Package Envy

The designer in me has a weakness for

beautiful packaging. I admire innovative,

creative, compelling design, but who doesn't?

It's human nature to be drawn to things in pretty packages. I will admit to desiring a product (or a man, lol) solely on the merits of the package design, knowing full well I had no use for the object(s) inside. Anyway, I love to incorporate special touches in packaging my own handmade things. In my humble opinion, it's part of the fun of a unique handmade item for me, and I hope, for the customer or recipient, too. It definitely sets the tone, telling the end user, "this is something special". Here's my latest prototype, packaging for a magnifying glass and letter opener set embellished with my handmade recycled paper beads:



simple, designed to showcase the product inside

 

a descriptive label I designed and printed from my laserjet onto cardstock

a larger label on the back, with more details about the product

This project was something I had been meaning to get around to but didn't until a customer ordered it for an anniversary gift (possibly for their "paper" anniversary??) and requested gift wrapping. I will make some tweaks (because I'm just anal like that) to the design and use it to package more sets. Here's how the gift wrap came out:

Learn more about this item: http://www.etsy.com/shop/artspell/search?search_query=magnifying+glass&search_submit=&search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5360184&shopname=artspell

Things I Make for Me

This is a "two-fer" today, because I'm sharing two things I made just for moi. I continue to stay happily busy creating things for my online shops and other outlets day in and day out, but, thankfully find time to make things for me. It is definitely part of the joy of creating. So, have a look. The first item is a sort of cork tile o' inspiration that I mounted in my bathroom. It's a fun thing that sorta took shape around something I was gifted. A friend gave me some of her late mother's collection of vintage buttons, which I knew I could find a use for, easy. They sat around for a while until I got the idea to glue my favorites onto brass tacks. From there I decided they were just too pretty for my regular bulletin boards. I also had these pretty, dark cork tiles doing nothing.

Then, finally I determined it was time to do something with these scraps of magazines I had lying around. I had torn out pieces with different makeup looks to try because I love to experiment with color, outside my studio, too, lol.

So this thing came from all that. Interestingly, that is how many projects come together for me, especially when I acquire something I love, or have a stray idea. I don't always know what things will become, but when I love them enough... and if I set them aside long enough, they find a purpose.

The other item is a fun tank top that was ridiculously cheap and easy.

The tank was under $5, and the shimmery peacock feather applique was, like, 50 cents. It took all of 10 minutes (if you don't count me moving it around to different spots on the top to decide where I wanted it) to iron it on. And it's adorable on. There you have it.

Days, Numbers, and Times

As I inch up on my 37th (sheesh) birthday, I've been doing some reminiscing on and remembering my life so far. I have plenty to be thankful for, especially good memories. One of my favorite memories of my childhood was when I figured out how to make myself a cup of coffee, lol. I know that sounds strange, but I was a strange kid (and that has not changed much, lolol). Sometimes I think I started out a little old lady, and as I grew up, I went backwards, something like Benjamin Button. These days people seem to mistake me for someone in her twenties, not late thirties (which is totally okay with me).

Anyway, I remember my mother's old coffee percolator, with its little glass bubble on top, where I could watch the coffee gurgling up as it brewed a pot of coffee for she and my dad. And I remember having my own little Raggedy Ann cup and saucer, and a tiny folding table and chair. My mother would set up the table and chair in front of the big old television set in the living room in the mornings and I would have my hot cereal and a little bit of coffee in my cup while I watched the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

On Saturday mornings, like most kids that age, I was usually up and ready to go long before my parents felt like being disturbed. So I would get up and quietly watch my Saturday morning cartoons. By the time I was 6, I could reach the counter in the kitchen, and one Saturday morning in particular remains in my memory. I guess I must have seen my mother and grandmother do it enough that I decided to go in and help myself. I remember putting a spoonful each of instant coffee, sugar, and creamer into my Raggedy Ann cup (I still have a fuzzy picture in my mind of the little brown and white mountains of crystals overlapping in the bottom of the cup), and I guess I added hot water from the kitchen tap. And voila! I remember how excited and grown up I felt, as I drank my coffee and watched my cartoons, lol, and how I couldn't wait for my mom to get up so I could tell her.

Anyway, savoring memories from the various stages of my life definitely causes me to look forward to those I have yet to create. We often talk about how good things "used to be", and "the good old days", missing them, wishing we could somehow recapture them, because we might appreciate them so much more. But every single day has the potential to stick out in our minds as a great time in our lives. Reminiscing this way could serve as a reminder of how important it is to live and take advantage of every single second, savor every moment, stop and notice how many good things, big and small we are blessed to experience, whatever part of our personal journey we are on. And to make now the good new days.

Trial and Error

I like trial and error. I do. It is a necessary process that elevates my understanding of various media as I learn the quirks and oddities that make up the properties of a material. Yeah, whatever. As valuable as I know trial and error to be in creating, sometimes it just iirrrrrks me so bad!

Yesterday, when I discovered a drying process gone awry on a piece I had eagerly and excitedly painted the day before, I wanted to kick something, hard. Luckily no one else was around.

Some fluke crackle effect where I didn't intend it to be.
really? GRRRRR!!!

Yeah, it's a pretty big buzz-kill on that whole fulfilling creative process thing when green dries blue, stuff warps to look stangely like crap, or a tool fails just minutes away from the completion of a major piece, all but totally destroying
weeks of work.

super.

