Musings on Living a Creative Life

Posted on
a large room filled with lots of paintings

When I started my business, started designing and making products for my job, I had a vague inkling that it might consume my whole life. I drew a boundary for myself: if it involved fabric, it was outside of the scope of Work and could/should not have any external deadlines or obligations. I learned to sew as a child, but had recently started experimenting with quilting, thinking about garment sewing, and well, collecting fabric. It seemed wise to carve out something I could do for fun, for myself, outside of my creative Work.

Looking back at that youthful version of myself, there was so much wisdom in that decision! What I couldn’t see then, is that I was right…my work did consume my life, and I still don’t do much sewing, ten years later. I also think I was misguided…creating such strong boundaries around what was “allowed” in my creative practice and what was “out of bounds” has maybe made me slower and more fearful about experimenting and trying new things.

I’ve been on an adventure the last few years of realizing I was burnt out, and trying to find a new way forward. I’ve been asking lots of hard questions about what my body/brain/heart/self needs in order to find sustainability (and joy!) in some sort of creative practice, while also acknowledging that I might not find that right away in my paid Work (but maybe I can? but maybe I won’t?).

One of the things I’ve been wondering for the last few months is whether finding more time for stitching, mending, sewing, and quilting might be a way forward. I’ve found sometimes that making something, anything, helps jumpstart the making of everything. My hypothesis, then, has been: maybe if I do anything creative with my hands, everything will start to make more sense and my burnout will ease!

I’ve stitched needle books, gift wrapping cloths, zipper pouches, quilt tops, and sewn various torn things back together again. It’s been fun to be more of an actual sewist, instead of a fabric collector with aspirations of stitching.

One of the things I decided to do to this end was attend QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC in February. QuiltCon is the annual convention of The Modern Quilt Guild, an international organization that celebrates quilts, especially those with a more modern aesthetic (think solid colors, lots of white space, lots of “rule” breaking).

Over the course of three days I looked at something like 600 quilts. They ranged from smaller than a sheet of paper to bigger than a bed. Some were all one color, some were every color you could imagine. There were map quilts, architecture quilts, people quilts, quilts that explored quilt history, human history, racism, school shootings, two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional space, texture, color theory, repetition, labor, symmetry, family, community….after the longest day of quilt viewing, I felt like I had tried to take a drink out of an open fire hydrant. So many skilled, caring, thoughtful people who made so many amazing things.

I’ve included photos of some of my favorites, with their info placards, below (click on an image for a larger view).

If you’re looking for more quilts, you can see the winners of the show, or scroll the hashtag #quiltcon2024 on Instagram.

Back home now, I’m still trying to understand my place in this big world of art making, and how to move past burnout, and what might be beyond it. I’m trying to be gentle with myself and take my time. I’m also feeling impatient! So, pretty normal.

2022 in Review: House Portraits, Vermont, and Camberville, MA

Posted on
house portrait components on a blue watercolor background

Happy New Year! 2022 was a banner year for this paper-centric corner of the Internet, though I might be biased as I consider making it through the year sufficient cause for banners! In no particular order, here are some things I’m marveling at and/or celebrating as I reflect on the year past:

Paper Places

I added over 30 new places to my collection of Paper Places this year! Some nearby (I see you, Quincy, MA!), some bodies of water (a whole new sort of place!), a whole bunch of new places in and around Burlington, VT, and I finally added a few state maps as well! There are now right around 100 Paper Places for you to choose from, and they are even mostly actually available on my website (no small feat if you’ve been around for a while)!

That said, there was a very strong, very clear favorite Paper Place across all of my sales, in person and online:

A black frame with a green map of Camberville, MA (Cambridge and Somerville, MA)

Do you have a Camberville? Are you feeling left out now? Even I am wondering why I don’t have one hanging up in my house somewhere! Camberville, of course, also isn’t really even a place – it’s a mashup of Cambridge, MA (on the bottom) and Somerville, MA (on the top). So many people bounce between the two during their time in the Boston area that sometimes it’s easier to shorten/combine, but there’s also a really unique neighborhood that sort of runs along the line between the two cities – this neighborhood is scrappy, full of special small, local businesses, and also really confusing to park in without getting a ticket from one city or the other! It’s basically the best.

