A 16-year-old boy from Barlad, Vaslui County (eastern Romania), managed to turn his asset and old-time passion into growing business.
Andrei Vladimir has been spinning wool, weaving socks, towels and carpets and sewing embroidered peasant shirts since he was a child, learning the job from his grandmother. He laced his first tablecloth when he was just four years old and two years later his first raw silk towel, so that by the age of 12 he was earning his own living. Andrei used to go by himself in his native town’s central market to sell his woolen socks. Other merchants did not envy him but, on the contrary, they liked him and started to take him at all fairs in Moldova.
And so his adventure began and his little business came into light. Andrei’s handicrafts are increasingly in great quest and sometimes he lags behind the orders.
“For example, I had 50 orders in the past two days. They are not big orders. Some would want just a towel, others a woolen carpet. I earned RON 1200 (about EUR 350) in just one week,” the boy told Adevarul daily.
And just like other business, Andrei’s is quite familiar with all selling methods, including by Facebook. The boy and his handicrafts are luring customers from Germany, UK, Greece or Italy on his Facebook page.
Andrei wants to invest the money earned from selling his authentically folk-style products in his house revamping.
As for his future education plans, he would like to study fashion design at the University of Arts in Bucharest.