MATERIAL GOOD

A talking origami

Mine was the pleasure and honor of creating the (first and only) identity and product tag for the Little Shirley vase, a miniature ceramic totally handmade in Seattle. It was amazing to see a creation that started "garage-style" and ended up at Nordstrom. Material Good gives 10% of its profit to the cure of cancer, in honor of the owner's grandmother, Shirley.

OH THOSE LITTLE SHIRLEYS

Are sooooo
artsy, unique, uneven by design —
each adorably its own.

Oh how I pressured myself
to create a shape, a form,
that'd look and be its same.
Vessels like these would put
anything median to shame.

I LISTENED

To anything that'd whisper
and put myself to work.
Though hesitant in my head,
a fading reverie dangled in my eye
a fold? a crease? a thing that bends?
Each Shirley — its own height,
color, curve, imperfection — mouths
of sundry apertures and sizes.
So I wished for a thing too
that could do a paper alive,
as it'd be animated,
but what would that be like?

"ORI KAMI

Is the art of paper folding."

I heard from under the floor.
Honey is it you?
Wait. (I'm scared)
What if Shirleys talked
and said things we could hear?
(Wait — to me or each other?)
Oh dear.

THEN AN ACCIDENT

On a sunny sunday afternoon.
Here's what I did: I enacted a prototype.
Shape of a diamond, to be folded in half.
And though I wasn't listening,
the paper had ears:
I did something wrong
and BLING! the trick
the tips would not meet.

(aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!)

THE SERENDIPITY WAS

It was not an oversight.
Yeap, those Shirleys talked.
And if they could
a paper tag, I bet too, would.

So now they had papery mouths
that would never really close.
And gee,
there was a lot of text to fit in here.

WE'VE HEARD

Folks were buying Shirleys
and leaving the tags forever on.
Oh yeah, Shirleys found their dyad.

I confess I hide all the labor
this evidently totally was
even the printer messed the pressing
just like I first shaped
a mouth symmetrically closed.
Well, well...
then ends never ever meet?
do they only chatter all along?

DAISIES WERE

My patron's grandma's favorite flower
and her own favorite too.
We needed not molest thoughts
the logo motif was there on.
But the typeface... thoughts a-running:
something delicate, something
by hands made,
something curvy, and feminine,
also happy and fairy and elegant!
But by Shirley, we found it.

SOME SAY

This cute origami tag
looks like two leaves.
Others:
they are butterflies,
meandering over Shirleys.
Art comes as it goes
organically
rarely strolls with one meaning only.
Serves herself — it's its own portal.
We just ride along.

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