Custom Paper Places

I created 15 custom paper places this year for all sorts of folks, including Realtors who needed unique client gifts, gifts for people who “have everything”, and folks whose favorite places I hadn’t made quite yet. While there weren’t any international commissions in 2022, I did make custom maps for places in 5 different states. There was one cemetery, one island, one tiny neighborhood, one special section of the South Carolina coastline, and even one company logo! I didn’t manage to photograph everything, but here are some images from this year’s custom orders:

Custom House Portraits

This was a slower year for house portraits than I’ve had in the past, for various reasons. If you take a look through the photos below, you’ll see one of the obvious reasons… My obsession with tiny details has carried me to a pretty ridiculous/gorgeous place!

a paper model of a white house with windows

I partnered with Boston Frame Works starting in March of this year. Now, each finished portrait is professionally framed in a custom, solid-wood frame with museum-quality glass. The frames are gorgeous, and I love that the “packaging” is now handmade, just like the artwork.

a close up of a wooden frame with a paper house portrait in it

I finished two older commissions in the first part of the year with my old framing process. With a clean slate in March, I finished another 5 before the end of the year. I have one more portrait nearly finished as of this writing – this last one is special as it’s a house I consider a friend (along with the folks who live in it). I’m finding that it’s taking even longer than my normally long time to finish. Oops! Grateful for patient friends!

I also had the opportunity to create two House Portrait Silhouette commissions this year, and I’ve been delighted to continue exploring this new style of portrait. I hope to make more of these this year!

Gratitude

Of course none of this would be possible without you, yes you. You and all the folks like you who do things like read long blog posts, open the monthly email newsletter I send, follow along with my whims and silliness on Instagram, show up to local art markets, support local businesses wherever you are, and care about things made of paper. Thank you! Thank you so much. It’s been almost 9 years since I started making things out of paper and hoping folks would like them enough to want to take them home with them, and I still can’t quite believe that this is my job!

I’m already up to my elbows in new plans and ideas for 2023, along with lots of tiny bits of paper, but only time will tell what will be on next year’s year in review! I hope you’ve found something to be excited for in the year to come. If it involves paper, and there’s a way I can help, let me know!

A hand holding a framed map of Walden Pond up to a blue sky with a big leafy tree in the background

The story of yeiou paper places

Posted on
Three framed paper places on a wall near a potted plant

I started making Paper Places in the summer of 2019. I had already started making house portraits, and realized that I wasn’t going to be able to make enough of them to keep my business afloat. The idea came to me sort of abruptly and at the last minute. It was the night before a craft fair I was participating in nearby in Somerville, MA. I made a few maps of Somerville and some of the surrounding towns, working into the early morning hours the night before the event.

The next morning, I hung them up with my other work to see what would happen!

The yeiou paper objects booth popped up at Art Beat in Somerville, MA
My booth at Art Beat 2019, Davis Square, Somerville, MA.

Throughout the day I had a lot of fun conversations about how weirdly-shaped places are! I sold a few, swapped out some background colors, and generally felt encouraged.

When designing my Paper Places, I focused on making them in a way that felt clean and modern. I designed them to be easy to hang on a wall in a grouping without looking weird. Pulling from the bright color palette of my paper craft kits, I offered a bunch of different color options. Once I had all of that, I focused my efforts on adding new place designs. It turns out there are a LOT of places in the Boston area, let alone the world!

Nine maps of Boston neighborhoods: Back Bay, South End, Mattapan, Roxbury, Brighton, Roslindale, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and Hyde Park
A few of the many neighborhoods of Boston, MA.

Custom Paper Places

I very quickly realized that I could never keep up with all of the requests for new places, nor could I reasonably predict which places people might want! In order to fill that gap, I added the option to order a custom-designed Paper Place! It’s been fun over the years to make gifts for parents, siblings, children, real estate clients, and friends, near and far.

Nov. 2019, one of my last in-person events before Covid lockdown – so many Paper Places!

Three years of Custom House Portraits

Posted on
a paper model of a house on display

In March of 2018, I was really burnt out from a busy holiday market season that happened immediately after several months of working full time while gutting and rebuilding our new kitchen and then moving to our new house. After running at over 100% capacity for something like 8 months, I decided to take some time to play, experiment and breathe. I made paper out of other paper! I painted pictures on paper for no reason! I slept in! I cooked dinners and breakfasts! It was glorious.

I haven’t been able to take time like that since, though, because the other thing that came out of that quieter season was the beginning of the custom house portraits! Based on a custom project I had finished for a friend in mid-2017, I stumbled my way through creating the first house portrait, a model of our little house in Arlington, MA. I shared the process on Instagram as I solved fun challenges like “the angle of the roof is NOT what I expected it to be!” and since there seemed to be at least a little interest, I decided to give it a go.

Abigail holding her first paper house portrait

I used the photos of this house portrait to list my very first “Custom House Portrait” in my Etsy shop for $50. I limited this pricing to 5 orders, since that would easily cover the cost of materials and shipping, but it wasn’t too much for what was essentially an excuse to learn and experiment.

