular there. Those same designs may not work well in Arizona, but in Arizona, you know, they may be more hip to cacti, you know type of succulents. They would be able to opt those originals for their stores as well. So, with the WashiPool is a collective of individuals, businesses, artists that we put together and a huge order to our facilities to meet the demand, to make a product as top tier as anybody you can compete with in the big stores.

Jeff: 10:52

It sounds like you take a when you say pool a group of people from the same area that all have interest in the same type of design. Did I get that kind of right?

Victor: 11:05

Not the same area, maybe the same industry. So if you stay safe, for example, you are in Southern California and Holly I don't know how far you are from LA, but you know Hollywood big tourist thing, and you have the Michigan's with the Great Lakes and Arizona with the cacti, and you have a particular design. But you don't want to do a thousand units of a particular product, because what if you only sell a hundred? What if you just sell 50? And when it comes to the pool, your minimums are low, your discounts are high, which yields you a much larger profit margin. And if the items that you have where you just you know pretty much for under a hundred bucks, you can get quite a few rolls of tape per design, just to get your feet wet and see how well the stuff performs in your shop.

Jeff: 12:15

So what would be the process for requesting a custom design for a washi tape?

Victor: 12:22

So if you have a design in mind, you would come to us and say, hey, I'm looking for a service to put this design whether it's hand drawn or computer drawn, you know. If it's yours, you know I want to try and sell this thing as a tape. You know what does that look like. And then, based on that, we say this is our minimum under a hundred dollars. That includes the shipping in most cases. For a, the most popular size is a 15 millimeter length by 32 feet of hate, and I believe that is one, believe that's 150 or 100 rolls. I believe it's known as 50 rolls.

Jeff: 13:11

When will the next custom washi tape pool be open for submission? Is there a certain times they can do it?

Victor: 13:19

Yes, so we have the pool open quarterly. If you wanted to just go ahead of the line, and you know, say you have, say you did join the pool and you know you started seeing success with your tapes to the point where now you don't, now you need tapes by by the hundreds. You know you can. You can do that directly. Your pricing will be a little bit different, but you can go ahead of the line. Otherwise, every quarter is when we open the pool and in this particular case, the next opening will be for the entire month of August. So, starting in August, you can reach out to us. You can check out, subscribe to our news letters or our link tree. In our link tree you get updates when we put in a change on there or when something pops up that says washi pool open. You fill out a form, we get in contact with you and, depending on on your needs, we see if we can do something.

Jeff: 14:28

Now you said link tree. I'm assuming that that you're referring to your, your website, is that right?

Victor: 14:35

Yes, so a link tree. We have our newsletter from our website and we also have a link tree to. So a link tree is a web page where is just a bunch of shortcuts, so the shortcuts to our retail site, shortcuts to our social media's YouTube, facebook, tiktok and then the business links at the bottom and everything else like that. The link tree is like a site map type of thing.

Jeff: 15:11

And what is your website address?

Victor: 15:14

So our consumer website is haisupplydirectcom, our business to business is haisupplycom, and there's also links on both pages to get you where you need to go.

Jeff: 15:34

Let's go back to the beginning a little bit. What prompted you to get into this washi paper and washi tape business? I mean, go back to 2015 and you're thinking about what should we be doing and all of a sudden, you come up and said, ah, washi tape. How did all that happen?

Victor: 15:54

Well, I used to work for a company called Kurataki Zig, which they're very popular for their Wink of Stella's Ganjaitambi. It's a ink factory for the most part. They do lots of varieties of writing utensils, markers, art supplies and stuff like that. That's how I got introduced to this business and I gotta tell you I fell in love with so many people and the industry itself. It's wonderful that people are great and everybody has just this energy that I can feed off of. You're talking with nothing but entrepreneurs in this industry at least how I run my business and I love feeding off of the energy of people. They have their own businesses, they own their own calendars and they're doing great, and that's something that I just fell in love with.

Victor: 17:04

When it came time to depart from the company, I didn't realize how much I would actually miss all those people, because we had at least a little over 100 accounts and I had managed about 50, and a couple of them were in my backyard, where I was able to create a much stronger relationship with.

Victor: 17:30

And when I found myself missing the business, I went back to one of my older clients, stephanie Nishikawa, who owns the Paper Garden Paper Garden boutique here in Sacramento, and I just was picking her brain and she was really happy to throw some suggestions my way. And washi tape is where I actually got started and in my very first batch of washi tape I got to say was one heck of a learning experience, because it was a but. And the reason why I say that is because that's when I learned about there are a variety of quality of tapes that you can come across and when you ask for something, you'll get what you ask for. You have to be really specific on what it is and I learned that the hard way. And, yes, they're going to give you the tape. I don't like the way this performs, yeah, but you want it to take there.

Jeff: 18:34

They're very literal.

Victor: 18:35

Yes, absolutely. So. I mean, I couldn't continue doing that, because I have a product that I'm putting my name behind now and I have to be in a position where you know what kind. Who do I want to be? Do I want to be the discount or selling sub par products, you know? Or do I want to be the guy that you can rely on for a quality product, you know, and somebody that really pays attention to the things that you have? I want you to be happy with my product, you know, and if something is wrong with it, I, you know I have to. I have to hear about it and decide that I want to continue with it or how can I improve it, or you know what to do. But quality products are something that is really important to me, because I want something in someone's hands that I know when they use it It'll be just as good. You know, further down the line, as a thing ages and when they look at it, it looks like you made it not too long ago.

