Uhhh, this one’s a good one! After thinking it over for a long time, I finally decided to buy the Loklik Crafter while it was on sale. I had absolutely no idea about home cutting plotters. I’d been seeing those cute little machines in art supply stores for a while whenever I went to pick up a brush or some watercolor paper. They looked tempting, but the well-known brand was super expensive. On top of that, it seemed like whatever those machines did, they required materials that were pricey too. So I pretty much ignored them—I didn’t even look into what they actually did. I just started picking things up over time from related searches while looking up art techniques.
Last summer, I made some T-shirts with transfer paper for a group of friends. I didn’t want to leave a big rectangular patch on the fabric because that shows through, so I ended up cutting out all the printed silhouettes by hand. Same thing with a set of matching stickers and magnets. I was exhausted from all the hand cutting, and while looking for ways to make the job easier, I started paying closer attention to what those cute little machines could actually do. They were still way too expensive, but then Loklik crossed my path (it was during those months when lots of content creators were testing the Crafter), and I started thinking of it as a real possibility. Also, I wasn’t convinced that transfer paper was a very durable option, and I found Loklik’s vinyl prices affordable enough to create products for a small online shop that my friends had encouraged me to open.
LOKLIK Crafter, a bunch of HTV rolls, LOKLiK Vinyl Scrapers Bundle, Matte Printable Vinyl Sticker, and Cutting Mat 3 Pack.
And that’s how the little one arrived at home. Like a newborn who comes with a basket of diapers, baby powder, and stuffed animals, the Crafter came with a haul of supplies I needed (not without doubts, of course—just like any first-time mom). I had to set up a room for the new arrival, but since we don’t have much space at home, she had to share a room with her big sister, traditional Fine Arts. The girls get along pretty well, even if they’re a bit cramped, and sometimes they have those classic sibling spats over space. To be fair, the Crafter is a little on the invasive side, but it doesn’t usually get out of hand—they manage to work things out quickly. After all, the older sister already has a fair share of space just with the big easel. And let’s not even talk about how the middle sibling, digital art, took over a corner of the sister’s space with the printer!
Sometimes, when I’m working and end up tripping between the drawing desk and the cutting table, I think of those renovation twins and the families begging for an open-concept kitchen-living room… and that typical scene where the whole family is bumping into each other while trying to do everything at once in the kitchen. Or of when I used to share a room with my sister as a kid, and we’d try to make the bed at the same time 