What can I say, it has been a bird feeder weekend. Something I learned from my father is that it is very easy to put together your own bird feeder. Using what I remembered from him, I grabbed a branch of Birch tree and hollowed out a few holes, filled them with a peanut butter and bird seed mixture, popped in some nails as posts for the birds to perch on when they are eating and hung it from the tree.

Now we have five different types of bird feeders and I hope it will attract a wide variety of birds.

Since I’m just now getting the chance to post about this bookmark I thought I’d take some time to share the process I went through to create this bookmark – albeit simple. Sometimes, and maybe this is only true for me, we look at things at being too difficult or involved to have the time to do instead of just giving it a try. This is usually the case for me and any art project I plan on doing. By sharing the process I’m hoping to debunk that myth a little. Making these little art projects can be both fun and not take up too much of your time.

I started out searching Flickr for bookmarks, geishas, and anything I thought that would inspire me to create this bookmark. You can rummage through my favorites on Flickr to see anything that I’ve found on Flickr that I find inspiring. Somewhere in there are a few elements that I pieced together in my mind in order to create this project. A geisha drawing here, a Japanese sign there, and I ended up with an idea.

Next, I began to make rough sketches (pictured above, click the photo for a larger view) of how I wanted to draw the geisha for the bookmark. I tried four different styles. One that had an umbrella, which didn’t turn out well. One that was a more anime/kid-like take on a geisha that I believe is from a current cartoon that I didn’t think fit with this project. And one that I ultimately settled on. Once I found the style I thought I liked the best, I sketched it a second time for practice.

I then outlined the geisha on a corner of small 140lb. watercolor paper. This gave me two straight edges off-the-bat and made it easy for me to make two simple cuts to finish the project. Using my simple set of watercolors I painted the geisha and was done. In retrospect my “keep it simple” approach worked well for this bookmark though I would have liked to experiment with making a “crazy” or “detailed” edition of this bookmark. Maybe next time.

Told you it was simple, but it was a lot of fun, and Eliza liked it!

I really think I just like the idea of creating dolls that “cheer you up because they are so sad looking”.  That and I think these would make great gifts for kids because they are cheap, made for each person you’re giving them to, and get away from the normal dolls that we see today that are all about high-fashion and bull crap.

PDF: Download the PDF for the doll.
Source: Make Your Own Sympathy Doll on Viddler.

While at Podcamp Hawai’i Eliza and I met a lot of interesting people from all over the globe. One man, Richard Alexander, had a pretty exciting story to tell. You see, he’s into origami. He and his partner, Michael LaFosse, own a studio for working with handmade paper to create stunning works of art.

Richard Alexander, Origamido Studio. International Market Place Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii.

Many of the works by the Origamido team are made with single sheets of paper made from materials that they’ve gotten from all over the globe. A remote desert, materials from Japan, and wood from a rain forest, are only some of the examples I heard Richard speak of. The two photos I’ve included in this post show how realistic their work turns out. Each of these examples, the bat and goldfish, are made from a single sheet of paper. Amazing.

The exciting part of Richard’s story is that they are moving from Haverhill, Massachusetts to Waikiki, Oahu, Hawai’i. Richard’s reason for being at Podcamp was so that he could learn a little bit about New Media, and how he could leverage it to promote their new 2,000 sq. ft. space in the International Market Place in downtown Waikiki.

While Eliza and I (more Eliza than I) were doing laundry at one of the local laundromats, of all things, Richard Alexander walked by. He had just signed the lease on his new space and the laundromat was directly in-between the location of the new space and his apartment. I was eating a Puka dog. Richard, walking by, says: “Colin?”. We were both surprised that we bumped into each other again. He immediately offered to take us over to see the new, completely empty space that he had just signed the lease on. I’m looking forward to returning to see what he and his team end up creating there.

If you get a chance, and are in Waikiki, head down to the International Market Place and visit Origamido on the second-floor. I think you’ll be more than impressed with what they do.