Stars and Stripes
Early in November of last year we received our first major commission: 25 flowers with pin backings. Needless to say we were pretty psyched!
Only problem was they were all Star and Stripes flowers which are my design. Though Sam and I are capable of folding each other’s designs, for the sake of simplicity we prefer to keep to our own flowers; so this was all on me.
On the upside, there was plenty of time: about a month.
On the downside, I was in the middle of my first NaNoWriMo and was seriously lacking in free time.
We decided since the flowers weren’t due till the third week in December that I’d finish off NaNo and then hit the flower-folding really hard come December 1st. This actually worked out well – I was able to use the time and discipline I’d acquired during my marathon writing spree towards folding flowers.
It worked best for me to make at least two flowers in one sitting. In the beginning this took 50 minutes but after the first 10 (or 15) flowers I was able to get it down to 40 minutes a pair. I could in theory make two before work and two in the evening when I got home; but as we weren’t that pressed for time I typically stuck to folding in the evenings. I could go nuts on the weekends though and crank out a whole bunch of them.
This frantic fold-fest also did wonders for my technique. Sam has always rocked the sewing skillz on the flowers. I tend to sew a titch too tight which makes for uneven petals or distorted flowers. After having her explain her particular technique to me, I put it into practice (with gusto!) and I was finally able to produce just the proper “mouse ears” (as we call the common round fold that’s used for many of our flowers). It was most satisfying!
I folded the 25th flower the weekend before they were due. An evening was spent gluing on the backings and voila! Our first commission was in the bag!
It was really a great experience for us both – I got to see what I was capable of and Sam was able to monitor my progress and cheer me on, taking mental notes as to how she’d tackle such a task herself.
Having time on our side really did wonders for making this particular project quite enjoyable. It was just enough of a crunch to keep me on my toes but not so tight a schedule as to make me feel panicked.
We so can’t wait for our next big commission!