Thai

Textile artist Jane Jauregui is expanding the boundaries of what plush figures can be, thinking beyond that pile of mass-produced, branded stuffies huddled atop a twin bed, crammed inside a toy chest, or dangling from a backpack strap.

True, in the nearly two decades that she’s been creating plush figures, she’s produced charmingly minimalistic foxes, cats and buffalo fit for a nursery. However, her latest work has been anything but child’s play.

A plush fried chicken bucket is one of Jane Jauregui’s textile takes on beloved dishes.

She launched her “soft sculpture” company, STFD, in 2024 with the intention of transforming her inner thoughts into plush form — no matter how outside the box those ideas may be. After all, why bring yet another teddy bear into the world when you can dream up a stuffed paintbrush trailing a splash of brightly colored felt “paint,” or a striped bucket filled with faux fried chicken?

In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who are creating original products in and around Los Angeles.

“It stands for Stuff That Feeds Delight,” Jauregui said of the brand’s acronymic name. “The newer things I’m working on are more like display items, but you can absolutely touch them,” she explained. “I just started playing more with the idea of decor, aging it up a little bit more, and playing with the idea of how we can really elevate it.”

Take, for example, a plate of longsilog, the traditional breakfast meal her Filipina grandmother used to make for her. Inside the converted garage of the same Van Nuys house where she was raised, Jauregui whipped up a playful sausage-riceball-fried egg combo using a sewing needle, felt, embroidery floss and sherpa fleece, rather than pots and pans.

Moved by memories of her grandfathers, she created a collection of stuffed felt cigarette butts, complete with simulated ash made by zigzagging stitches.

“My Thai and Filipino grandpas were chain-smokers,” she said. “They passed away, and I just started thinking a lot about what would represent them. Cigarettes immediately came to mind.”

Jane Jauregui’s home studio inside the converted garage of her childhood home.

Though she takes inspiration from her personal experiences, many of her plush figures strike a universal note. Most anyone born in the 20th century would take one look at her plush retro alarm clock radio and instinctively feel the urge to whack its elongated vinyl “snooze” button. The trompe l’oeil wood paneling (which she made by printing a wood-grain design directly onto dark brown fabric) and the red-tinted digital readout screen (the numbers are iron-on transfers) make it a dead ringer for those once-commonplace nightstand devices that predated smartphone alarms.

She first tried her hand at the craft about 18 years ago, after she and her husband, Sergio, couldn’t find the right gift for his newborn niece at famed New York City toy emporium FAO Schwarz.

“Everything was licensed, and I didn’t want any kind of IP [intellectual property],” she recalled. “I went home and said, ‘Well, I’m just going to sew something for her.’ Sergio was like, ‘But you don’t know how to sew, so that’s a little crazy.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, I’ll figure it out!’”

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1. A plush hot dog. 2. An ashtray full of plush cigarettes, inspired by Jane Jauregui’s grandparents.

Fortunately, she had a leg up when it came to picking up the new skill. Her father, a retired clothing designer and patternmaker, had introduced her to the inner workings of the garment industry from a young age.

“My dad would have full-time work five days a week, so there wasn’t a lot of time for him to teach me,” she said. “But when he would take freelance work home, I would sit in this garage with him. He had a big table, and I would sit there and watch him sew. It was just really how we spent time together.

“When I decided to start making plush, I remembered little things he would do, like how to walk a pattern — which is making sure the pattern pieces are matching — or how he would move the ruler. I would remember all of those things and put my own spin on it.”

Artist Jane Jauregui eschews watercolors and acrylics, preferring to “paint with plush.”

She started by making simple shapes like a stuffed orange, pear and an eggplant, working her way up to the finalized baby gift: a stuffed whale. By 2009, she’d completed enough plush produce to start selling at local pop-up markets under the business name Janie XY. Sergio, an artist in his own right, even constructed her first booth to resemble a fruit stand. Her first hit item was a baby rattle shaped like a chicken drumstick that was sold wrapped in cellophane, much like a meat-counter purchase. This time, her muse was her own infant niece.

All the while, she was holding down a full-time job creating window displays for Forever 21. She continued to build her squeezable empire in her off-hours, even as she transferred to corporate jobs at Mattel and Disney (for which she’s now a consumer products design manager), and became a mother. Taking a page from her father, she’s made her at-home workspace accessible to her 5-year-old daughter.

