evolution of an idea

Recently I had a customer request a custom order. Her sister-in-law was celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary (silver) and she wanted something that would pay tribute to her background, the year, and her love of cranes. Since most of what I have in stock is either very Christmas-y or golden, I went through my stock to give her a few options. She wanted something with white, silver, and a touch of red. Above was the best that I had available. 

As you can imagine, it just didn’t quite fit. So I decided to pull out the paint and come up with my own paper.

First I painted the page silver, then I splattered water on the wet paint and dabbed it off in order to get an interesting background.

Then, since it’s a wedding anniversary, I fused my love of origami with my lit geek background and used a red pen to write lines from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet “How do I love thee”.

This is one of the final cranes:

Once she agreed to the crane, (I gave her several options to choose from before I completed the ornament). This is the final creation:

 

What is quickly becoming apparent to me is that I NEED to find a better way to photograph these puppies! The ball catches every single reflection in the room.

I built myself a makeshift lightbox (I need to finish the paper better…I know) but the results weren’t promising.

 

I took the first image outdoors (you can see the sky) and the next inside (with a cream coloured background) and you can see my kitchen! So the light box, really, is sort of an epic fail!

I’ve done some reading on it, and learned some new ideas, but have yet to implement anything.

I suspect that my best option will come back to this:

 

Embrace the reflections and make them work for me by making them atmospheric. I think that if I did a listing with the ornament on a tree and then a close up of a crane outside of the ball, I might have better luck.

building a crafty business

I’m not really sure if I want to build a crafty business or a sideline hobby project, but either way, I’m attempting to make it somewhat professional in nature.

Things that I’ve been doing to nurture this project:

1. Rebuilding the website slowly but surely to make it seem more polished (see graphics) and the inclusion of a store page (which you can see at the top of the page, beneath the header) in order to link this blog to my etsy page

 

2. Designing a business card that fit the main premise of the goods I’m selling (origami ornaments) and was clean, simple, and most of all, Zen:

I know that others liked the block print vibe that I tested out before, but I wanted the cards to have a professional feel to them. So I uploaded my block printed origami crane (not the bird because it reminded me too much of twitter). I think that I’ll print them on cream or beige paper (preferably recycled). What do you think?

I’m debating having the link to etsy there directly, or if I’d rather just send them to my website and would love feedback on the question

option a: only website.

Pros: That it’s my name brand right from the get go

Cons: Maybe the blogging home page might be a bit off putting? Too personal?

Solution:? I could try to have a home start page and then a tab for the blog? Not sure how that would work in terms of technical questions though…

option b: 2 websites

Pros: no crazy formatting required (which is good, cause let’s face it, my coding only goes so far… you know)

Cons: it’s kinda confusing and messes with my Zen model… :P

3. Next up, building my etsy shop:

a. I created a new banner to reflect my shops primary focus. What do you think? Again, keep in mind that I’m working on a simple, clean look. (yeah, who knew I’d try being so minimalistic?)

b. filling up my etsy shop. Slowly but surely I’m working on building up more of a collection and keeping my ornaments at the top of the page by posting more often. Some of the problems that I foresee with that include: the price starts adding up and what if it doesn’t pay off and the fact that it takes a lot of time

Things that I have to work on:

1. My photos! I need to master the art of taking artsy photos that capture my products without reflections. I’ve been reading up about glass photography but I haven’t had the chance to put my readings to use yet.

2. New products. I have dreams of creating several other goodies beyond the ornaments but haven’t had the time to really get them done. These include:

Jewellery storage shadow boxes

Block printed items (co-venture with a friend)

More artwork

As you can see, I have many plans in mind but am sort of lacking the time to get everything done at the moment. But the possibilities are endless! So much more on my mind, but this is long enough for today!

adventures in block printing!

Yesterday was a crafty day. I spent hours and hours carving away at this block print and immediately had to share it with my family and now you:

I’m so proud. I know, I’m probably not supposed to admit it, but damn it… I am! Cause it was hard work people! Hard work and I didn’t mess it up, even after a few hours of carving and getting impatient towards the end. It looks easy but it wasn’t and I’m darn tooting impressed with me!

Below my print, you can see some of the one my friend did. It’s bad form of me not to show all her hard work and first efforts but that’s because I don’t want to share the spotlight right now. Later, when we put them on stuff you can see her lovely work. But not now. Because now I want you to admire my hard work! That’s right (can I get more vain?)! 

Ok, that’s it for today!

green themes

Recent adventures in Marya-land: mini golf!