A few brave souls took me up on it, and I embarked on this weird journey of figuring out things like “How do I give depth to a roof that you can’t really see in the photo?” and “How do I get the roof and floor of a porch to actually line up with the porch columns?” and “Just how thin can I make this sliver of paper before it disintegrates?”

I thought these first house portraits were SO detailed! I thought there was no way I’d be able to fit more detail into something like this! I did eventually have to move to a larger format (11×14 inches instead of 8×8), but still, three years ago me had no idea how far this was going to go.

One of the questions I get asked is some variation of “you’ve made a bunch of these, you must be so fast at it now!”, but because I’m a detail-oriented perfectionist, what I actually learn from each new house portrait I finish is how to pack even more details in so that it takes even longer to finish! I wouldn’t have it any other way, though, and I’m very fortunate to have the world’s most patient customers.

I created 17 house portraits in 2018, 34 in 2019, 22 in 2020, and 13 so far in 2021.

Looking ahead

In 2021 I plan to continue accepting orders in batches of 5-6 commissions, opening orders once every 2-3 months at a day and time announced only to those who’ve joined my email list. This is the best way I have right now of keeping my work queue manageable. At the beginning of 2020 I had an order queue 5 months long, it was incredibly stressful! I’m also trying to give a fair-ish chance to everyone – the day and time changes for each launch, to account for different time zones, schedules, etc.

This month’s launch will stay at my current pricing, but there will be an increase of some amount for the next launch (hopefully June or July 2021). I’m also hoping to upgrade to a higher quality frame and glass, either as a part of the standard pricing or an optional add-on.

I keep talking about carving out time to take another break like the one that started this all back in 2018, just some time to recharge and rest, but with everything else going on this last year it’s been all I could do to just keep going with the bare minimum. Making something that people want and want to pay me to make has been such a delight – after many years of struggling to make this business viable with products that just didn’t sell very well, being suddenly too busy is an amazing problem to have, but it still feels like a new problem that I’m actively learning how to manage!

Checking in

Posted on
Hand holding a place marker in front of a custom Paper Place framed map art

Last summer’s political and racial unrest here in the U.S. kicked off a season for me of learning, listening, and reevaluating. I haven’t talked much about it here. Mostly because, well, I’m a naive white woman, and listening is what I feel like I need to be focusing on right now. If you’ve been following along though, you know I said I was going to do some things. I thought I’d take a minute to report back.⁠

  • I realized that even though in my personal life we have always made sure to prioritize generosity in contributing to organizations we care about, it wasn’t something I was doing as a business. ⁠Since June, I (yeiou paper objects, that is) have been making monthly contributions to a local organization that works to keep families housed, and also helps unhoused families find emergency and long-term places to live.⁠ I contributed a portion of each house portrait sale in 2020 to an organization in my town that distributes food to families in need (a need that grew exponentially in 2020). ⁠
  • Over the summer I also made a one-time contribution to an organization that was running a creative business incubator program for students, which was a no-brainer for me to contribute to, since my own business was bootstrapped by my husband’s income, not something I would have been able to do without financial support!⁠
  • In addition to these concrete things, I’ve been looking inward and reflecting, reading, learning, and having conversations about what it means to be white in this country, where the idea of “whiteness” even came from, the systemic atrocities of white supremacy, and how to move toward something better…all sorts of light things.⁠

This doesn’t feel like much in the grand scheme of things, but if you were curious, that’s the update!⁠

Oh, and P.S. Black Lives Matter⁠

And, if you’re interested, here’s some of what I’ve been reading / watching to broaden my horizons and to better understand the colonial and white supremacist backdrop of the world I’ve been raised and living in:

Reading & Watching List

Non-Fiction

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

Heartland

All the Agents and Saints

Stamped

American Harvest

The NYT 1619 Project

Fiction

Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Talents

Kindred

The Broken Earth Trilogy

The City We Became

Watching

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross

Thirteenth

Dear Georgina (I also want to watch their longer documentary, Dawnland)

This is of course just a tiny list in the grand scheme of things, I may add to it over time, but if you’re curious about other things to read and watch there are lists pretty much everywhere.

So Many Thanks – a free printable project

Posted on
a mantle with a sign that says happy hanukkah hanging from it

I first created this printable project as a fun Thanksgiving craft a few years ago, but this year it felt like a good thing to talk about on Veterans Day (Remembrance Day in Canada and the U.K.). I’ve been trying to be much more mindful of the world around me and specifically the struggles of people who aren’t just like me as sort of an ongoing personal project this year. Six years of working alone at home made my radius of awareness pretty small, it turns out! It took a pandemic, a major social justice movement, global Black Lives Matter protests, and a lot of thinking about my own privilege.

