Back to School

I do not have a brain right now so this posting will be mostly bullets and rambling:

I have two gumball machines! They need a little work, but I am excited about them! I also have capsules and have been filling them! I have been giving everyone I know a capsule - they have 10-15 stars in each one with a little slip of paper that says wishingstarcollective.blogspot.com on them - I cheated and printed them out on paper because writing that out a million times, while more hands on, would be ridiculous. Also my handwriting is tiny and I want people to actually be able to read it.
I also have permission from Portland Pins to share one side of their SPACE machine for a bit.















And I submitted a proposal to present at PechaKucha - they are considering it. If you don't know what that is - check - it - out - http://www.pechakuchaportland.org/

Whoa. Yay.







I got approval from Kickstarter to set that up! Whooo! Also a little bit terrifying. Trying to calculate what I would need to get this started and then write up things so people will support is...daunting. What if I forget something? Like...machines, and paint for them, and locks and stands, and paper and a new paper cutter, and capsules and uhm...buying my blog site! What else? Goodness. This is all getting serious.

But on that note I took pictures of things! Look! So much better than the last pictures!






I am terribly excited about these. I want to use them for the Kickstarter stuff and the PechaKucha stuff. People seem very entertained whenever I hand them one though. The plan is working perfectly, they immediately want to open the capsules up and play with the stars.

Speaking of stars - I have over 200 wish stars! I think the count as of this afternoon was 226. I am even keeping the story writer wishes in a little separate jar just to see how far it goes - keep it up story writer!

That goes for the rest of you too! Today my wish suggestion is Back to School. What do you want to do with your school year? Even if you're not in school! What's on your plate for the next few months?

Funding?

I'm thinking about expanding!

I have a number of friends who have used a fantastic website called Kickstarter, http://www.kickstarter.com/. The site is focused on creative project funding, with an all or nothing philosophy. You have a target goal, and either you reach it and get all the funding, or you don't, and no one who invested loses anything. It seems to work really well. I was immediately intrigued.

I was toying with the idea to use this site to raise some money for this project, but couldn't really justify setting something up just so I could buy more paper.

There is another project in town called Portland Pins, http://www.portlandpins.com/. "We ask local artists to submit their own hand-made designs for 1inch buttons, then we mix the end results all up in a gumball machine so people could buy great, unique artwork." I have always loved this idea, and in fact listening to them talk about starting up the project at a Pecha Kucha night at SPACE Gallery was the catalyst for me to set up my own blog and really get going on the project.
In recently talking to one of the creators of Portland Pins about my project he mentioned the idea of putting the stars in the little capsules he put his pins in.

Imagine a little clicking noise in your head of something dropping perfectly into place...

Now imagine a gumball machine full of little capsules, in turn full of mini origami stars and a slip of paper with The Collectives website on it. An interesting way to reach out to the public and get them involved in my project. I was immediately enchanted with the idea.

And now I am thinking about using Kickstarter to fund the purchase of these types of materials and setting up gumball machines full of awesome. I could also use the money for more business cards, more advertising, and purchasing my domain name - the .blogspot is so cumbersome. I could pay someone to take gorgeous pictures of the stars, get more interesting paper, and maybe even expand the idea outside of the state. The possibilities are endless!

The only thing I am worried about is that I feel like I am copying the idea of the gumball machines from Portland Pins, and I really wouldn't want to do that. I like and respect both the creators and the project. It's just such a GOOD plan. It would work SO well. But then again, maybe they'll share...

So I am still thinking about it.

I wish I could figure out a way to distribute this idea better.

I love all the wishes I have gotten! You guys are all amazing - remember to tell your friends, and continue visiting and adding your wishes to the pile! I have quite a number now - more pictures of the wishing stars specifically soon.

Wish Idea of the Day: give me wishes about project ideas you have and how you wish you could make them happen, or happen better or make them easier or more interesting! Go!

The End of a Beautiful Summer

It is raining here in Maine, and while I was wishing I could just curl up in bed with a good book and some hot chocolate all day (writing...that...down...) it also occured to me that I had a whole list of things I had meant to do this summer, and never got around too.

For example:

I wish I had gone camping - I've never done that.
I wish I had gone swimming more - the weather was too nice to sit at home as much as I did. The curse of being busy, I suppose.
I wish I had written a book - haha. If only.
I wish I had finished knitting those socks I started ages ago - the heel is killing me.

But! It isn't over yet. So!

I hope I do actually finish those socks.
I hope I go swimming at least once more, and definitely at the covered bridge.
I hope my yearning for a book turns into a fantastic idea for NaNoWriMo.

