Harbor Mama Fish Shop
Rooted in Cijin's fishing harbor culture, the project brings together craft training, collaborative design, flexible production, and brand development to create new work opportunities for local women.
Initiated by｜Zhizhiren Studio Supported by｜YongLin Foundation Selected for the 2026 YongLin Mothers' Dream Project
Origin Story
Every project begins somewhere. Ours began with the wind of Cijin, the weight of fishing nets, and skilled hands whose value had too often gone unseen.
Zhizhiren Studio has long worked in Cijin through textile art, natural dyeing, and the creative reuse of fishing nets. Between 2024 and 2026, we began working more closely with local mothers and discovered a wealth of sewing and craft skills — skills that often lacked flexible pathways into paid work.
For many mothers in Cijin, family and caregiving responsibilities make conventional fixed-hour employment difficult. Yet they bring years of experience in sewing, making, and everyday craft — valuable skills that can become an important foundation for a locally rooted craft brand.
Through craft training and collaborative design, participants can join production according to their own schedules. With Cijin's fishing harbor culture at its heart, every product becomes more than an object — it carries a local story and supports a more sustainable community economy.
Today's Catch
Five teams, five fish from Cijin, five designs brought ashore once again. Each catch transforms a memory of the harbor into something made for everyday life.
Harbor Mama Fish Shop / 5 Catches
「Let Cijin's black gold swim gently into everyday life.」
Inspired by the orange mullet roe, silver-black sheen, and distinctive tail of Cijin's mullet, this series transforms local fishing imagery into bags and accessories through embroidery, screen printing, and sewing.
Makers of This Catch · 3
囍春, 朱朱, 吟佩
「Have you ever heard of a strawberry grouper?」
Combining the character of a local grouper with the playful image of a strawberry, this design turns an imagined new fish into a charming and practical bottle carrier through screen printing, sewing, crochet, and mixed materials.
Makers of This Catch · 4
蕙如, 惠君, 樹媽, 子芹
「Carry one of the sea's most beautiful forms with you.」
Inspired by parrotfish found around Cijin, the design draws on their vivid blue-green and yellow-green colors and flowing body shape. Fishing net, screen printing, and sewing come together in a fish-shaped wrist bag made to travel on land.
Makers of This Catch · 3
姿吟, 米歐, 阿官
「Carry the sea of Cijin with you.」
Inspired by the locally found brushtooth lizardfish, this bag transforms the fish's streamlined body and tail into its silhouette. Mustard yellow, off-white, and a pink heart motif bring a playful touch to the harbor-inspired design.
Recycled fishing nets are incorporated into the bag, preserving their mesh and knotted textures while giving discarded marine materials a new life in everyday use. One fish, one net, one Cijin.
Makers of This Catch · 4
米雪, 俐雯, 小美, 惠菁
「Carry the Coast.」
Inspired by the rhythmic silhouette and vivid yellow and coral tones of the yellowback seabream, COAST 01 brings fishing-net details and harbor textures into a clean, versatile city bag.
Functional black fabric balances the brighter coastal elements, allowing traces of fishing nets, rope, and the harbor to move naturally from the waterfront into everyday urban life.
Makers of This Catch · 4
郭傳, 海珠, 宜軒, 菲菲
About Harbor Mama
Harbor Mama is about more than learning how to make a bag.
Starting from the fish, fishing nets, harbor culture, and everyday memories of Cijin, women from different backgrounds come together to learn, design, and make.
Beginning with a single fish, participants move through the entire process — from design and prototyping to production, costing, photography, storytelling, and sales.
The objects created here are products, but they are also records of people discovering new skills, confidence, and possibilities through making.
Studio
A textile art and design studio based in Cijin, Kaohsiung.
Working across fiber craft, local memory, and sustainable materials, Zhizhiren Studio explores new connections between people and place through art, design, and collaborative making.
Handmade in Cijin, Kaohsiung.