Everything changing and remaining the same...

Just like a swan, I have been paddling away furiously under the water while appearing calm and unruffled on the surface. Unlike a swan I have got lost a few times along the way, got my feet caught in weeds and rubbish, forgotten where the brake is and gone ploughing into mud banks...etc. My point is for the past few months, as well as promising updates of new card ideas, resin jewellery making, and virgin screen printing attempts, I have been toying with the idea of dividing the Etsy shop into two separate entities - one of which would be a continuation of Paperpennies, but under a new name (that wasn't confined to paper, and didn't make people think of pennies!), and which would focus particularly on an Irish American audience (so my central product would be the embossed Claddagh Ring cards and prints...strictly no Leprechauns though!). This new Paperpennies is now called Irish Elements, and I even bought my dotcom, so www.irishelements.com will bring you to the Etsy shop-formerly-known-as-paperpennies-designs. The not parallel but perpendicular shop I am hoping to develop alongside this one will be Raurta Crafts. Raurta is a phonetic spelling of the Irish word Rabharta, which describes an exceptionally high or Spring tide, and also a burst of music or singing. In my case, I love it because it gives a nod to my location, surrounded and very much influenced by the Atlantic ocean; it incorporates the Irish language without making people trip over their tongues and start gurning in an attempt to get the pronunciation right! And I love the idea of a burst of creativity, unleashed - here's hoping!
However, I actually think I will leave this blog as Paperpennies, so that it can incorporate both shops and maybe be a more personal insight into what goes into making this all come together (again, hopefully), before the products appear all polished and primped on the Etsy shelf!

Anyway, apart from picking the names - which absolutely literally took me all summer, no lie - my only other tangible evidence of progress is my new shop banner and avatar for Irish Elements. You were warned, this is an embrace your Irishness shop, so it is all quite green and ethereal looking. But there is a slightly more subtle note in the little diamond shaped logo - meant to represent the four provinces of Ireland, mirroring the 4 classical elements of air, earth, fire and water, and also the fact that I hope to offer little 'elemental' nuggets of Ireland in paper, resin, print or supply format...See?! Here's the shop as of this morning:

In the works...

I am exhausted! There is a lot going on right now, and neither me or my cards are a priority. Still though, I have managed to get a little work done on an idea that has been niggling away at me - phonetic cards.
Questions include: what script to use? Colour? Paper/card? How much to say about the phonetics, the real spelling, the translation? Where to put all of this?

Well?!
Yes, it hasn't been easy. I have drawn up a script of my own, I wanted it to be more fun than the celtic script but still have some echoes of it in it...hmm. Not sure! As to ALL of the other questions, I am completely on the fence!

New Frontier!

2 sales in one day :)

Oh, actually it was 2 SHIPPINGS in 1 day, 'cos of the weekend...Still loved bundling off the two little packages though!

Also: work in progress "business cards" - round and made of paper = paper pennies...

St. Patrick's Day Card #2

This one took a little more 'thinking', and drawing up the knotwork was a bit difficult. I thought I HAD it but the embossing does muddy up some of the finer details (fun game, see if you can spot where...!) (Please don't!) I'll see if I can give it a bit of a touch up.

Also, curses, this paper I'm using has a smooth and a rough side...and I never know which I prefer for images and embossing...In these cards the textured side of the white card shows as the second panel of the flag, which works well as it leaves the writing side inside smooth. My mistake was in having the green smooth side out - what possessed me? I'll definitely try changing it next time.

But I do like this idea, of the tricolor...Yep, I think I probably definitely do.

Better, Brighter, Bluer

Le Grá, with Love. Not too gooey, right?

It is possible to click on the pics to see them a little bigger - so you can see the nice texture of the pale internal card especially. Not my doing personally!, but I think it's lovely...

Another Sale!!!