And what I want from YOU is the same thing. What do you wish you had done this summer, grand and small? What do you hope to squeeze in before the trees change their leaves, and school starts up again?

And in other news, yes. I will be sitting down to count how many stars I have made with all of your helpful wishes. I'm betting I have at least a hundred, maybe two. Hopes for how many I have?

Pictures!

You're all probably wondering what these things even look like, so. I figured I'd show you.
This is a jar of stars - don't make fun of the picture, I'm having a bad camera day. Or the jar. I like funny shaped jars. And no - that is not a thousand. There are like...two. Maybe three thousand in there. Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, these are not the stars with wishes on them. These are all the ones I have left over from the last year or so, after trying to give away as many as I could.






This is a close up of the stars in the jar.
















And this is a look at the stars with the wishes written on them, before and after. Fortunately I write very very tiny. Some of the wishes are so long I have to continue them onto more than one piece of paper - which I am totally ok with since it gives me more stars.
I'm actually waiting for someone to give me the excuse to write a whole story on a sheet of origami paper that I can then cut into strips and make into stars. I think that would be neat.



I have added a few things to the Collective. We have our own email address now, and business cards. Adorable business cards I might add - the little half ones. Feel free to email me with questions or more wishes, anything really.

As for ideas...
I'm going on an adventure for a few days and it is quite liberating. Who wants to go on an adventure and where? And why? What do you want to get away from or get too and how much does it mean to you?

Excellent Beginnings

An excellent start, thankyou my wishers! I appreciate the time you took to help me with this.

Now, I want to start giving you all ideas for wishes - post as many times as you can think of something! And remember to keep in mind hopes and dreams as well. I'll try and do this once a week. I figure if I say it *out loud* it might actually happen. I think I'm up to 50 or 60 stars so far - which is pretty good but far from a thousand. I'm going to start posting pictures of my progress and process so you can see what I'm up to.

This week I want you to think about jobs. What is your dream job, the thing you want to be when you grow up? Did you just put in for a raise, or a promotion? Is there a position opening up that you desperately want? Is there a life long goal you're working towards?

Tell me all about it. Or post another wish entirely that has nothing to do with jobs - just post something. And remember, it's totally anonymous.

Idea Into Action

I want to put your wishes into mini origami stars! Why?

My biological mother died a little over a year ago. Harsh way to start off a blog, I know, but it's important. To keep my sanity I started cultivating simple repetitive tasks. Knitting was one, and mini origami stars was another. Knitting eventually grew too difficult for my taxed brain to handle so origami stars it was. Learning to cut the strips of origami paper to correct lengths and widths took up quite a bit of my time. Developing the perfect technique to create just the right shape to turn into a teeny tiny star took up quite a bit more. It was simple, time consuming and repetitive.
Perfect.

As you can imagine, my brain eventually turned back on, and could handle things like cooking dinner and knitting complex patterns, among my myriad of other regular activities. But the habit stuck, a simple little thing to keep my hands busy while my mind handled other matters.

It has been over a year and try as I might to give these things away, to everyone I know and people that I've never met, I still have thousands. Literally. In all colors and textures. It's just...well, it's ridiculous.

So! I decided to come up with a brilliant idea to turn what was quickly becoming a bad habit into something at least a little bit useful.

Which is where you come in.

What I need, are wishes. Legend has it that the maker of a 1000 origami stars is granted a wish. I don't really need any wishes right this second, and besides I've spent the last year making plenty. What I want to do now is make stars - and wishes - for other people.

The idea is that I'll collect anonymous wishes, from scraps of paper mailed to me, to comments on this blog, and I'll write them down on the strips of paper I use to make a star. One wish per star. 1000 stars per jar. Then I will try and sell the jar, and donate the money to a charity that is devoted to making wishes come true. You know the ones. (Suggestions are always appreciated.)

Now, I'm sure this sounds downright silly, and I'll give you that. But help a girl out - if I'm going to keep making these damn things they might as well have a purpose.

Wishes! I want your wishes, your hopes, your dreams! You wake up in the morning and wish you didn't have to go to school or work or that it wasn't raining, or that it was. You hope that college acceptance letter comes in the mail today, that your hair will do what you want, that the boy you sit across from on the subway looks up at you. Your dreams of the perfect dress with the perfect shoes for the perfect event, or a daring adventure the Tuesday after next. I want them all.

I know, daunting, both for you, and me. But I will do my best to keep up, and try and give you as many ideas as I can. And it's easy! Just comment on this post or posts to come, plus it is totally anonymous. Your deepest, darkest (or shiniest) secret wishes can remain just that.

And thank you.