 

Nature walks (with so much dandelion fluff it looks like snow)!

 

Paul, being typical Paul

8x10 canvas work in progress.

Come to think of it, there’s a lot of green going on in this post. Hmmm… interesting.

Now that I’ve painted a couple of things on canvas I have to admit that I think I prefer the wood block canvas over the actual canvas. (Of course I would like the wood… it’s more expensive… I always go for the more expensive option…. go figure, it’s an uncanny knack of mine). The reasons why I like wood more: Canvas takes longer to dry, absorbs the paint more (so you use more, even with gesso) and is more springy.

inspiration vs plagiarism

 

I find inspiration everywhere (link). I write it down, sketch it, or sticky note it for further consideration. Eventually the ideas that prompt me to create end up as something very different than the original idea that inspired them. But where exactly do we draw the line between being inspired by something and blatantly plagiarizing someone else’s idea?

 

For example, in the May/June Cloth, Paper, Scissors, artist Amy Hitchcock provides a lesson on how to make your own assemblage. I’ve been in love with shadow boxes for ages now (pretty much ever since I saw them used in Blueprint Magazine to store jewellery), and have wanted to create my own unique variation of the idea.

 

Amy Hitchcock Image Source	from an old Blueprint Magazine Image Source

 

So when I take the above 2 images, I feel inspired to fuse them into one. Now obviously what I create will not resemble either image. Not really. It’ll be my own variation on a theme. And the assemblage article in the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine is essentially encouraging us to learn the skill. But my question is, when does the inspiration no longer belong to the original and rather to the new creator?

 

I’m all for giving credit when credit is due, especially in the culture of free (see craftypod for discussion or wikipedia for general info) but I have to admit to being unsure of when credit is always due.  You see, I’ve worked in education for years (wow, that’s sort of surprising to realize), specifically I’ve spent a lot of time working with students when it comes to writing, plagiarism, and sourcing, and what always comes up in my discussions with others related to these issues are the following: what is common knowledge, what about the free flow of ideas, who owns an idea anyways, the free access of information online, and educating in order for individuals to know how to give credit properly. So when it comes to these issues in craft-land, I find myself just as stumped here as I do academically. I know that it’s important to source, but when does an idea become your own?

 

The rules of thumb that I use for my students:

 

• * When in doubt: source
• * Over 3 words: quote
• * Completely not your idea, even in your own words:  source
• * You’ve built on an idea: paraphrase, source original, and then elaborate your own ideas.

 

Based on the aforementioned criteria, then I should always be upfront about my inspirations. And perhaps honestly, there is something intrinsically interesting in learning about the process of going from someone else’s idea, to your own. Because although the internet is awash with tutorials and finished goods, we don’t tend to see the process behind how the creator got there. Maybe because this isn’t an easy process to record. There are a million little steps that lead to any one item, from words, colours, to images, and I’m bound to forget one along the way. I guess the answer is to try to do the best you can, show your inspirations, and link when possible to them, and just go from there. After all, it’s one thing to copy directly and another thing entirely to be inspired by another to create something that is your own. Thoughts?

 

wedding scrapbook: buttons

So this page gets no journaling. I was journaled out by this point!

However, that said, on some level the page tells a story just for me because the colours represent my mom's favourite colours and the colours in the kitchen we grew up in. That, paired with my mom laughing at the wedding makes this page really speak about family for me. Something about having my not so little, little brothers, my parents laughing, and the colours makes this page feel very much about all about my side of the family.  I know that doesn't get translated to others but it's there for me. 

(oh yeah, the red looks crooked, but it's not, it's just the angle that the page was photographed and the curve of the page).

wedding scrapbook: lessons in scrapbooking

I’ve been avoiding scrapbooking for the past little while as I have been busy exploring other creative outlets a lot lately. I’ve made cards galore and have started art journaling. In true Marya form, I have a million projects on the go at once. So I thought it was time to unpack more of my craft room and get to work on another wedding scrapbook page:

I used some new K&Co stickers that I received from my secret sister (via Simply Scrapping) and various pages that I had in my stash. I should keep track of these things for blogging purposes, but honestly, the fact that the pages are even somewhat organized is miracle enough! I cut the brown page shorter so that I could add the green backdrop for journaling.


The ribbons on the page come from leftover wedding supplies (cream from my bouquet and the floral ribbon from the ring books I made). I felt like the page needed some pop so I cut out flowers from another page and layered them onto this one (some are flush with the paper, others raised on 2 different level foamy stickers).

