Who Wouldn't Like a Canon?

Furkan is a Turkish artist who is "wandering with a lot of compositions in his mind" as he describes, but could never afford a Canon to fit them in an image. Then he started to think if he can't collect the money, he could collect the people who wanted the same thing to make his wish come true. So he is taking pictures of portraits of Istanbul, with his message in their hands: "Canon see him!"

He started his journey to take 2010 photos for a Canon and has taken 1500 portraits so far. You can see his journey in his blog here. By the way, I'll e-mail him to let him know about my blogpost and to ask where he is planning to take shoots through this week!!

Edit: He answered my e-mail superfast and told me he works in Mecidiyeköy and that it would be a pleasure for him to take a shoot if I can be around there on weekdays.

DIY Gift Box Tutorial

I came across to a DIY Gift Box Tutorial here and I tried it. It was an easy tutorial and it came out beautiful. You can see the result here in my previous post. But while I was doing it I realized I didn't have to bother this much fold-open moves and came up with an easier one. Here is the tutorial- with tones of pictures in place of words which might be deficient due to my English.

I am giving the measurements that I tried but you can change them for a box in different dimensions and sorry to explain it in metric standards but you know, it's not important at all! Just follow the instructions. (In case you need: 1 cm: 0.39 inch 1inch: 2.54 cm)
Here are the materials: Cardboard (thicker comes out better), scissors, glue, ruler, pencil, a piece of paper, embellishments

1. You will cut two different sizes of square cardboards for the box and its cover.

2. The perfect the squares are, the perfect the result is.

3. Cut a square cardboard measuring 20.5*20.5 cm (This is for the box)

4. Draw a square right on the middle of the cardboard measuring 8.5*8.5 cm as in the picture below. (means 6 cm inside from all the edges.) I hope the black lines are visible enough!

5. Cut another square cardboard for the cover measuring 19*19 cm (it is smaller than the one for the box because that way the cover will come out shorter than the box and will be easy to take of while opening- experience speaking! :)

6. Draw a square right on the middle of the cardboard measuring 9*9 cm (means 5 cm inside from all edges)
7. It is the same both for the box and cover after here.
8. Cut until the edge of the square inside- where the end of the scissors is as seen in the picture below)

9. Fold it clearly like this, following the lines.

10. Cut on the line near it as seen in the picture below.

11. Fold on the lines as below.

12. Cut and fold across them just the same. You can see below.

13. Now fold the right and left following the edges of the square inside as seen below.

14. Here is what it looks like when you all gather them.

15. Glue the ears (this is how I call them) inside. Put a piece of white paper under them while gluing so that you can glue the edges better without dirt around it. See below.

16. Paste them as in the previous picture where all of the "ears" are gathered.

17. Embellish :)

Just before I wrote this post I saw a thread in Etsy Forum asking whether anyone does DIY gift boxes and I think I need opinions on this one. I got a cardboard in this color because my Etsy shop is called "Derin Mavi" which means deep blue in English. So I wanted it to be matching. And I thought evil eye beads were suitable for embelishments because they are also blue and something from Turkish culture. Do you think it came out nice to send package to a customer? Or would you be turned off when you saw it? Should I add or change something?

Recently on my Online Business

I have another shop in Dawanda I opened a couple of months ago. I am trying to promote as much as I can to make a sale there as well. (Haven't made the first one yet!) While I was browsing on Internet at 2 a.m on a sleepless night, I was shocked to see one of my necklaces on front page when I opened the homepage of Dawanda. So I saved the screen, here it is :-) The second on top left:

Oh, there was an Etsian who asked for wholesale prices for two of my earrings in June to sell in her own handmade items website that she set up recently and was trying to develope. I have just got a message from her telling they sold both of them and asking whether they were one of a kind or not to place an order for more! First of all of course I am glad they did sell but not because it means an upcoming order for me, because they were both my own designs. I mean, I am not a designer (professionally). I don't have a degree on design at university. But I am designing since I can remember, I love colors, materials, esthetic. This is obviously because of my mother because yes, she IS a professional designer :-) It's the genes obviously :-))

And these are the two earrings she sold on her website: (I liked how she called them there!)

"Silk Road Earrings"

"Grappa Earrings"

You should check her website. Full of all handmade, original and adorable items. You can reach here.

Improving My Shop

I wrote about the importance of good packaging in my previous post. So I was off to buy some lovely supplies for a beautiful package after I wrote it. I got lemon green wrapping paper and a big bunch of raffia for only 3 Dollars. And I made a cute package using a tutorial I came across on internet. I am going to give that tutorial and the easier way I came up with while I was doing it in the coming post. Today it's just the result.

Oh by the way, I have just learned about a really cool promoting tool on Etsy Forum. It is a 30 second-video you make with images and a song you like in the background. (You can make a longer version as well, it's up to you!) If you own a shop and would like to feature your items, you pick 12-15 images, you choose the song and bam! there's your fun to watch video consisting of your items. CLUE: You know it is the music which creates or stregthen the feeling, so make sure it is matching with your items or your style. I picked a latin song called "Havana Rules" and I think it came out perfect! Here it is:
http://animoto.com/play/4s5MZvMxjlVpF1gqDMzX7w

I would love to hear your comments. You can leave there (under the video) as well!

I made a trade with an Etsy seller AddieDesigns to have a banner in exchange of one of my earrings. The banner came out great and now I know a great Etsy seller whom I can advise to others. She reminded me the importance of good treat to customers. You can see this is the way she works looking at the feedbacks left for her. You can see the new banner here.

I've been working on hair accessories for a little while, but the thing is I am desperately looking for a model to display them. (and the necklaces I have made before) I couldn't find yet and I think I won't so I guess it will be me in the end. Hope mom can take photos good enough! (She has no talent or experience taking photos at all!!)

And finally, we opened a second shop where there are only the works of my mother, meaning we seperated Derin Mavi. Her shop is called deiledesign. There are patchwork and cross stitch pillows, Turkish slippers and patchwork quilts for now. There's so much more to come.

Stay tuned :-)

"Packaging Says Something About You"

For those who are selling their handmade items online: I have just read this great article in "Etsy Storque" about "Packaging and Shipping" and got angry with myself having made the same mistake of undarvaluing something. If you also want to fix your mistake like I did, here's the article: Service Tips for Sellers: Packaging and Shipping

The package belongs to celestefrittata's shop.

I Should Have Thought of That!

"Bad Table" link

When I see a design I like, I always think about the process of how it was created, especially when it's a simple "but" adorable idea. Do you also think like "It's so simple, nothing complicated about it, but why couldn't I think of that..?" Yeah, but somebody did and it came out awesome!!

"Falling Bookend" link

I remember reading somewhere that "bringing things together that look like they have nothing to do with each other" is what fires the creativity.

I love sharing "cool designs" so there's always more to come in this blog!

"Tealight Pendant Light" link

"Someone's Cup" link

There's even better:

"Dirty Mug" link

Delicate Beauty: Needlelace (Oya)

I am a big fan of needlelace- and traditional clothing in general. I will make posts of needlelace samples I come across around or online from time to time. Needlelace is a traditional Turkish handcraft made to decorate cloths. I will start with some of them I saw two weeks ago in the "Mobile Turkish Culture House" built in Taksim Park where the "European Capital of Culture Istanbul Gathering of World Cultures and Youth" organization was held with guests from 20 countries for one week.

The woman I talked with in the "house" showed me needlelace decorated scarves and brooches which she collected from all over Anatolia. All of them were at least 30 years old and there were even 80 year-old ones. This pink&yellow flowered one on top is a bride's crown and 50 years old. Isn't it just beautiful?