The Evolution of an Idea -- Part 1

After I finished my first "1001 crane" bouquet, I started looking for another bouquet idea that would also use the same amount of cranes. I knew I didn't want to do roses again, so I chose to do sunflowers. Since it was ultimately supposed to be a sample, and that anyone who ordered it would potentially be the one folding the cranes, I had to make sure that any papers I used would be readily available to the general public.

I designed another cascading bouquet, with two different sizes of sunflowers. The main flowers would be the "regular" sized sunflowers I already made to be sold on the stem. Mini sunflowers would be featured on wire "vines" branching down from the base of the bouquet.

I had created these gold foil sunflowers for the 2006 Holiday Season, and I decided that they would work for this particular bouquet. The "petals" were made from regular gold foil paper, the "center" was made from a textured gold foil paper, called "Hosoyo." I liked the contrast of the two different types of gold, but since the Hosoyo was lighter than the regular gold, it never quite seemed to look right. And I couldn't switch the colors around, because the Hosoyo paper wasn't available in the larger size that was needed for the "petals."

The first change from the original design for the bouquet was for the sunflowers themselves. I decided to go with only one type of gold foil paper, adding a mostly hidden band of green foil cranes so that the center could be distinguished from the petals.

That first alteration made me realize just how different the final product may turn out from my original sketch. Which is why I've decided to document the progress of this project here on the blog.

Next Step: Creating the mini sunflowers on the wire vines.

Thinking Outside the Box

ACEO Shadowbox Set
Originally uploaded by origami3d_cranes

Alchemy: A section on Etsy where buyers can request custom handmade items that they are unable to find anywhere else. Sellers "bid" for the job by describing how they would fulfill the request, and the buyer selects the one that best matches his/her wishes.

My very first "bid" on Alchemy was definitely out of the norm for me -- it was a request for three ACEO-sized shadow boxes. Though I'm mainly an origami person, not a woodworker, I had just finished a similar shadow box for the ACEOs in my shop. I wrote up a bid, and was fortunate enough to have it accepted.

I routed out the bottom edge of lengths of 1/2 inch by 1-1/2 inch fir, to create a shallow rabbet (so that the bottom would be completely "flush" with the sides). After putting the boxes together using miter joints, I cut pieces of 1/4 inch plywood to fit into the space at the bottom of the box. The customer requested that they be unfinished, so I didn't stain or paint, only sanded them.

I have to admit, I really enjoyed making these. In fact, I'm now looking for excuses to make them again...

Bitter-Sweet Memories

I normally don't like to put anything personal in this blog -- this is a business blog, not my personal diary. But something happened recently that made me realize just how tightly intertwined every part of my life is.

I recently was asked to do a wedding bouquet for a very special young woman I'll forever only know as Wendy. A 20-year old battling cancer, but still determined to go forward with her wedding plans, even if she had to be married in the hospital. Her friends and family were working together to fold 1000 origami cranes for her, and a friend of her aunt had come across my work. She asked me to create one of my origami crane bouquets in Wendy's wedding colors -- cobalt blue and yellow. I was very moved by the story, and excited about working on the project. I thought it was such a beautiful combination, and I couldn't wait to see how it turned out.

Unfortunately, Wendy would never get to see the bouquet. Less than a week ago, I received word that she had passed away, just a month before her wedding.

It hit me hard. Not because I knew her, or would ever know her.

It was the memories.

You see, it was a very near case of deja vu. It was 12 years -- almost to the day, it seemed -- since I'd heard the same news about someone I knew. Yoshio Lamansky was my high school classmate, and an almost-friend. Though we were never close in any way, we had many of the same friends and acquaintances. He plays a starring role in many of my memories.

Yoshi was less than a month away from his 21st birthday when he passed away. I was told he had a brain tumor. Like Wendy, he was engaged to be married at the time -- his fiance was one of the many people he'd left behind.

I have to admit, when I first heard about his passing, I felt guilty. It's funny how the first memories that came that day were the guilty ones -- I used to kick him under the table and helped another friend of mine pick on him during our seventh grade English class. He never got mad, just laughed it off.

He was so shy and quiet back then, but not for long. Going through my memories of him is like a watching a slide show of a flower bursting from being just a dull bud into a dazzling display.

I remember the time he was the one of only two boys at a party. It was the summer before our eighth grade year. When he started cracking jokes about our adolescent experimentations with make-up, we dared him to go through the same kind of makeover, and to "do it better." We did him up in full drag, fixing up his hair, put on lipstick and eyeshadow and all that, and wrapped him in a bed sheet to serve as his "dress." Then we presented him to the parents of the party hosts.

I remember watching his ears turn red when I teased him about his trumpet solo he was going to perform in a concert --- just before we started playing the song. I was a trombone player, and we sat in the row right behind the trumpets. The song was, "Through the Eyes of Love -- The Theme from the movie 'Ice Castles.'" I still can't hear that song on the radio without thinking of him.

He taught me how to read a book for the "good parts."

Then there's a few other stories, stories that would have turned our parents' hair pure white back then if they'd only known. Like that one particularly memorable game of "Truth or Dare" at Leadership Camp . . .

He made so many of us laugh when we were nervous or scared. As the years went on, he seemed to have a knack for finding just the off-beat thing to say to throw us off-guard. Though the outside had become outgoing and almost flashy at times, I think at heart he was still the same guy who took every obstacle in stride, never getting mad. Always viewing life with a laugh.