Seems like it happens the most on stuff I am really looking forward to finishing. I'll be cruising along, moving closer and closer to the finished product I picture, when, wham, a lil ol' monkey wrench in my plan. Most times whatever has gone wrong is fixable, and teaches me something I can use to my benefit on other projects. In fact, the errors sometimes equal happy accidents. Sometimes it will change the vision for what the finished product will be. Bring out my inner scientist when something doesn't work and I'm forced to rig- er, formulate a new method.

how many times do I have to mix paint
to get the right pink? we are not going for
pepto bismol here...

But often, it is a setback, adding additional
step(s) and an additional day or more to a project. And, who are we kidding, when you are creating for a living, the "time is money" thing definitely applies to you. In the end, I try to make myself feel better about extra time I have to spend fixing or re-doing by thinking about how much faster and more efficient I'll be able to get that same thing done the next 5 or 10 times, knowing what I know. It's awesome in the same way as getting your taxes done.
Back to the drawing board...

A Feature

I've been featured! Cassandra Tomlinson of Tomlinson Photography was so kind to do a feature on her blog about me. Here's the link: http://creationsbycc.blogspot.com/2011/10/multimedia-artist-renee-parker-owner.html. Please check it out and share her blog, if you're so moved. ;o)

And please be sure to check out her studio on Artfire while you're at it- she creates some beautiful things herself! http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/Tomlinson_Photography_and_Design

Thanks again Cassandra!

Balance

No matter what I do, some days my simplest goal, balance, eludes me. It doesn't happen often. Yesterday I was running like a well oiled machine, going from one thing to the next, checking things off lists and savoring a sense of accomplishment as I barreled through my day, determined to maximize every moment afforded me. What made it balanced for me was that I also found time to do personal things for me. Today, however, was a dog of a different color. While I usually manage to efficiently stagger projects, starting on some while others dry, completing some things while others progress, I just couldn't get my rhythm right, couldn't seem to manage my time the same today.

Instead I ran back and forth and in circles trying to determine what needed to go first, what could wait, what was simple and could get knocked off the list quickly, etc.. My mental lists, proven steps, and internal clock just didn't sync up for me today. I decided not to be irritated, because everyday can't be like yesterday.

warrior, a new sculpture, available soon

I still have a few hours left in this day. Maybe this should be that slow down day I promised myself. It is the weekend, after all...

Wordless Wednesday



Whatcha trying to say, cookie?

yes, it's real

Lucid Pursuits

Okay, so how far is just too far, lol? Not long ago I was going about my day as usual, when the memory of a dream I had had the night before came to me. You know how that happens... hours after you get up something triggers a flashback to your adventures in dreamland. Anyway, I remembered a dream where, clear as a bell, I could see some of my materials. I was looking over different components that I have in real life, and designing things. Seriously. Actually working out how stuff should be made in the dream. Great, so I found a way to get more done, even while I'm asleep, lol! And I didn't even sleepwalk (as I have been known to do). Now if I could figure out a way to harness this and decide which projects to to delegate to dream Renée... Maybe if I tucked some tools under my pillows...

Things I Make for Me

It's true, as an artist, I spend a lot of time making things for other people. But I also find time to make things just for lil' ol me. Sometimes those things go on to be copied to sell or give as gifts, but the point is, they started out made by me especially for me :o). Here's the latest item of note:

A bunch of wool I had
laying around...

Plus a bar of soap...

Equals a scrubby wool felted soap.

This little bar with its new wool jacket is great for scrubbing paint, glue, etc. off of my hands when I finish a session in my studio. No, I wouldn't make this to sell- there are oodles of folks who already do, but since I knew how, and the materials were around, why not do a lil' something just for me?

Wordless Wednesday

I'm in Love with a {Wonderful?} Soy...

natural goodness or not so much?

Okay, here's the thing.  I must be the last person to become conscious of the whole soy craze sweeping the nation, because apparently it's old news and people have been talking about switching to soy products for years.  I stumbled onto it late in the game in a search to decrease the dairy in my diet.  I am a generally healthy person who prefers preventative measures over drugs and hospitals.  I also like to try to eat and conduct my life on the healthier side, but I'm no health nut.  Anyway things like persistent sinus problems and other minor annoyances, drove me to consider what changes I could make.  Dairy it was.  I love dairy in all its cheesy, creamy, sweet, savory manifestations, but I was willing to try something different.

soy froths so nicely!

In walks soy.  It was obvious from the start that we would be close, considering that soy can be and do so many tasty things (one of my favorites being vanilla soy milk).  It sorta... got under my skin (biting my knuckles dramatically like one of those noir film ladies from the 40's talking to a Bogart type).  But then while doing some researching online, I found discussions speculating about whether soy was actually good for us, or if it was a horrible low cost government machination to fill the void in capitalism created by people who don't wish to consume hormone-laced cow's milk.  AAaarrrggghhh!  What's a girl to do, eat her corn flakes with water?!  (noir dame grabs guy's shirt dramatically, shaking him hysterically)  Anyway, the jury is still out on soy, there's more research to be done before I can decide, and I'm finding so much conflicting info all over the web ... anybody got any good advice?

Wordless Wednesday