So, today, for the first time as an adult, I’m taking a moment to think about Veterans Day. Specifically, to think about it as more than just a day off, or a day when the post office is closed, or even a “bonus” day to get more work done. I don’t know what it’s like to serve in the military, but I know that every single person who has served or is serving has at a minimum given up time spent with their loved ones, and likely a lot more than that. Thank you, veterans, for all of the different sacrifices you have made. So many thanks.

Partially-assembled printed "So Many Thanks" banner

Whether you’re celebrating Veterans Day or getting a head start on Thanksgiving or have a random act of kindness to thank someone for, here’s a crafty way to do it:

Partially-assembled printed "So Many Thanks" banner

House Portraits: It’s all in the (architectural) details

Posted on
a person holding a piece of metal in front of a computer

Tiny architectural details fascinate me.

One of the reasons I love living in urban Massachusetts is the sort of details prevalent in neighborhoods full of homes that are over 100 years old. The more detailed, the better!

Do you like looking at old houses and hand-crafted details?

I sometimes get lost walking around my own neighborhood because I look up and around at the houses instead of down at the street signs and where I am going. It’s still dangerous for me to drive around in new areas because I really just want to stare at the houses! If you like looking at houses in your neighborhood, online, on TV, (This Old House, anyone?), or in any form of photography, you’ll know just what I mean.

The tiny details are the reason I kept creating house portraits

There is magic in the details, and bringing that to life is one of my favorite parts of creating an architectural portrait. I excel at picking out the details that make a home unique, no matter how small. 

Of course, your house’s design and the scale of the finished piece, how closely the proportions match the frame dimensions, and the quality of photograph all determine the level of detail that brings your home or special place to life behind the frame. But if there’s something special, like this weathervane, that makes the home yours, please make a note of it when you contact me! 

The artist's thumb and pointer fingers holding a tiny paper weathervane that looks like a bird in flight.

This weathervane is one of the microscopic details I’m most proud of. The bird is 0.34 in (0.86 cm) wide and 0.2 inches (0.48 cm) tall. The entire weathervane is smaller than my thumbnail!

Sometimes I get to fully build the details like this bird, but details with more dimension in real life force me to create some illusions. Take a look at the chimney below. Using 8 separately drawn and cut shapes of paper I created the illusion of depth using layering and subtle scoring and folding.

Detail of a custom house portrait showing a double chimney and how it attaches to the roof

It’s all part of the process

Hand-cut corners and lines also give miniatures the feel of the real place. This is where a house portrait becomes a house sculpture! The scrollwork on this roofline is all cut by hand. The detail is about half an inch wide and crafted from three separate intricately scrolled pieces and some shorter straight pieces.

Close-up of intricate scrollwork that will be part of a custom house portrait's roofline, with scraps and other in progress pieces in the background

What architectural details make your home unique? Be sure to point them out when you purchase a house portrait slot!

Join my email list to get updates on when orders open, and to learn a little more about the process. You can also visit my shop to see more architecturally-inspired paper art.

Celebrating the Family Home

Posted on
a model of a house with windows and doors

One of the things I love about creating house portraits is that it takes a beloved family home and allows you to carry it with you. Many of my clients commission portraits when they are getting ready to move, and particularly when they are leaving a childhood or long term home.

As parents get older, they often want to downsize to something more manageable—or just something that’s less work! Why not spend less time managing a property, and more time doing something you love?

While it’s understandable, downsizing can be bittersweet for everyone involved. An architectural portrait preserves not just an image of a home, but the physical proportions and feel in a tangible way. 

Art to Remember a Family Home

When a good friend’s mother decided to sell her childhood home and move down south, she was beside herself. She knew it was the right thing for her mom, but the home had been in her family for over 100 years. She wanted something to commemorate this big change, so she turned to art. 

At first, she commissioned a photographic family portrait in front of the home, but the family members covered up key architectural details. She also realized that a photograph, while lovely, reflected the weather and season just as much as the house. She wanted to be able to take the architecture with her and capture the details she loved. 

I sent her some of the images of past house portraits my clients commissioned for their parents. Each of these gifts evoked special memories, and one family was so touched they decided to commission a second copy.

House Portraits to Celebrate Home

The gift tag on this home says it all:

“Mom and Dad, we wanted to give you something to remember the house where we grew up and have so many wonderful memories.”

Finished house portrait wrapped with brown kraft paper and baker's twine with gift note on top

I shipped the completed house portrait directly to the parents after they moved from their longtime home (the left side of the duplex below), so I worked with their children to make sure that the unboxing and unwrapping experience would be special.

