We need saint Joseph now, in times of pandemic. Pope Francis knows this so he proclaimed year 2021 a "Year of Saint Joseph". We want to depict this parton saint of workers in a way attractive to children and in plush. Help us in our mission, please!
Author: Mercy Toys
Bratislava, Bratislavský kraj, Slovensko
All or nothing. Project finished on Apr 17, 2021 at 14:40.
We are the Mikuláš family and we have been producing biblical plush figures under the brand Mercy Toys since 2017. We do it because we want to bring to childrens´ world figures that are much more important than modern superheroes and fashionable princesses from cartoons. We have produced so far Plush Jesus, Plush Virigin Mary and Plush Gardian Angel.
Now we would like to produce Plush Saint Joseph. Why? Pope Francis proclaimed liturgical year 2021 a "Year of St. Joseph" and he says that the pandemic "has helped us see more clearly the importance of ordinary people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day." This is exactly true for St. Joseph - he protected his family with creativity and he worked hard to provide for it. By using Plush Saint Joseph we would like to explain this also to our chlldren. And maybe his example will bring hope also to many grown ups exhausted by the pandemic.
Unfortunately we have used up all our finances for the production of Plush Jesus, which had been sold out again, therefore we have available only one half of the sum needed for the production of Plush St. Joseph.
With crowdfunding we are able to cover for the remaining half of the production costs of Plush Saint Joseph HERE AND NOW, finish the production this year and encourage children and adults by the example of St. Joseph, the man who experienced many crises but managed to get over them.
We have the design ready so far and we are working on the prototype. Plush Saint Joseph is 30 cm high; it is made of extra soft plush and has hair out of yarn. There is an embroidery of a burning heart encircled by white roses on its chest. This is a symbol of St. Joseph´s love of God and his chastity. Plush Saint Joseph is holding a carpenter´s square, which is a symbol of hard work. His hair is lighter than the hair of Plush Jesus. Plush Saint Joseph figure bears a gift tag saying "St. Joseph, pray for..."
Plush St. Joseph will be produced according to the European standard EN71 just as all our plush figures and it will pass all the safety tests required for toys. It will be suitable for children 3+.
Our 3 kids were getting many weird plush toys back in 2017. Pink elephants and yellow octopuses created a strange zoo in the childrens´ room. We, the parents, decided that the only plush toy we would be willing to buy to our children, would be a Jesus figure for them to hug when falling asleep. We believe in God and we are trying to raise up our children knowing that personal relationship with God is very important. We could not find such product in Slovakia or anywhere close therefore we decided to produce it on our own. It took us 9 months to find the best production partner, prepare the design and test samples. Since 2017 we have been producting Plush Jesus and later we have added Plush Virgin Mary and Plush Guardian Angel. We produced them for our children and offered them to the world. We are very happy that they have found their customers in 9 countries in Europe including Slovakia and Czech republic. Our customers include children, teenagers, parents, clergy or religion teachers. We have sold 7000 pieces of plush biblical figures up to this day and our plush figures are used as a help for childrens´ prayers, when falling asleep, for play or as a didactic tool.
First we do the brainstorming with our kids and friends. We create a scetch and tranform it into a graphic design. Our partner in China produces the first prototype which we improve as long as it is not perfect. Then the actal production takes place with all its adrenaline (last year we were searching for a specific type of yarn for two weeks) followed by tests for safety of children. When the production is finished, we always check it and tranport it to Europe.
Why do we produce in China? It is a result of a long search because we want to offer affordable biblical plush figures in high quality. Our production partner near Shanghai in eastern China has passed social audit BSCI which confirms good quality working conditions for employees and does a great job especially at embroidery.
We must also praise our local creatives. We would not have been able to achieve all this without our skilled Slovak designers, marketers and our product photographer.
We financially contribute to good cause throught the sale of our biblical figures. We have made a vow to donate 1 EUR for each figure sold by Pontifical Mission Society in Austria to them and we support a wide range of other charities concentrating at Christians, children, teenagers and families in need.
If we manage to reach the desired amount on HITHIT with your help, we will start the production of Plush Saint Joseph immediately and Plush Saint Joseph should be ready in summer 2021. We will start to send out your rewards from Slovakia, just as Plush St. Joseph arrives. If we do not reach the desired amount, the whole sum that you paid will be returned to you by HITHIT.
Thank you for supporting us in the production of Plush Saint Joseph!
The first prototype is here!
We tried to send out all your rewards with Plush Saint Joseph as quickly as possible. We hope you like our Christian plush figures and thank you again for making it possible for one of them to be created at just the right time! Once again, all the best and thank you! Mikulas Family, Mercy Toys
MoreDear supporters! After a typhoon at sea and problems with unloading from the ship, Plush Saint Joseph finally arrived to Slovakia. The customs clearance process is now underway and once it's over, we can't wait to get all of your plush figures packed and shipped to you! We apologize for the delay…
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