Cleaning Up My Inventory

I have decided to a little "house cleaning" of my inventory by adding a "Sale and Clearance" section to my Etsy shop. The first design to go into this section is shown above. It's the kanji character for "Seimei," meaning "Life."

Although I've always liked the way this particular character looks, the majority of my customers have asked for "Long Life" rather than just "Life." I am still in the process of researching the new character, but I have several copies of the current design in my Etsy and craft show inventory.

The regular price was $34 (without frame), and I marked it down 20%. The new sale price is now $27.20 plus shipping.

"Happiness" is in the Eye of the Beholder

kanji, fuku, silver
Originally uploaded by origami3d_cranes

I've received multiple requests to add the character for "happiness" to my shop and craft fair inventory. When I was doing the research, I found several different versions -- some with completely different kanji characters from the one I've got here. So I have no idea if this is the one that people were actually looking for.

By Special Request . . .

Kanji, Believe
Originally uploaded by origami3d_cranes

This is another result of the Mililani Hongwanji Bon Dance/Craft Fair last month. A customer there liked the look of my "Dream" kanji but wanted one that meant either "believe" or "imagine." During my research, I found "believe," but the closest I could find to imagine was "imagination." I received the go-ahead from the customer on "believe," and completed the piece on Aug. 29th.

It took 201 origami cranes using the ex-small (from 2 inch paper) size. After I finished it, I realized I probably should have used the next size up in cranes, the ones folded from the 3-inch paper. Oh, well. I like how it came out, and more importantly, so did my customer.

Finding my way around Flickr

I'm still learning, I'll admit that much. I only have one "contact." It's Kathi from IsabellaSmiles (one of the co-founders of the Etsy Hawaii Street Team), and she was the one who found me first. I just joined my first group: "3D Paper Art." I'm definitely not taking full advantage of all of Flickr's benefits, but I'm learning. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them!

Update: On the Mililani Hongwanji Obon/Craft Fair
I'm glad I attended this one! Not only was it a lot of fun, but I got an early andagi fix -- usually I wait until the annual Okinawan Festival in order to indulge. Sure, there are places that sell andagi (like Napoleon's Bakery at Zippy's), but there's nothing quite like it when it's hot and fresh, just minutes out of the oil! Ooh, I know they're bad for me, but they taste so very good.

Another result of the craft fair is that I am working on a design for another kanji, this time, the one that translates into the word, "believe." I'm not sure what the Japanese word is, yet, I'm still in the research phase, but I did manage to find images of what the kanji is supposed to look like.

Now Available: Art Unframed

I've decided to list some of my art without frames on Etsy.com. I've done this for a couple of reasons. 1) It gives my customers the option of picking out their own frame, locally, if the black lacquer frame I normally provide wouldn't work with their home's decor. 2) It saves them on shipping costs, as well as item costs.

The first unframed art I added is the Kanji "Yume", or "Dream," in silver foil on an 8x10 velvet background. More will be coming soon.

Newest Projects

I finally got around to listing my kanji in frame in my Etsy store. Kanji is a chinese character used to represent a Japanese word or phrase, in this case, it represents "Ai", or love. I didn't want to make it completely flat, so I used layers of cranes to help indicate what would be the proper stroke order if it were being done in ink.

I plan to continue this particular series, and next up will be the character "Yume", meaning dream. I tried to do "Heiwa", or peace, but somehow it just didn't look right. I think were just too many overlapping "strokes" that were hard to represent in the cranes.

Also in the works is a new series of leis, made from mulberry paper. I've had some comments that my regular origami cranes leis are a bit uncomfortable to wear for those with sensitive necks, so I wanted to make something a little softer. The sheets of mulberry tissue paper are cut down to size, then folded into cranes. I haven't decided yet where it will be listed online, in my Etsy store or on my regular website.