freebie

prototyping. traced lavender salve tub sized discs of stabilizer backed linen remnants. a triple twist of light-gauge floral wire was sewn down the center of one disk on the stabilizer side in order to hold the future fortune cookie shape. the wire side is then sandwiched onto a second linen disk and attached using blanket stitch. and with a few swift hand moves, the disk turns into a fortune cookie. came across this tutorial when i needed help understanding the folding technique.

picked up heavier gauge wrapped floral wire and covered the ends with floral tape before sewing down to help prevent the wire from poking through the right side of the linen – works pretty nice… this was also my first attempt at using butterfly-clutch pin backs. piercing the pin through the interior to the backside hid the flat fastener, but it needed glue to keep it in place since it lacked any way to mechanically fasten. not fond of relying on glue in this situation.

tried using safety pins too, which had their perks. they were the least expensive option, i already had them, and they did a better job of pinning the width of the cookie than the butterfly-clutch, but they were cumbersome to attach. i’d been wearing a safety pin version on my jacket, and it was tricky to fasten in the right way. mine was too tight, causing the cookie to curl up into a shape more closely resembling tortellini. wasn’t mad at it, per se; but it wasn’t the intended effect…

after exploring a few options for pin backs, i landed on bar pins. they can be sewn in place at several points, provide stability across the pin width, and are much more user friendly.

imagined packaging as a narrative element, too. inspired by takeout fortune cookies and a well known “Thank You” bag motif.

designed several iterations of the cookie size packages. digitized in Illustrator and mocked up on printer paper to test dimensions and volume. used actual pins and wadded up balls of paper to make sure the packets would puff enough to hold the pins. in retrospect, i should have started with the wadded up paper. ripped up good prototypes to get the cookies out. d’oh… !

moved on to vellum for the next series of prototypes. i like using vellum. it’s a little transparent and works in the printer – nice nice. used a pattern tracing wheel to pierce a line about half an inch from the top and bottom edges, and hand sewed closed with red Gütermann poly sew-all thread. fan-creased the ends for a finishing touch.

looked into paper crimping tools and techniques and came across a tube wringer which looked like it’d get the job done and could work on heavier materials, too. the package on the left has tube wringer crimped edges, and the right is by hand. the little tags are two Avery labels stuck together, hole punched, and tied to the end of the enclosure string. i’m happy with how these came out.

digging this process. still not quite done yet – need to give the vellum printing another go. using a laser printer and the toner flakes off more easily than i want it to. don’t think the printer settings are quite right yet. also, need to try sewing the closure stitches on the machine instead of by hand to see how that turns out. maybe it’s too powerful for the vellum and makes a mess of things. or maybe it’s perfect! gotta try it.

been incubating these for a little while now and need to push them out the nest… i’ve set aside a couple prototypes as freebies to give folks that strike up conversation about the pins/patches on my jacket – things i’ve made. i imagined the freebies as an opportunity to help me talk about my work with interested folks. however, it’s still in my imagination since i haven’t yet had the confidence to take the final step and hand one over. or i’ve forgotten to bring them with me, like this morning… double d’oh!

i’m feeling nervous about putting them in someone else’s hands – giving up control – and being at the mercy of public opinion. but i suppose that’s the rub: no risk, no reward. working to remember that opinions are only as important as i allow them to be. constructive critique is one thing; ruthless subjectivity is another. i recognize the importance of putting myself out there and i’m working toward the next step, no matter what other people think of me. it’s a fortune cookie, for Christ’s sake…

*created and drafted March, 2021. posted March 23, 2022.