Perfume and Packaging
Don’t you hate it when you have great plans and they go south before you can do anything about it?
I’ve watched others release all these limited edition fragrances and I sort of feel like that’s a hardship on people going through a lot of financial crap as most of us in the United States are. So while I was reading a book on Japanese paper crafts (which isn’t a ‘sideline’, I’m actually a book/paper artist on top of my regular painting), I came across a mention about how this one particular ‘special’ paper from Echizen Prefecture was so fabulous that it was reserved for the Emperor. They went on to describe the paper as looking like “quail’s eggs...with its speckled light blue surface”.
That rang a bell. My original plans to have this gorgeously laid out house were screwed about ten years ago when I moved a huge black metal paper safe into the living room. But I pulled out some of the drawers, looking for this “bird’s egg speckled paper” I bought in 2004. Because, you know, I remembered it was “Echizen Washi” and it was in fact the very paper the book was describing.
I got really excited, because I had these plans about revamping my bottle labels and the bottles and I had this great idea for making my perfumes both affordable and a real value to people (which I can still do, but...). I called Dolphin Papers and they confirmed they had Echizen Washi, but the paper size was about a half-sheet to what I already had.
I went down the next day to purchase about twenty sheets of it and was told they didn’t have it, that the person answering the phone was “new” and therefore didn’t know what he was talking about. The owner apologised and told me how Echizen Prefecture closed down all their exporting of handmade papers several years ago.
Colour me bummed. I can still do/use my idea with the perfumes, but I’ll have to rethink the labeling. Still, it would have been gorgeous with the Echizen Washi. I’ll relay my plans and the offer I’ll have for you all once I decide on a replacement label paper-I don’t want to spill the beans now for fear the idea will be stolen.
More anon.
I’ve watched others release all these limited edition fragrances and I sort of feel like that’s a hardship on people going through a lot of financial crap as most of us in the United States are. So while I was reading a book on Japanese paper crafts (which isn’t a ‘sideline’, I’m actually a book/paper artist on top of my regular painting), I came across a mention about how this one particular ‘special’ paper from Echizen Prefecture was so fabulous that it was reserved for the Emperor. They went on to describe the paper as looking like “quail’s eggs...with its speckled light blue surface”.
That rang a bell. My original plans to have this gorgeously laid out house were screwed about ten years ago when I moved a huge black metal paper safe into the living room. But I pulled out some of the drawers, looking for this “bird’s egg speckled paper” I bought in 2004. Because, you know, I remembered it was “Echizen Washi” and it was in fact the very paper the book was describing.
I got really excited, because I had these plans about revamping my bottle labels and the bottles and I had this great idea for making my perfumes both affordable and a real value to people (which I can still do, but...). I called Dolphin Papers and they confirmed they had Echizen Washi, but the paper size was about a half-sheet to what I already had.
I went down the next day to purchase about twenty sheets of it and was told they didn’t have it, that the person answering the phone was “new” and therefore didn’t know what he was talking about. The owner apologised and told me how Echizen Prefecture closed down all their exporting of handmade papers several years ago.
Colour me bummed. I can still do/use my idea with the perfumes, but I’ll have to rethink the labeling. Still, it would have been gorgeous with the Echizen Washi. I’ll relay my plans and the offer I’ll have for you all once I decide on a replacement label paper-I don’t want to spill the beans now for fear the idea will be stolen.
More anon.