Custom work

I recently had a customer ask me to make a custom card for a friend's birthday. As you know, I love custom orders! He wanted a sleeping girl in a bed because his friend slept a lot, but aside from that, I was given free rein. I thought it would be really cute to have a bird by her window singing 'happy birthday' (an idea he liked as well), and then it was figuring out how to sketch out the scene and which papers to use. I went through a few origami papers before I settled on this green floral piece. I also went through several shades of yellow for the curtains and several shades of blue for the bird before I picked these final ones. And voila! A new custom birthday card! When I showed it to my husband, he said, "I think you can relate to the theme of this card, too."

New work

Now that the wholesale rush has slowed down, I have time to make new things again. This Rumpelstiltskin card was made at the request of a friend of mine. It was fairly easy to pick which scene to illustrate - Rumpelstiltskin spinning the straw into gold - but the more difficult parts came in deciding the color scheme. I also had to figure out how a spinning wheel worked - and what it looked like - in order to portray it accurately here. It was a lot of fun!

In 2009, my husband bought me a wooden giraffe from the Ukraine. It's painted blue and orange and it can move when you press the bottom of its stand. I loved it and since then had been wanting to make a giraffe card. I had trouble conceptualizing ideas for giraffes, though - until now! The idea behind this card is "Thanks a bunch!" with the taller giraffe helping the smaller one by grabbing onto a branch ("bunch" of leaves) that the smaller one can't reach.

Missed Opportunities

Little-known fact about me: In 2005, I started a blog called New York Brain Terrain. The blog focused on spotlighting intellectual and cultural events in New York, and was inspired by Adrienne Crew's L.A. Brain Terrain. I'd read about LA Brain Terrain in a news article and, finding nothing of that sort for New York, decided to start my own.

I built up a readership through Craigslist, word-of-mouth, commenting on other literary blogs, and eventually got several features through the Manhattan User's Guide, Gothamist, and a few other media outlets. I loved writing the blog. It gave me an outlet for creativity and for intellectual stimulation, something that was sorely lacking in the entry-level editorial assistant position I held at the time. After a year, I started to hold interviews with several authors, editor Nan Talese, and other personalities. Then, in 2008, for personal reasons and law school, I shut the blog down.

Looking back, I can see there was so much untapped potential in New York Brain Terrain. I could have found a way to make it my full-time job. I could have finagled a book deal out of it. But I didn't. Why didn't I do that?

For starters, I never saw New York Brain Terrain as something I could do full time. Even though I entertained fantasies about it, I never really thought that it would be possible to do it. As a result, I limited myself and the possibilities for New York Brain Terrain.

Second, I was more interested in trying to either find a way into the trade publishing industry or in becoming a published author of fiction. These goals blinded me and prevented me from realizing that I had a good thing in New York Brain Terrain and that I could make something of it. It's the classic mistake that distinguishes lucky people from unlucky people.

Why am I bringing this up now, 4 years after I shut down the blog? Well, first of all, reading through The Skool of Life triggered these flashbacks to New York Brain Terrain and what it might have been. Second, I feel like I've been going through the same thing with Chelleline Cards - although this time, I do realize I'm onto something with Chelleline Cards and I have developed Chelleline Cards' potential much more than I ever did with New York Brain Terrain. But what's been frustrating me are my conversations with my father. I didn't announce it here, but I published a legal article in the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society a year ago and it won an award in February. Since then, my dad has been trying to pressure me to do more research and try to find work with law professors in the hopes that it will eventually land me a law professor gig. I agree that it's a good idea for me to do research, since I do enjoy it, but I'm not going to work for a law professor and help someone else advance their career, nor do I have any desire to be a law professor (An English literature professor, yes - and one of my biggest regrets is going to law school instead of to one of the English Ph.D. programs that accepted me - but that's another story for another day).

