Christmas ornaments

Every year, my artisans cooperative sets up a big Christmas tree in the front of the market and we all make handmade ornaments to display and sell, while decorating a lovely, festive tree to welcome our customers. Since the cooperative has been in business for more than 30 years, it has become a local tradition that people come in and buy a new ornament for their tree every year. The challenge is that we, the artisans, have to come up with new ideas annually. It gets pretty tricky, especially when every artist is trying to stay within her medium, but it is a challenge that is really stimulating and pushes our creativity. I have been so enchanted by the creations I see every year that I can't help buying them for myself. I so look forward to opening the Christmas boxes and pulling out the ornaments because each one has a memory or story of the person who made it. There are some ornaments that are so pretty and special to me that I display them around my home year-round. Here are two of my favorites.

Mary Muncil made this sweet painted ball with such fine, patient strokes. I love the little details of the night landscape. You can just barely see the dark trees against the deep blue sky. There is a silvery river that snakes its way down to the bottom of the ball and ends in her signature. It is so simple but you can feel the attention to detail that she put into it and how much she cared to make it. It wasn't made quickly to slap on a price tag and turn into cash. It was made for the love of the creation and it so completely shows. I love it so much that it hangs from a sconce just outside my bathroom so I can see all the time.

Karen Koziol is one of my favorite artists. She makes mixed media sculpture that have such humor and wit. She made these little houses that sit on a windowsill next to my dining room table. As I have said in a previous post, there is something about a house that warms the soul. I love how she made them look really old.

I can't wait to open the Christmas boxes and find even more!

Steal like an artist

This is such a thought-provoking poster that, once I found it, I had to trace it back to its creator to find out more. I found this great Ted talk by Austin Kleon, the guy who said it and wrote a book with the same title:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oww7oB9rjgw

He says that all art is imitated and that nothing is original but that we need to make it ours. Steal like an artist doesn't mean an outright theft of something. It means to borrow from many places, and make something your own. He had a great quote about imitation not being flattery, but transformation is. When somebody takes the idea of something you created and elevates it and makes it better but also makes it their own, THAT is flattery. What a boring world it would be if all artists stole and made the exact same thing as the original. I love #5 the best, about how important side projects and hobbies are to art. I had an art teacher who said the same thing to me. She said if you live in a bubble and don't have life experiences, you can't create art. You have to have memories, feelings and stories to draw upon to create something with meaning. Amen!

I'm nesting

No, I am not pregnant. I am making these sweet little nests for the Christmas trees for several local shops. They are a different kind of ornament but I think they look fun tucked deep in the branches of the tree, with two little Robin's eggs snuggled together inside. The eggs are made out of plantable paper so that, after the holidays, you can save your nest for something else and plant the eggs to grow wildflowers. (You can save them for Easter and force inside with the kids.) The nests are made out of shredded money that I got years ago and a bit of paper pulp to bind everything together. I bet real birds would really like it!

I miss the front page!

Etsy (the web site that hosts my online shop) recently changed its design and I am missing the old Front Page. It was really something to actually have an item featured there, even if it was only for an hour. To have an item found amongst the millions of items and tens of thousands of shops and make it onto the cover page was exhilarating, especially when I didn't know it happened until I saw a huge spike in views in my stats and had a sudden burst of sales.

I remember the very first time I was on the front page. I found out because I suddenly was receiving emails from friends on FaceBook saying congratulations. I had no idea what was going on so I signed on to FaceBook and saw that there was a post (that looked like it came from me) announcing that I was on the front page of Etsy. To this day, I don't know how it happened. Etsy and FaceBook were somehow linked and communicating, and it was an automatic post from Etsy. I was kinda embarrassed that it looked like I was bragging, and I immediately took it down and changed all my privacy settings. Freaky.

Anyway, I was featured 4 or 5 times since I joined Etsy in 2008. This screen shot is the last time I was featured, in August of this year, for my plantable paper umbrellas.

National Pickle Day

Apparently, yesterday (Nov. 14) was National Pickle Day! Who knew?!

I am bummed that I missed it because I would have spread the word about a pickle that is very special to me. It’s the Christmas Pickle!

Believe it or not, I didn’t make it up. It is a tradition claimed to have been originated by the German but much more common in the States than in Germany. A pickle-shaped ornament (traditionally made of glass) is hidden somewhere on the tree. The child who finds it first on Christmas morning receives an extra present, gets the first serving of Christmas dinner or some other special treat.

In our household, the first one to find the Christmas pickle gets to open the first gift. Of course, as a paper-maker, I had to translate this quirky tradition into something related to paper. I made a mold for my pickle and then pressed green paper pulp into the mold. I pop the pickle out when it is fully dried, and add a piece of gold thread.

My paper pickle comes with the following explanation:

On Christmas Eve, hang it on the tree
while all are sleeping - do it surreptitiously.
On Christmas morn, don’t get miffed.
The one who finds it gets to open the first gift.
© www.PulpArt.Etsy.com

The whole thing cracks me up and I would love to meet the person who started a tradition involving a pickle. That's the type of person I would really like.

SEP IRA

This post is for all the self-employed artists out there who might find this financial goodie helpful in saving money. Mr. Papermaker and I met with our various money people and found out about this thing called an SEP IRA. It is for self-employed people who want to contribute to their retirement. I learned that I can put up to 25% of my net profits into a special IRA, which will benefit me in multiple ways: I save for retirement since I don't have an employer doing it for me; I avoid paying 15% of my profits to the government, which employers usually pay, and I have less taxable income. Win-win!

I am not a financial advisor so don't take my word for it — go talk to the professionals you use — but I am really excited about this option for me. The great thing is that it is really flexible so I don't have to make a contribution until I do my taxes and figure out my net profit and how much I want to put in, and it can change every year. Psyched!

To wholesale or not to wholesale

Picked up an order of my greeting cards at the printer today to replenish my dwindling supplies. I order my cards in small batches when I am running low on a particular style and I am almost out of 4 different Petal People lines. I am starting to save my pennies up so I can make a very large print run of all 11 of my card lines at once. I have had a few stores contact me about wholesale orders but I just can't wholesale when I print in small batches. If I spend a few thousand dollars, I can make a print run that is big enough so that my cards will cost only cents each. Now where did I put that lottery ticket?!