Etsy Around the World: WhittleWorld

This week in our Etsy Around the World feature we travel to the 50th state, Hawaii to meet a whittler with big plans for her little people.

Who are you?
Nikole Horkin (Whittle World)

Where are you located?
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean hanging onto an island (Oahu, Hawaii)

What do you create?
Wooden toys specializing in recreating vintage fisher price figures

Have you ever visited North Carolina?
I enjoyed visiting Charlotte and going to Carowinds

What is your favorite place to visit in your hometown?
I’m all about food so if anyone visits Oahu, they HAVE to visit Macky’s famous shrimp truck located in old Haleiwa town on the North Shore.

Where do you create?
I have a dedicated room in my house for my Whittles. I have every Whittle I have ever created displayed in shadow boxes on my walls.

Why did you choose your shop/company name?
It is a play on words; one being “whittle” like carving of wood since all my products are made from wood and the second is that it sounds like “cute talk” like when you see a cute puppy……”Awww wook at that cute whittle doggie!”

When did you start creating?
I had created Whittles for fun as an obsession of vintage fisher price figures for over 8 years now but it was when I created Star Wars little people for my then two-year-old son that I gained attention from friends and family telling me that I might have something there and should try selling them. I did and I am happy to have taken their advice.

What is your next project going to be?
I will be listing houses that will go with each theme of Whittles. They will be purses, too. For instance, the first one I will be listing shortly is a Big Top Circus Tent purse to house the circus Whittles. I even created my own fabrics from my computer illustrations that feature Whittles on them. All have the ability to open up in order to be played with and then fold up into a purse for easy storage.

What are your goals?
I am very excited to launch my new endeavor of helping an organization that helps to build up villages in Cambodia. I will be calling it “Whittle People Helping Big People.” Proceeds from Whittle World will be going towards funding for the program. I got involved through a family friend who often visits the villages that are being funded. It is amazing how little it takes to build up not only a small village like housing, wells, and farming but building up of self-esteem as well.
I will be talking about it more in my blog with the launching of my new purse house project. I’m building Whittle houses to help build Big houses.