Lovely Lady number 2 has been in touch, and asked for 3 cards, and they are not even what I'd consider the nicest one of the Thank You cards, which makes it all the sweeter for me! Alas I don't have any blinkin' PAPER to make the cards, as we are suffering from the 'unprecedented' cold weather here on the edge of Nowhere, and I haven't seen civilisation in days...which includes a retailer of purty papers.
Never mind - there's always tomorrow :)

Growing pains

So I'm happy with the images, the paper/card, the 'design', the embossing idea and the end result...and the pictures look absolutely crap! Grr!
I did what I have read recommended: put taking the pictures off for three days until I had the time to do it in the morning light; changed the white balance on my sister's beautiful new camera; USED my sister's beautiful new camera - a panasonic lumix (sumthinsumthin), 8 optical zoom, 12 megapixel wonder machine...colour Blue! How could it fail?!
And yet, they all look awful. My only idea is to try taking them beside the big sliding door windows, as opposed to under the velux window upstairs, which I was convinced was a touch of genius by the way!
FINAL straw to be clutched at: it was pouring rain that day...although having said that when is it NOT going to be overcast during an Irish December?!

Not a bad pile of rocks!

That's right, you heard me: I kinda like the look of the dry stone wall below!
And when I say it's the simplest of the drawings, it actually still took quite a lot of effort, so thaya...
I'm all about the positives at the minute - trying to, I should say, against tremendous odds (why is my printer printing all the black bits rusty brown?)
Anyway, it would be exciting to have some actual CARDS to talk about at last!

Oh, there is an update: my paper-weaving idea does NOT look like much after the initial honeymoon period, boo! And anyway, I found some lovely paper which is as close to card as is possible while still being able to go through the inkjet printer, fingers crossed we are still on such good terms by the next post!

RESULT

Well, it isn't that dramatic really, in fact it's quite anti-climactic - or is it just that I am AWFUL at lighting for photographs?!
Anyway, these are a few attempts at different coloured cards and papers. I also had a simpler idea for the layout - I mean, I have limited ambition and imagination so I'm just printing the images and text using my cheap old laser printer, which obviously doesn't print on card. Sooooo, I want to combine the printed paper with the card, and I did it by cutting slots in the card and weaving the paper through to hold it in place; in these photographed cards there are 5 cut slots, so that the image is framed on the front of the card and the message is framed on the inside of the card, using one piece of paper printed both sides and no glue or other fiddly bits. The simpler version has just one slot cut into the crease of the card, and the paper slipped through.

I thought I was being smart and creative...but is it just silly?!

Happy hammering...

The holes are ready for the twisted paper to be threaded through, tied off, and hammered down flat.

(oh, that is a bread board - don't underestimate how effective these awls are! I know I won't...again!)

First stage of the first book

24 sheets of cartridge paper separated by 23 sheets of infuriating tissue paper, stacked and clamped with bulldog clips, and marked in anticipation of my banging out some of my tissue paper frustrations on it >:) !

Also my awl, a hammer (thanks Felicity), and a strip of the leftover tissue paper which will be twisted into a strong thin string and used to stabilise the book in advance of the cover being put on and my getting the hammer out again!

Cutting the Paper

Less sunshine, one bone folder, one quite-blunt kitchen knife (the cheap man's cobbler's knife), and 3 hours later - and all my paper has been folded and cut.



All the sugar-paper is in A4 size, because I will probably use it for kiddies books. I had intended that the cartridge paper be A6 size, (i.e. a quarter of an A4 sheet) for small cute note-books; but turns out the cartridge paper wasn't quite the A1 I'd expected, so all my folding and cutting will produce even smaller books than I'd intended!


So until I know if they will also be 'cuter', I only cut the final 2 of the 4 big sheets to A5 size (i.e. half an A4, or its equivalent).


But I'm hopeful - you can't see it in that picture I don't think, but it's actually really nice quality. If I can find a hammer sometime in the next day I may know by tomorrow what kind of final product they will make :)