Jeff: 19:52

That's great. Let me go back to the, to the washi sheets, and you may have covered this, but I've noticed this this term a you Zen washi as opposed to a washi sheet Are they the same thing? What's what's the difference, if there's anything different between them?

Victor: 20:11

I believe they are the Essentially the same. I do believe that using really refers more to the traditional part of the Making of the paper. So while both products rather it comes from A tree bark or another one that comes from rice they're both considered washi. I have found that the term using is a key word that leans towards Suggesting that the product is more traditional.

Jeff: 20:55

Tell me, is there any kind of special techniques or tips For using the six by six washi sheets in in our audience? Crafts.

Victor: 21:05

Yes, so when the new items come out in August, when the new items come out in August, rest assured, all the products that you may already have, rather, you have dies from tailored expressions, mama, elephant, all of these a wonderful company you can use our, our product with their product. So you know, when you have these dies of shapes that's just laying around and you have these new tapes, you'll be able to cut out new designs of, you know, flowers or Bugs or whatever your flavor is when it comes to Decorating, rather a card, or or the house on, or the house that. I know some people like putting this stuff on the wall, even kids, hmm, hmm, really yes, butterflies and cutouts and stuff like that.

Jeff: 22:08

Do you have a YouTube page that shows your products being used by certain artists?

Victor: 22:17

Absolutely so. On YouTube I have a playlist where I, when, when somebody uses my products there, I just add it to that playlist so You'll find it on the link tree. Otherwise it's you to Dot coms for flash ha I supply. And then there is a tab that says playlists and and in that playlist, the very first one, I believe, is the only one that says made with HAI, and then you'll see just Everybody that has that I've ever found using my product in in their own way there. So rather, we're talking about Lynn from healthy handcrafted, or Carissa, carissa Wiley, or just so, so many, so many people that All, all their names Just now just crashed into my head. I like name all these people, of course, but yeah, a lot of wonderful people.

Jeff: 23:24

So it is just kind of an oddball question what's the most unique thing You've ever seen used with washi tape or washi paper? Does anything just stand out in your head?

Victor: 23:39

Yes, one particular thing does stand out in my head. I was visiting Stephanie at Paper Garden and she is located next to Kaiser Permanente, so a lot of the employees, when they just want to break, they would come by and stop at her shop and they would just exercise their creativity. And I was there one day and this lady took my rhinestones and took some of my used Nahuashi paper and she folded it together to make this little purse. It's like a little tiny handheld, you know, you can hold it by hand. It looked like a really nice purse, miniature size. It had the rhinestones on the side, she had the handle. She made everything perfect with my product and I'm just I'm stunned. You know how I love how creative people can be with things that I can only see so much of. And that's one thing that I also love about this business is how people can be so creative with your own things.

Jeff: 24:45

Yeah, it's amazing what they can do. So we're actually coming towards the end here, but we haven't talked at all about your embellishments that you offer. Talk a little bit about that.

Victor: 24:57

These embellishments. So this was the second product that I had introduced to my business and the one that people really responded to when I first got into sequins, jewels, gems well, it started with sequins and I only thought there were maybe five different shapes and a hundred different colors. And it actually turns out that there are thousands of shapes in so many different sizes and still with the hundreds of colors, which makes combinations just virtually infinite. And when I started introducing these iridescent pieces stars, verses, blossoms, and the only difference is how the tips are shaped, and just so many different combinations that's the stuff that really made my mind go wild, and everybody else too, because you know, you can take just a small piece of an embellishment and it really puts a huge accent either on a card or throw everything together and make a shaker card, and it's a wonderful way. People use this as a finishing product for their own projects.

Jeff: 26:25

Well, if you are into card making and if you've never used washi paper or washi tape, hai supply is a place you absolutely have to go to. I've been to their website. I'm going to do everything I can to keep my wife away from it so that I stay solvent and don't lose a lot of money, but it is an amazing website, not only with the paper and the tape, but your embellishments are wonderful. Is there anything that I've forgotten to ask you about that you wanted to talk about?

Victor: 27:09

Not that I can think of at the moment. These new washi sheets that come out are, I will say it is, a new product. I haven't really seen much of anything like it out there. The quality of the paper is really good. I mean, I go as far as the testing these things, like I would take the adhesive to test the adhesive, wrap it around a glass for drinking and then throw it in the dishwasher and see how well it stands. It stands.

Jeff: 27:50

Well, it sounds like you've got a lot of really cool things coming out Again. Give our audience the website address.

Victor: 27:58

Haisupplycom is the main website B2B. Haisupplydirectcom is the end user website. Both sites have the appropriate links to get you to where you need to go to find what you're looking for. So if you are a business owner, an artist, looking to have stuff in your shop, haisupply is where you want to go. If you want to just get the stuff and play with it and have at it, haisupplydirect is where you want to go. Go there Every week. We pick a random 20 items on sale for 20% off the entire week. No codes required. These are literally at random. Even new products can sometimes find its way into the weekly sale.

Jeff: 28:58

Wow, victor, thank you so much. This has been an absolutely wonderful interview. I really appreciate you being on.

Victor: 29:06

Jeff, I thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me on and I hope to be on here again.

Jeff: 29:11

We would love to have you come back whenever you come out with new items. Absolutely.

Victor: 29:17

Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Jeff: 29:18

You're welcome. You've been listening to Art Supply Insiders. Check back with us often as we talk about the world of art and craft supplies. If you'd like to hear more of these podcasts, please hit the subscribe button on your preferred podcast platform. We'd really appreciate it if you'd go tell a friend. If you'd like to show your support, please consider going to our website and hitting the support button at artsupplyinsiderscom. They'll go out and create something.