August 27, 2012

Coming Together

This Odd Bird Studio thing is starting to feel real. Pulling together my wares with actual packaging and labels is solidifying. Does that make sense? (It makes sense to me, and as a friend's child said recently to his grammarian sibling, "you can't just un-sent my sentence." I love that.)

Packaging has caused quite the moral dilemma for me. Odd Bird Studio is all about reuse and earth friendliness, yet packaging is wasteful. The little bit of trash my household generates each week is almost entirely food packaging that I haven't figured out how to repurpose into something useful nor can it be recycled or composted. My attempts to stay green have led to a packaging compromise; reuse of picture framing waste. I'm using small pieces of mat board that have no value to picture framers. These small pieces would necessarily wind up in the trash or recycling bin. My labels are printed on the waste paper that is used to interleave sheets of glass. (Picture framing glass is generally packaged and shipped in large, flat boxes that hold multiple pieces of glass. To prevent scratching, thin paper is placed between each of the lites [as the pieces of glass are called]. ) If it were thicker, this paper could be reused by frame shops to wrap completed framing jobs. Unfortunately, it usually tears around the corners of the frame. So it, too, winds up in the trash or recycling bin.

For now I am using the stash of materials I saved from my time as an employee at Through This Lens in Durham, NC. (Why oh why did I donate most of the mat board scraps to Scrap Exchange and Recyclique before moving to Ohio?) I've made arrangements with a local frame shop, Village West Gallery & Framing, to collect materials for me as well. Many big thanks to Roylee Duvall and Tom Hogeback, owners of Through This Lens and Village West, respectively.

Last but not least in making Odd Bird Studio feel all growed up and official, non-homemade business cards. (not homemade? oh my!) Greener Printer is a green certified, carbon neutral printing company in California. Not only are the cards greener than I could make them myself, they look fantastic.

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