Yes, I still miss him on occasion. Though I rarely run into classmates (we seem to have dispersed pretty far and wide), part of me keeps thinking one day I'll turn around and he'll be there. I know logically that he's gone -- I attended his funeral -- and yet he really isn't gone.

I think the people who are taken from the world so young, like Yoshi -- and Wendy -- are ultimately like shooting stars. The time we see them is all-too brief, yet their brilliant beauty will stay etched into our hearts and memories forever . . .

My "Official" Clumsy Crafting Day

"Ma'am, put the glue gun down and step away from the paper."

No, there is no "crafting police," but sometimes I think there should be, if only to save me from myself.

Less than an hour into my workday, and I was feeling as if I'd acquired the crafting equivalent of "two left feet." You know, when I'm more likely to glue my arm to my ankle than to attach the crane to the desired spot on the work-in-progress.

I did glue my fingers together. Twice. Hot glue and unprotected skin do not work well together.

Every mistake I made, I only made worse when I tried to fix it.

So, it's time to change gears. Work on something else. But not on my picture frames. Oh, no. Bad idea.

Power tools (aka my router) plus today's clumsy mode could result in blood. And a trip to the emergency room.

Definitely not good.

So I'm thinking today will have to be a bookkeeping plus internet promotion and advertising type of work day. After all, I can't hurt myself or anyone else by just sifting through receipts and sitting in front of a computer.

Or can I?

Do What Scares You

I've admitted several times that I was intimidated by MySpace. It always struck me as a type of exclusive club where you had to know everything about it before joining, but the only way to learn was to join. And I have to admit, seeing some of the wild messages friends and family have received on their pages definitely scared me. (Um, who in their right mind offers to send naked photos of themselves to someone they don't know? Especially to a married man whose space is covered with photos of his wedding?)

However, I've always heard of Etsy sellers using MySpace to promote their shops and find new customers. Yes, some of them had some pretty wild "message" stories, too, but it was beginning to seem like the good might outweigh the bad. But it was a forum post created by BattleMaiden-- who has an Etsy shop for her fantasy illustrations -- on how to use MySpace as a marketing tool that finally gave me the push I needed to take the leap into that world. It was very detailed on exactly how to get started, something I definitely needed to keep me from feeling quite so lost there.

So, a little over a week ago, I created a MySpace page. I quickly found how easy it is to get wrapped up in the little details, plus it's just as distracting as some of the Etsy forums can be. It's easy to get sucked into just checking out page after page... So I had to put a definite limit on my MySpace time, otherwise I'd never have any new work to show off there and in my Etsy shop!

The first two days, I spent about 2 hours each. Most of that was figuring out what background I wanted, as well as uploading pictures and my Etsy Mini (similar to what I have here on my blog, showing the latest items from my shop.) Almost every day since I've set aside at least an hour to join groups and search for people who I want to add. I try not to do this randomly, I choose people who have an interest in my type of work and/or are local business I'd like to network with. Especially wedding businesses. I wanted to focus more on weddings this year, and less on craft fairs.

Only time will tell if the decision to jump into MySpace was the right one . . .

A Whale Tail and a Monster Thread

Whale Tail ACEO
Originally uploaded by origami3d_cranes

One of the things I've always loved best about Etsy (besides having the things I make seen all over the world) is the community in the forums. Yes, like any forum, it can get nasty at times, but for the most part, it's supportive and entertaining.

One particular forum thread I have been participating in started on January 26th of this year, and yes, it's still going strong. It was supposed to be a discussion among ACEO artists about what sells on Etsy, but has since evolved into a place to ask for advice or critiques on anything related to ACEOs, as well as to show off our latest creations, and for motivation among its members. There are now nearly 300 forum pages to this thread. A monster, indeed...

It was this thread that renewed my interest in creating ACEOs. The first result was my new ACEO title "Whale Tail." The second was that I finally finished one of my long overdue shadowbox frames for ACEOs.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. The only requirement is that they be limited in size to 2-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches. They originally evolved out of Artist Trading Cards(ATC) -- cards that artists would trade amongst themselves like baseball cards. But when, due to request from non-artists, people began selling them, the term ACEO was coined to differentiate them from the ones that were strictly for trade.

So, what else will that monster thread inspire me to produce? And just how long can it become? We'll just have to wait and see...

I'm in a Treasury!

Woohoo! And I've finally learned how to take a screen-shot of a web page, too.

Big thanks to birose, one of the terrific Big Island based members of the Hawaii street team. There's a lot of beautiful things in this treasury, and I'm definitely flattered to be a part of it -- that's one of my bridal bouquets in the third row.

The Treasury is one of the cool features on Etsy. It's a place where members can create lists of their favorite items. Often, the curator of the particular Treasury will choose the items by theme -- in this case, by color. I've also seen them done by medium(art), inspired by famous -- or infamous! -- people, by members of the many Street Teams on Etsy to showcase members of their team. The possibilities are nearly as endless as the virtual line of people waiting to make one. They're supposed to be limited to only 333 lists, but if a whole bunch of people pounce on an open slot at exactly the same moment, the number of lists often shoots up much, much higher. Especially since a Treasury is how the Etsy admin find the items featured on the home page... they will choose a list that catches their eyes, and it will be on the "front page," giving great exposure to both the artists featured as well as the curator of the list.