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Package design
When I was a younger woman, I was fascinated by package design. I loved the way cardboard boxes could be fashioned in surprising ways to safeguard their contents. Tetrapacks were lovely little puzzles which I finally solved; see my Tetrapocket pattern from 2006. I seriously considered a degree in industrial and package design. In my…
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Chakra Balance Yoga
In Satoyama Yoga I honor the Spring Equinox with a theme of balance classes for the month. Many involve standing balances, we test our dynamic balance, and we also try energetic balance using the chakras as a framework. I feel about chakras the same way I feel about horoscopes, psychic readings, auras, and fortune telling…
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New “headshot”
I’ll be leading a couple of workshops at FEW Japan’s FEWture Conference on June 7th. It’s a one-day extravaganza for women executives in Japan and this year’s theme is diversity and inclusivity among women. Today they needed a bio from me and a headshot. The bio was easy; I love writing bios for myself and…
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Reworking my portfolio
Do you know when is the best time to rework your portfolio? When you are looking for new clients. And since I am, I’ve given my Work page a once-over. It had grown into a cluttered, overwhelming mess over time. Like all decluttering activities, it was challenging. Almost all of my jobs are interesting in…
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Audience over Product
Your audience is more important than your product or service – especially if you are an artist. As entrepreneurial creative person, it doesn’t matter what you are selling, making, or offering. If you are trying to make a business from creative endeavors, whether as a side hustle or a full time income, you absolutely have…
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Anchovy disambiguation
I don’t write a lot about my work here, which is mainly random design projects for small business clients. My most active client is Rainbow Tomatoes Garden, my family’s tinned fish business. I design fun things for them from package labels to infographics and beyond. My brother-in-law, Dan, has a million cool ideas and I…
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Turmeric Ink & Dye
I have a lot of turmeric from my garden so I decided to try turning it into a botanical dye, ink or paint. It is sort of delightful to have enough to experiment with and not feel bad about messing up. I am really learning. So far I’ve had three fails and a semi-success. Fail…
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The old days of design
I started my design career in 1988 doing layout for a national wholesale food collective. Most of my work was preparing grocery fliers for the member companies. I also designed ads for food manufacturers, did graphics for events, and did page layout for magazines and programs. There were two of us in the desktop publishing…
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Receive, Release, Give
Our hands are one of the most important tools we have to connect with the world – we use them to touch, explore, grasp, work. In this Drawing Meditation we use them as a conduit for connecting with our inner world. We let the drawing distract our conscious mind so that our inner thoughts and…
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Chocolate for breakfast
Today marks the 8th anniversary of my yoga classes in Kamogawa. They started as a twice weekly practice at Satoyama Design Factory and later become a daily class first in person and then via Zoom. I never set out to be a yoga teacher, but I am glad that I did. My practice has created…
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