Last year I completed my 100 Days Project, “100 Days of Paper Folding” by reconnecting with my childhood experience of origami, and also exploring new forms and possibilities using the same tools and methods I use for all of my yeiou paper objects products. I’ve been feeling pulled toward experimenting more with mark-making and 2D mediums this year, though, so I’ve decided to organize this year’s 100 Days Project around a theme, rather than a medium or material.
I’ve been making and selling a small paper house gift box for the last year and a half or so, and have found that it is the box people are most likely to pick up and ooooh and ahhhh over at craft shows. It also consistently sells pretty well, which is awesome! I’d already been starting to explore with taking that basic form/concept and making variations of it – I make a paper barn gift box (which actually made its debut as part of the 100 Days project last year), and I’ve started to offer slightly different house designs in my Paper Village set. Then I had a conversation with my sister, who is currently a college freshman, and lives on campus at her school. I was talking about her taking something back with her from our house to her dorm room and said something like “you can take that home with you” which prompted a conversation about where “home” really is, and how split she feels between the “home” she grew up in, our “home” where she currently lives, and her dorm room, which is actually her current “home.” I’ve also been walking around our neighborhood more often lately, since it’s actually warm outside, and I’ve been noticing all of the homes for sale, which makes me think about all of the people who are moving in and out of new homes. I also love to look at houses and see the similarities and differences – one of my favorite things is to spot a row of houses that you can tell looked identical when they were built, but have now diverged wildly in color, shape, and size. I love to daydream about all the different families making different decisions about their homes.
So I’ve been thinking about houses, and I’ve been thinking about homes. How different they all are, both in structure and floorplan, and also in the intangibles…our memories of our spaces, the feelings of different places over time, all of the history the walls around us have seen.
And this all led me to pursue an exploration of 100 Days of House and Home as my project this year. I will be making tiny paper houses, yes, but I’m also going to explore 2D representation of my own home and places I’m connected to, both interiors and exteriors, just to shake it up.
