Craft Industry Alliance & Podcast Interview

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Abigail McMurray, yeiou paper objects, standing in workspace holding finished framed paper sculpture

One of the things I love about living in the Boston area is how many other small creative businesses there are around here. Many are even run by kind, brilliant, energetic people who are game to share and learn and be welcoming and generous. Since I started yeiou with really no idea what I was doing, I have always been curious to hear other people’s stories and processes and peek “behind the scenes”. Early on, I discovered Abby Glassenberg’s blog, While She Naps. I really appreciated how open she was about how her business works, what work earns money, how things shift year over year, and just generally being frank about the realities of working solo. When Abby co-founded and launched a professional organization, Craft Industry Alliance, I jumped at the chance to be part of something created out of this attitude of generosity and open sharing!

CIA is a great organization for people in the craft industry, especially those making and designing kits or patterns, but even as my business has shifted from craft kits to fine art, it is still a valuable conversation to be a part of, and they’re adding new benefits all the time – discounts on tools and services, exclusive online courses and webinars, and ways to interact with the community. So good!

If you’re interested, you can join Craft Industry Alliance.

The CIA Podcast Interview

One of the other great services of the CIA is the podcast! The podcast grew out of the podcast Abby had been running as part of her blog for years but has been migrated recently to be an official part of the Craft Industry Alliance. There are so. many. good. interviews on this podcast. A lot of them are geared toward fibers/fabrics/knitting sorts of people, but Abby’s interviews always touch on the business side of things, so there’s great learning regardless of your specific interests.

I had the immense honor of hosting Abby at my studio/home in December. We had a wonderful conversation that aired on the podcast earlier this month. I still can’t really believe my face is on the Craft Industry Alliance Podcast page with so many of my small biz heroes, but it did happen, and I figured I should mention it here!

In my interview, we chatted about how I ended up making house portraits, how the Etsy Design Award nomination game around, and how I came to be someone who works for myself making things out of paper, among other things! You can listen to the podcast below, head over to the Craft Industry Alliance site to listen, or listen on your favorite podcast app!

Many thanks, again, to Abby and to Craft Industry Alliance. I am so thrilled to be a part of all of the good things you’re doing in the world!

Paint Chip Paper Art Commission

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a sign that is on the side of a wall

I like to say that I can make anything out of paper, and every once in a while I get an inquiry that challenges that statement! A client reached out a few months ago to see if I could create a logo out of paint chips. Of course I said yes!

Even before I started this paper crafting adventure I’ve been a fan of paper art and paper illustration. There are so many talented artists out there making amazing work, like Nikki McClure’s beautiful black and white cut paper illustrations, this Sherwin Williams advertising campaign, and a huge range of work by the members of the Paper Artist Collective.

It was so interesting to learn how to work with paint chips, which require a slightly different handling than plain paper. It was exciting to work with such a range of colors, since I tend to work mostly with white paper. And it was a fun challenge to pull the whole thing together.

Etsy Design Awards 2019 & Custom House Portraits

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a paper model of a house with the words easy design awards on it

Earlier this year, Etsy put out a call for entries for their first ever “Etsy Design Awards” or “The Etsies”. I submitted my custom house portraits to the contest, and then went on with my summer. Between keeping up with commissions as they came in, and making sure I had inventory for my summer events, my days were full!

I got a call late summer letting me know that Etsy chose me as a finalist. Out of all of the entries, my house portraits were chosen as one of the 150-ish finalists! There are some amazing items in my group of finalists, the “Creative Collaboration” category, all products that are custom or customizable.

When the winners were announced at the end of September, I was thrilled to see my custom house portraits in the “Honorable Mentions” category of the list – what an honor!

I’m now focused on getting through all of the orders I promised in time for holiday gifting, and orders are still coming in for shipping in early 2020.

As part of the publicity around the Design Awards, I was interviewed in my studio by our local NBC news station. We talked about the Etsy contest and I shared a little peek behind the scenes. They filmed me going through each step of the custom house portrait creation process. It was so much fun to spend a few hours in my studio with the crew! They did a fabulous job telling my story, and you can watch the video here:

It was pretty well-received, so I listed a trial run of 5 houses for $50 each in my Etsy shop, and figured that given the overwhelmingly positive response, they would sell pretty quickly. Three of the five sold in the first few days, and then, maybe because I stopped talking about them for a while because I was busy working on them, the last two orders took a while to come in. Since then I’ve sold a few at what I’m calling my normal price for now, $150, as well as some special commissions with colors and other details that for now I’m quoting on a case-by-case basis.

This has been such a fascinating process. It’s such a different kind of work – more like the graphic design work I used to do, where I’m working directly with another human being to make something that they hopefully find beautiful and meaningful – unlike my product design work where it often feels like I’m making things, throwing them blindly into the world, and hoping the right person comes along and buys them! I’m still processing that, and feeling out what this change means for me and how I work and how yeiou exists in the world.

Heading into the holiday season, I’m feeling a little uneasy about the new breadth of my body of work – I’ve also added one-of-a-kind framed paper pieces to my repertoire. They are a lower price point than my custom house portraits, and help me build my skills and invent new techniques for rendering architectural details in paper…and I think they’re quite beautiful, too! But they’re another “thing” that I do, and it’s all quite hard to explain to random people I meet without pulling out my phone to show pictures!

