Doytibet shows off his new line of leather organisers.

With a clever line of leather items, Doytibet Duchanee designs a life for himself

When the son of Thawan Duchanee - the big, bearded millionaire lion of the art world - decides to make a teddy bear, people are going to wonder.

But Doytibet Duchanee could care less, and anyway, he's fed up being described as Thawan's son. It's not like he's been given a share of the old man's fortune, and art can take many forms.

So Doytibet has launched a line of products called doys shop - small d, no apostrophe and umlauts above the first "o" and below the second one (it's a newspaper editor's nightmare - we're not even going to try).

Doys shop items include organisers, wallets, key chains and frames, and that cute teddy bear, which Doytibet says represents him.

Holistic attitude

"I don't want to make trash products," he stresses. Evidently there's been enough trash in his family life, not that we can go into detail here, but now he says he's found happiness. "The past is a reflection of us that helps us change," he declares.

But he's delighted to be immersed in art, which he says runs deep in his blood.

"Being an artist doesn't mean have you have to sell pure art or be a teacher. You can apply it to design and other things."

His other objective in establishing doys shop was to raise more money for the Baandum Museum in Chiang Rai, where some 40 traditional teakwood houses house 5,000 works of art by his father. Doytibet hopes it will continue to be part of the Thai art heritage.

Meanwhile he's also running a "holistic art" company called L'Artisan that organises events and handles a wide array of artrelated activities.

XTRA

Multi-tasking man

>> Doytibet's products go on sale this month at the various Loft outlets and in Siam Paragon's stationery department.

>> Check out the goods at www.Doys-Shop.com, and find out about L'Artisan at www.LArtisan-Design.com.

>> The Chiang Rai museum has its own site too: www.Thawan-Duchanee.com.