“She’s in here all the time,” she said. “I let her touch everything. What’s fun about the medium is you can’t break it. You can get it dirty, but she knows what to do. She’s really mature about it. She loves to clean the sewing machine — she’ll go in with a pin and pick out all the lint, and she’ll think that was a good day’s work. We want her to feel like part of the work because she is a part of it.”

Jane Jauregui’s sewing machine, which her daughter likes to clean, in her home studio.

That said, Jauregui’s STFD creations aren’t necessarily made with the wee ones in mind. Consider her new pieces celebrating liquor stores, for which she converted items like lottery tickets and frothing beer cans into plush form.

“It’s something that we all take for granted,” she said of the ubiquitous neighborhood corner store. “You tend to turn your nose up at it, but it’s there for you all the time.”

She and her husband also pay homage to these unsung cultural hubs in the latest edition of their fledgling zine, which they’ve dubbed “a gallery you can hold.” Inside, photographs of the stuffed figures fill the pages, accompanied by written musings. (The one-of-a-kind featured items will also be available for purchase.) The series is the couple’s prescribed antidote to the social media doomscrolling they call “internet indigestion.”

Jane Jauregui’s goal for the plush items she makes in her studio? Delight.

She’s also planning to explore plush Thai food in honor of Grandma’s Thai Kitchen, the Van Nuys restaurant her mother owned and operated for years. After treks to downtown L.A.’s Fashion District to find just the right materials, she’ll mock up clever riffs on julienned ginger and cilantro leaves. For her, there’s ample delight in those little details.

“STFD is really about giving myself permission to just do things that make me happy,” she said.

Towering teenager Zhang Zhanshuo became the first swimmer in history to win seven golds at a single Asian Games, while on the track, Thai sprinter Puripol Boonson powered to victory in the 100m.

China’s Zhang, 19, scorched to the men’s 400m freestyle title in the pool in Tokyo on Friday in a Games-record three minutes and 41.28 seconds.

He sat on the lane divider after the race and slowly counted off on his fingers all seven medals he had won.

Zhang also won individual golds in the 200m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle events, as well as three relays.

He said, after wrapping up a scintillating campaign, that it had been the “perfect week”.

“I think the most important thing is to stay grounded and focused, because the Asian Games are not my ultimate goal,” said Zhang, who stands 198cm (six feet, six inches).

With the Los Angeles Olympics less than two years away, China won 30 of the 42 golds in the pool this week.

Their 13-year-old phenomenon Yu Zidi was the undoubted superstar, taking home three individual golds and all in Games-record times.

Not to be outdone, Japan’s 17-year-old Shin Ohashi shattered the men’s 200m breaststroke world record on Thursday.

Swimming, equestrian and diving are taking place in Tokyo, but the city of Nagoya and the wider Aichi prefecture are the main Games host.

The men’s and women’s 100m sprints, the blue riband events in track and field, took place in front of rows of empty seats in Nagoya.

China’s Chen Yujie streaked to a comfortable victory in the women’s final in a Games-record 11.06 seconds.

The men’s was won by 20-year-old Puripol, who burst out of the pack in the final quarter of the race to win in 9.90 seconds, breaking his Games record from earlier in the evening.

It was Thailand’s first men’s 100m gold medal since Suchart Jairsuraparp on home soil at the 1978 Bangkok Games.

‘Today was a miracle for me’

On the last evening of gymnastics, Carlos Yulo won the men’s vault for his second gold of the Games.

The double Olympic champion won floor gold on Thursday to complete his collection of major titles.

“I can’t believe it,” the Filipino said.

“In this whole Asian Games, I felt really stressed, but at the same time, I enjoyed what I did today. I really did my part.

“Today was really a miracle for me.”

There’s little time to celebrate, however, with the world championships next month.

South Korea edged China 85-80 in the semifinals of the women’s basketball, and will face hosts Japan for gold.

China had their giant centre Zhang Ziyu, 19, but it was not enough.

Zhang Ziyu stands 223cm (seven feet, four inches) and scored 22 points.

“She was tough to guard,” said South Korea’s Kang Lee-seul.

“We couldn’t defend her, but we focused on fast breaks and shooting more three-pointers.”

North Korea’s women were again in record-setting form on the weightlifting dais.

Oh Kwang Ok set three world records on her way to women’s 57kg bodyweight class gold.

Oh lifted 104kg in the snatch and 134kg in the clean and jerk for a 238kg total – all world records to add to the two golds North Korea’s women won in the 49kg and 53kg classes this week.

North Korea has won four gold medals and two silvers in the six weightlifting events contested so far.