At in-person events these additions feel risky to me, because I’m still figuring out how to tell a cohesive story about my full range of work. In the past, the story my display told was about creativity and the therapeutic qualities and infinite possibilities of crafting. It was all “yay” banners and bright colors. Now, my display is still mostly fun and colorful and enthusiastic, but there are also a few one-of-a-kind pieces that tend to be mostly white-on-white and about details and subtlety, as well as information about custom house portrait orders! It’s a lot to process, and I realize that, and I’m just going to go forward with the faith that I will figure it out eventually.

Anyway, because I wanted to see them all together, and maybe you do, too, here are all of the house portraits I’ve completed so far, in the order they were created:

Windows: A riff on Victorian-era architecture

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a white and black frame with a window on it

I’ve been obsessed with houses and architecture since I was a child, always staring out the car/bus/train/plane window, paying attention to what the buildings look like where ever I go. I never actually studied architecture, though, so it just became an observational past time.

When Brian and I moved to the east coast about 10 years ago, it was pretty mind blowing to suddenly be surrounded by historic homes and buildings, some of which pre-date the formation of the United States. Extra mind-blowing, there are buildings from that era that are used for things like housing college freshmen! Anyway, I love looking at buildings.

When I started working on my paper house portraits earlier this year, I began by focusing on the big picture, figuring out perspective, and making sure the house ends up being the right shape—I added some details here and there, but it was mostly about the shape/form of the house and the dramatic shadows for the windows and other cut-out elements.

With each piece I created, though, I found myself adding more and more little details, and wishing I could add even more! But when you’re trying to create a whole house in an 8×10″ or even 11×14″ space, there’s only so much detail you can add with bits of paper!

As I’ve been observing all of the different architectural styles in my neighborhood and on trips this summer, I realized that one area where buildings really show their character is in their windows, so I decided I would experiment with creating pieces that show a window and really hone in on all the details. My long term plan is that by making larger versions of architectural details, I’ll be able to make them more detailed when they’re smaller as part of a paper house portrait, too.

I began by researching Victorian era window styles*, and collected inspiration images from real windows as well as doll house window designs. Once I had my reference material, I designed the basic elements to create the multi-paned window, the moulding around the window frame and up the sides, and the decorative pieces above and below the window. I’ve been using those same building block pieces, and then adding additional pieces or modifying pieces, to create a series of Victorian-inspired paper windows. *To be clear, by “research” I mean I did a Google image search and collected some of the images that popped up with that search.

I try to keep one or two of these in my shop, but since they’re all one-of-a-kind that can be a little tricky as we approach the end of the year. If you’re interested in a window and there’s nothing in my shop, email me and I will let you know what I have in stock, or make one special for you!

Welcome to the neighborhood (of little paper houses)

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Spruce Land Paper Neighborhood Craft Kit by yeiou paper objects

I launched my little paper villages last spring, and didn’t really have a plan for them. They were an evolution of my generic little paper house design. I was selling them singly or in sets, and people seemed to really like them, and be interested in more variety of design. The first village combined a mini version of my paper barn and animals kit with two pretty basic little houses, and I added three more village designs over the last year and a bit.

I realized a few months ago, though, that calling them “Village Number Two” or “Village Number Three” was not only kinda lame, it meant that as I grow my product line I have to decide whether to just increment the numbers, or replace the existing #1 with a new design….it felt confusing just thinking about it!

So, I sat down with my chief strategy advisors a.k.a. my husband, Brian, and our cat, Bash:

Brian had the brilliant idea to name each kit after different trees that grow in the New England region. It seemed fitting to name these paper products after the plant they come from. Bash just knocked things on the floor. He was definitely less helpful.

We landed on tree-themed street names, specifically. The neighborhood I grew up in had a mix of trees and states for street names, so it reminds me of my home town, but lets you also imagine your own neighborhood around these kits.

The original village kit is now “Spruce Lane”, a nod to the less-saturated colors and cooler feeling:

Spruce Lane - yeiou papercraft neighborhood

“Beech Street” for this kit that feels very New England summer:

Beech Place yeiou papercraft neighborhood

“Village #3” became “Willow Road”, a nod to the bright, light, springy feel of this color combination:

Willow Road yeiou papercraft neighborhood

Village #4, all decked out in heart-shaped windows, is now “Pine Drive”:

Pine Drive yeiou papercraft neighborhood kit

These little neighborhoods are also begging to be made into a map, so stay tuned for that – just have to figure out what to call it! Yeiouville? The Village of Yeiou? Yeioutown? Let me know if you have a brilliant idea!

Fun, Free, and made of paper!

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Free Papercraft Watermelon by Mr. Printables

I discovered Mr. Printables when I was collecting ideas for my Paper Fun Pinterest board. There is a TON of content on the site. They have everything from calendars in the shape of a weird accordion rabbit thing to 3-dimensional paper alphabets to decorations for every conceivable holiday.

I’ve tried a few of the free paper craft projects as part of my #100daysofpaperfun project this year. I found the quality of the templates to be a little hit or miss, but you can’t beat the price! The illustration/surface design is lovely and fun, and some of the ideas are really creative. My frustrations were more with ease of assembly. Sometimes the flaps are pretty small, and it’s always tricky to get the last flap adhered when you’re working with closed shapes like the fruit.

My favorite so far has been the paper fruit. I’ve assembled the paper watermelon and a paper lemon. There are a few more paper craft fruits printed and waiting to go. I think the kiwi is next!

Papercraft lemon and watermelon

I also experimented with the 3D alphabet a little. Ultimately, I decided that while it’s a great resource, if I want to make 3D paper letters, I’ll be happier making my own!

Papercraft alphabet - the letter 'y'

#100daysofpaperfun My 2017 100 Days Project

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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.