My Story

✨ Amen Artisan: My Story

By André Chen, Founder

I didn’t grow up imagining I’d one day make prayer beads.
I chased success, not faith.

Raised Catholic, I drifted from the Church in my twenties, convinced that meaning could be built with my own hands—through work, ambition, results. God? I wasn’t angry at Him. I just didn’t think I needed Him anymore.

Then came the storm.

At 40, I was diagnosed with cancer. Within months, I lost my health, my relationship, and the certainty I had built my life on. I was lying in a hospital bed in Hong Kong, hollowed out physically and spiritually, when I remembered a small wooden cross my mother had brought back years ago from Jerusalem. I found it in a drawer and held it—not to pray, but to not fall apart.

That night, for the first time in years, I whispered,
“Lord… I don’t know if You still know me. But I need You.”

When Faith Comes Back Quietly

I didn’t suddenly become a saint. I didn’t hear angels. But I did start to pray again—clumsily at first. I found myself holding that cross every night, almost like a lifeline. And slowly, peace returned. Not because the pain vanished, but because I realized I wasn’t carrying it alone.

As I healed, I kept that wooden cross near. Eventually, I began crafting simple prayer beads, just for myself. Then for friends. Then for strangers who said, “I used to pray, but your beads brought me back.”

That’s how Amen Artisan was born.

Not Mass-Produced. Not Mass-Market.

I didn’t want to build a brand around machines. I wanted hands—hands that had known pain, and still chose to create beauty.

So I began sourcing sacred materials from around the world:
🌿 Olive wood from Christian communities in Jerusalem.
🔩 Metal crucifixes from small Italian workshops.
🙏 And perhaps most importantly: I partnered with a handful of faithful, struggling believers living near Hong Kong’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception—men and women who’ve faced hardship, illness, even displacement, yet show up every day to assemble each rosary with devotion, not just skill.

They are the quiet soul of Amen Artisan.
Every bead strung is a prayer.
Every knot tied is an act of hope.

What We Believe

I believe faith isn’t loud. It’s not always polished.
It’s someone in a hospital bed whispering “Help me.”
It’s a mother holding a rosary while waiting on a miracle.
It’s a man who walked away from God for decades, finally saying “Amen.”

At Amen Artisan, we craft reminders of that faith—tangible, beautiful, prayer-soaked objects that you can hold when the words won’t come.

Every piece is built by hands that know suffering, for hands that are still holding on.

Amen.