Moving on...

Remember that stack of text blocks? They are finished. Phew. Moving on to new things now.

Congratulations to the Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered Blue Ridge Origami's giveaway. Jeanne is offering a 10% discount on purchases in her shop until April 15th - just use the coupon code MARBLED10 at the checkout! Two winners have been randomly selected, using a random number generator at Random.org and the first winner is Maegan Morin (comment #7) and the second winner is Dolores (comment #29). Congratulations! Also, thank you Jeanne for sharing her story and generously offering to have an earring-giveaway here on my blog.

Blue Ridge Origami, peace cranes for Zambia, and a giveaway too!

Last year, I met an origami artist who was looking for marbled paper to use for her origami cranes. The paper that I normally marble is meant for bookbinding, and would be too thick. So I marbled a special batch of lighter-weight papers for Jeanne, of Blue Ridge Origami. Jeanne started making origami cranes as an inexpensive giveaway for a trade show event, but afterwards took the extra cranes to the hospice where she works. There, the cranes were given to patients and families where they became very popular and much appreciated. Jeanne also told me that several years ago, her hospice "adopted" the country of Zambia. She said, "we have been working hard since then, fundraising, educating, etc. The first trip to Zambia was made by my boss, our Chief Medical Officer, and our VP of Clinical Ops, an RN. With them went over 50 cranes, which flatten nicely and don't take up much room or weight in a suitcase. Today many of those cranes hang in a children's play room at the main hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. Many made out of Rhonda's beautiful marbled paper." She has also refined her skills to make tiny cranes, as small as 1 inch! These tiny cranes are perfect for earrings and she's also started making other tiny origami figures like stars and flutes. Now she makes origami earrings to sell at craft fairs and on Etsy, donating some of the proceeds to the Zambia fund raising efforts. I am really impressed with these tiny origami figures she's making. I've done some folding, but I know my fingers cannot manipulate paper so small! Also, learning about her efforts to support medical assistance in Zambia makes her peace cranes even more special. I'm glad I was able to contribute a few unique sheets of marbled paper for her to use.

A Giveaway!

When I asked Jeanne if I could feature her origami work on my blog, she graciously agreed, and generously offered to giveaway two pairs of earrings to my blog readers! There will be two winners, selected randomly. The first winner can pick a pair of earrings from Jeanne's shop (up to $18 value). The second winner can pick a pair of earrings from her shop (up to $15 value). Shipping will be free to USA and Canada. There are two ways to get your name into the draw. If you do both, your name will go into the draw twice. First, you can visit her Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/BlueRidgeOrigami) and decide which pair of earrings you would pick if you win. Come back here and leave a comment, including a link to the earrings you like. Second, you can visit Jeanne on Facebook (www.facebook.com/BlueRidgeOrigami). "Like" her page, then have a look at her wall posts where she shows some of her earrings, and "like" your favorite. Then come back here to my blog and leave me a comment to tell me about it. When you leave your comment(s) here on my blog, be sure there is a way for me to contact you if you win. Enter before March 24th (midnight) to get your name in the draw. Winners will be posted here on Sunday, March 25th.

An Amazing Paper Swap

In January, I signed up for a paper swap with nine other marblers from around the world. Barb Skoog, organized this swap (thank you!) and I'm so glad that I decided to participate. I'm still relatively new to marbling and I really appreciate the work of other marblers. Each marbler has his/her own style and I will never tire of seeing other people's work. But, as Barb so wonderfully explained on her blog, it is one thing to see pictures of other marbling, and it is entirely another thing to have an actual physical sheet of marbled paper in one's hands to feel and examine closely. To do a paper swap, just means that each participant sends a sheet of paper to each of the other participants. There were ten people participating, so I sent out paper to the other nine people. And I received nine in return (actually, eight marbled papers and one piece of marbled fabric). Marbled treats in the mail! Each of the participants have kindly given me permission to share photos of their marbling here on my blog.

(c)Robyn Drew

(c)Yehuda Miklaf

(c)Sue Cole

(c)Marc Horovitz

(c)Barb Skoog

(c)Kathryn Fanelli

(c)Elin Noble

(c)Dolores Guffey

(c)Louise Brockman

Visit Barb Skoog's blog to see the nine papers that she received - all different than the ones I just showed you, and all equally amazing!

Marbling Demo

I'm a little late sharing this, but here it is. On January 26th, I did a paper marbling demo for a local television show. Here I am, hoping that the carageenan size didn't get too sad during it's early morning, and very cold, journey from my house to the tv studio. Before the live demo, I had to set up the materials on a rolling counter, near the back door with a nice cold draft coming in. Not ideal conditions for marbling in a shallow pan! But, everything turned out fine.