Hand holding a finished, framed house portrait on a light gray background.

Of course, you don’t have to wait for your parents to downsize to celebrate the place where they raised you. The house portrait below was an extra special milestone birthday gift from a daughter to her father. 

Finished house portrait on navy background in black shadowbox frame
Paper house portrait with navy blue background on top of scraps from the design process.

This next house portrait was also a birthday gift from kids to dad. This home hosted extended family for countless occasions ranging from Sunday dinners to the birthday party where dad was gifted this portrait.

Completed house portrait, framed, with an orange background.

I accept new house portrait commissions every two months or so. You can find more details on the House Portraits page, or join my mailing list to get more information on the house portrait process and how to prepare photographs of your house, you’ll also get updates in your inbox when orders will open again.

Reflections on a year of house portraits

Posted on
Porch detail of a custom paper house portrait

March marked the 12-month point from when I created my first paper house portrait. Since March of last year I’ve delivered 24 custom house portraits to art lovers in 7 different states. The commissions range from a famous church in Greece to a girlfriend’s childhood home in the Midwest, to a family’s vacation home in Florida, to a construction company’s office, and more. Several were gifted to clients or friends who just purchased a new home, or as a wedding, anniversary, or birthday gift. It has been remarkable to be a part of such momentous occasions in people’s lives, and be able to create an heirloom that will hopefully be a tangible reminder of the memories and relationships that center around these homes and spaces.

My primary observations after a year, in no particular order:

  • I’ve challenged myself to work larger. My original portraits were 8″ square, and lately I’ve been creating more pieces that are 11″ x 14″, and even one that’s 20″ x 20″. Working larger has allowed me to add more nuance and detail to the houses, since I’ve learned that one can only cut a piece of paper so small before it kinda just falls apart.
  • I’ve experimented more with using colored paper for different areas of a house, to add contrast between the roof and the walls, or the walls and the shutters. I look forward to exploring this more, and I’m currently trying to figure out how I can store more different kinds and colors of paper, so that I can expand what I keep on hand to include more colors that make sense for homes and buildings.
  • I’ve learned that porches are tricky to make, especially the kind with lots of posts and a roof. I can’t tell yet if it’s the sort of thing that will get easier with practice, or if every house portrait is so unique that every porch will be tricky. For one of my house portraits, I spent an entire day just trying to get the porch right. I may have to add an extra fee for houses with big porches, but I’m going to try a few more times first.

As I head into the summer art show season, I have temporarily shuttered my online shop so that I can focus on the house portraits already in my queue and spend some time coming up with fun new products (and hopefully making progress on organizing my workspace – it’s been a disaster for a long time). The shop will re-open mid-May, just in time for my first weekend of outdoor shows, the Bedford Plant & Art Sale and Inman Eats & Crafts.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

#100daysofpaperfun My 2017 100 Days Project

Posted on
a hand holding a piece of paper with the words 100 days of paper fun on it

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve likely seen me posting random paper projects for the last month or so. This random little goat “faux taxidermy” piece I created on a whim was sort of the impetus for the project:

I realized I have all sorts of random scraps and pieces and materials that I’m “saving” for a “special” project, and that in addition to the mental health benefits that come from doing something fun, it might be good to experiment and see if I land on any new product or project ideas.

I’m 32 days in, as of today, and it’s been really fun! I’ve made some random thing, tested craft kits and paper craft projects designed by other people, and had fun modifying and decorating my own products. Some days the open-ended-ness of “fun” is a little overwhelming, but I’ve been trying to be intentional about doing what feels good, and sort of following my energy (even if that meant taking a day off because I had no energy).

Highlights, in no particular order

I made a paper chicken, something that I’ve been meaning to work on for…a long time. 

I played with embroidery and cross-stitch on paper! I’ve been wanting to play around more with embroidery for a long time now, and combining that with paper was pretty awesome. Definitely planning on more of that in the future!

I made an Easter basket, by weaving strips of paper together:


 

I’ve also done a few experiments with cutting and folding tabs, this one was hand cut, so it has a nice organic feel (that’s what I’m telling myself, anyway), almost like fish scales or something. I’m thinking about ways these sort of shapes/tabs might be interesting as elements on a 3-dimensional form or on something flat, like a card, or maybe even a shadowbox? 


 

You can see the whole project at #100daysofpaperfun on Instagram, and basically everything I post there is paper fun, technically, so if that’s your jam, follow along!

If you’re looking for ideas to have some paper fun of your own, I’m collecting project ideas and finished projects on my Paper Fun Pinterest board.