Having been in evening bags industry for more than ten years, there are still many customers we communicated with before do not believe that we have a factory in China, today, I will write an article to show our bag factory inside, you can also learn how these crystal evening bags made in our factory.
How it all started
I worked in a jewelry company before, this company uses crystals as an element in design of their jewelries. In 2014, I left the company because I was married and had my baby later, to take care of my baby, I decided to leave the company in the end of 2015. But life was so hard at that time, I needed to do something else to make extra money. An idea crossed my mind, why don’t I use the crystals to create something special? Then I created a small clutch and decorated it with crystals, I put the bag on Etsy, it was sold out within one day. I also received many emails asking me if I make other crystal bags. I saw there is a big business opportunity.
In 2016, I moved to a big house and hired two people to help me because each crystal needs to be glued on. So, this is how I start this business.
In 2017, to bring our bags to more customers, we rented a stall in San Yuan Li Leather Goods City in Guangzhou, we participated in the Canton Fair that year and secured a significant number of orders. Here I must say thanks to Jin Pengbei and Liu Rongxiu, they have been very busy each day in those years and have done a lot for the company.
Inside our crystal evening bag factory
Thanks to continuous participation in exhibitions over the past few years, we have received a large number of orders from the UK, the UAE and the United States. In 2020, we could no longer fit those bags on a few shelves in one room, so we decided to buy a warehouse to expand production, finally we have our own factory.
The production of a crystal bag in our factory involves several processes, which include design and prototyping, metal frame making, bag body and lining, crystal setting, assembly and finishing, quality control and packing.
Design and prototyping
Take the owl crystal bag as an example, to make this bag out, first we need to model this owl with CAD software on our computer, determine the outline and proportions of the body parts, especially its big eyes. The overall structure of a bag can be divided into three parts: metal frame, opening clasp and chain connector.
Metal frame making
The external frame of the bag is die-cast in one step from zinc and copper alloys. It is not easy to do this, especially when making the frame of an animal-shaped crystal bag, for example, the owl, you need to guarantee the eyes, beak and feather texture is clear. The edges should be smooth and rounded to avoid scratching skin or snagging on clothing. The metal frame of the bag will be applied with double plating to prevent from oxidating and color fading.
Bag lining
The two pictures above showing a bag master is cutting and installing the lining for a silver clutch bag.
Crystal setting
This is the core step in the entire production, worker doing this job must be very patient, because he or she usually needs to paste 200 to 500 pieces of crystals on one bag. Take the owl crystal bag as an example, first we need to sort the crystals into batches based on size, cut, and color. The large and high refractive crystals are for the eyes of the owl, its feather is decorated with small and densely-set crystals. The body has colored crystals. We use special glue and the crystal is totally hand-set one by one. By the way, we use Austrian-style crystals, each piece is high refractive, making them sparkle brilliantly under lighting.
Assembly
Install the chain, lining and hasp.
Quality control
Before shipping the bag to you, we usually do manual inspection and test the bag through three steps, first, test the hasp by opening and closing it for more than two hundred times. Second, ensure every crystal is securely adhered. Third, simulate the transportation process. Put the bag in a hard box and drop the box from a height of one meter, the bag should be in its original condition.
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