In order to make the photo pop more, I sponge painted the cream background (behind the photo) with gold ink and water and added gold to the paper trimming around the background.  Paul thinks the photo still blends in too much but I was kind of looking for a more monochromatic effect so it doesn’t bother me that much. What do you think? I could go back in and add a second sponge colour or pull up the photo and add another contrast paper colour (probably the same green I used for the top and bottom).

The other problem with the page is the way the ribbon gathered. I think I pulled one part tighter than the other and now I need to go back and loosen it so both gathers look the same. Ironically, the gather that you see in the photo above looked nicer off the page than the one on the left (see top photo). But now I’d like both gathers to look like the left hand one. But it was the first time that I tried to gather a ribbon, based on my guesstimation of how it would be done, so it’s not terrible. It actually photographs worse than it looks.

card making, take 2

 More cardmaking goodness. This time in blues and greens. Hey, I need a "male" birthday card soon...

So there are elements that I like on some cards better than others... In the first card, top left, I should have left the card without the final sparkle layer. It's un peu de trop... Overall I'm happy with the card with the giftboxes and it'll likely be the one that I give with his gift.

The other 2 are ok, but I definitely like the circles more than the squares. It's the 2nd time I tried doing layered squares, the first failing abysmally, but I like the sparkle gem flourish on the squares. I wanted to added it to the circles but since it won't fit, it's not an option...

ladybug cards

I admit it, I have a card making problem…

  


But ladybugs! How can I resist? I love the ladybugs. To some extent I’m still struggling to know when to accept that less is more and let the card be instead of adding another element. For example, I’m still debating whether or not I should add the black lining (like in card 3) into card 1 or not. For now I’m leaving it alone but who knows what will strike my fancy in a little while…

Anyways… don’t you just love the ladybugs? Next up? Maybe some owls!!!!

scrapbooking a family album

I’m currently working on a birthday present for my mother-in-law.


She’s always saying that she needs to organize her photos and put them into an album


So I’ve decided that this year I’m going to do the work for her. It’s been fun, because I didn’t know anything about scrapbooking when I started. And to be honest, learning about scrapbooking can be pretty daunting…


Hopefully she’ll like all my various efforts to compile a book of family mementos. It’s a bit of a challenge to remember that I’m making this for her, not me, thus the photos I chose need to be more sentimental in nature than humorous (which is totally the type of pictures I’d keep… ok I’d keep some normal sentimental pics too… but you know what I mean, right?).


Hopefully she’ll appreciate the fact that she’s surrounded by men in her life that are tricksters and that the photos reflect her reality (see above, below…)

 
So this is where I’m at in the project. I have a few more pages to go (our wedding, pics of my brother/sister in laws dogs (they’re in a calendar this year) and a couple of other events from the year. I’m not in many/any of the photos so far and I know that this is something of a challenge that scrapbookers write about when you’re the photographer and that it’s important to remember to include yourself in the album… so I figure that the wedding pics and a few others will have to cover it.

I definitely think that some pages worked out more than others, but that’s been part of the learning experience. Switching from playing with digital scrapbooking to traditional scrapbooking has been an interesting exercise as well. Digital is more techie and more polished (which appeals to my desire for smooth edges/borders, etc) but traditional is more fun and creative for me in some ways… maybe it’s because it feels like I’m 5 again and playing with paper and glue? As I get better, I imagine that the things that bother me about the imperfections of traditional scrapbooking will lessen (you know, with the improvement of my skills). Besides, all of the pages you see above are 8x8, which, I’m learning is a bit of a challenge because it doesn’t really give you much room to work with in terms of layering/embellishing the page and balancing the photos.

At the end of the day… yay for paper and glue… so much fun! I really enjoy the process of learning to balance story-telling with images in a way that can be passed on to future generations! It appeals to the history buff in me and makes me want to learn all about my family histories so that I can create a record for posterity.

crochet floral curtain tiebacks

As I mentioned before, I'm working on creating these floral tiebacks for my living room curtains when we move. In the picture you can see 2 different florals (the top right is the one based on the instructions). I modified the flower because I didn't feel like it was flower-y enough. Instead of skipping stitches, I chained and looped my way through all the stitches in order to get a many petaled look.

Here's a close up of the final flower (minus the strings that still need to be finished off).

So what do you think? Will my apple martini living room be overwhelmed by flower-y goodness or will it add just the right pop? I'll be sure to share the results when they're finished and up in the room!