I don't blame my dad for his opinions. He only wants what's best for me, within his understanding of the world. And to be fair, in many people's understanding of the world, entrepreneurship does not fit into what's "stable" or "best" for someone. However, I've been working at Chelleline Cards long enough to know that there's a better world out there, one that doesn't involve settling for a job that society would approve of. I'm not going to chase legal jobs that I don't even know if I want when I have a good thing going with Chelleline Cards. I will not let myself make the same mistake that I made with New York Brain Terrain. The ego-driven pursuit of a life that looks good on paper was what led me to apply to and attend law school in the first place. It caused me to ignore my dreams - not just the English Ph.D. but also the unconventional but also very real possibilities lying in New York Brain Terrain and my fledging business (Chelleline Cards). I passed up this opportunity once, and it cost me 3 years of my life and $120,000. And it's not a mistake that I'm going to make a second time around. I've reached the point of no return, and there's no going back.

Posters celebrate Asian American Masculinity, from George Takei to Jeremy Lin

Although we've come a long way as a society in terms of racial tolerance, depictions of Asian Americans in the media seem to be stuck in a 1950s understanding of what "Asian American" is. Companies find it humorous to poke fun of Asian accents, and people of Asian descent are portrayed in films frequently as either effeminate (men), sex objects (women), or nerds (both). If you depended on the media to tell you what Asian Americans were like, you'd think we'd speak broken English at best.

Deborah Lao's "Manhood" poster series is part of an effort to combat this perception. Lao says in her artist's statement:

"This piece challenges the unkind, one dimensional portrait of Asian American men in mainstream Western media. By exuding strength, creativity, leadership and masculinity, these five icons buck characterizations of Asian American men as meek nerds who never get the girl (or guy). Bold paper colors and a minimal illustration style reclaims the one dimensional space into one that portrays these men as “superheroes” that young boys and men can aspire to be like."

And because you know I'm all about psychology in entrepreneurship, I love to read about the inspiration behind a particular piece. Lao explains in an interview with Colorlines:

"I had just finished an advanced screenprinting class which pushed me to explore and experiment with my personal ideas. I have a young brother—he was an inspiration behind creating the posters. I wondered about how the younger generation of Asian American boys would feel when they grow up, who do they have to look up to? So I came up with the “superhero” concept using primary colors and simple faceless outlines. I want people to be able to see themselves in these icons. The posters represent the ideals behind the people more than just the people themselves. And it started with Bruce Lee." (Source: Colorlines via Angry Asian Man)

All work and no play

Well, that's not exactly true, since I have given myself some time to "play", but I do feel like work has been taking over my life these days. At least taxes were over and done with a few weeks ago! We were also designing wedding invitations for a good friend of mine who's getting married in July, which also took a lot of time. Right now, I'm happy to say that I only have wholesale orders to do. (I'm currently working on 12 wholesale orders, all in various stages of completion.) I'm also taking Megan Auman's Marketing for Makers class, something that I've been wanting to do for a while now. I also finally got the business set up to receive credit cards - another nail in the "professional business" coffin!

But I do feel like I've been neglecting this blog (what's new?) and I want to get back to posting more regularly, even if it's just small updates on business progress. Be back soon!

Chelleline Cards interview on Rena Tom

Rena Tom, the founder of Rare Device and current consultant to creative entrepreneurs, interviewed me about Chelleline Cards recently. If you don't know already, you can read about how I started the business, challenges I faced, and my advice for budding entrepreneurs here!

And a big welcome to all of you who are coming through Rena's site! This is where I post about the design process, tips for those who are getting started with their business, and various odds and ends. Take a look around and welcome!

New work

A few years ago, I was traveling in Italy and walking along the boardwalk of a lake. It was drizzling that day, but I wanted to see the town, so I walked around with my umbrella. As I was walking down the boardwalk, I saw a mother and daughter feeding bread to ducks on the shore of the lake. I've kept this image in my head as a card idea for a long time, and now I've finally put it it to paper! (Photos of the inspirational scene below. although now that I'm looking at these photos again, it looks like they're feeding pigeons, not ducks)