Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tag Team of One

Among the more ordinary tasks in day-to-day business there exists the surprisingly elaborate task of sorting out packaging. There is literally no end to the way you can package your stuff- it's all down to two things. The Look and The Cost.


I try to keep both of mine as humble as possible- I like the brown paper and string simplicity of 19th century merchants, it suits the salvage nature of my worn out bits. The cost I like to keep low as well, being that I don't really believe my customers should have to pay an extra dollar amount just because I want to have fancy packaging. I don't factor in the cost of my time, materials or effort into my tags (which double as business cards) and wrapping. My shipping is the actual cost of the parcel transport and the envelope, that's it. Everything else is my generosity -and just wanting things to look nice. :)


Luckily the two philosophies go together quite well and incorporate my eco-policy. Today's tag experiment turned out well- 19th century sheet music, old book pages, 1970s wedding album tissue embossed with spider's webs, vintage system cards and regular old print outs on re-claimed paper from my museum days when the printer's shop was cleaned out.


Lovely! The back tags cost 15 cents each, the rest of the materials cost too little to count. I don't have infinite supplies of these papers (and as the back tags are made in Asia they're likely to be woodchip pulp from an old-growth source so I won't be buying more, even if they are nice and old-school) but the finiteness doesn't matter. I like to change things now and then, it keeps things alive and interesting, which is a nice touch for things so often made of the worn and dusty.

And the scraps can go back in the box to use in ATCs.

11 comments:

KeKe said...

Your tags look cool~

Jackie said...

Absolutely beautiful tags. Where did you get your name tags from? I love them.
The trouble with using old tags is that you can't put them through a printer..I put some tag-like paper through and then constructed tags! Seems to defeat the purpose somehow.
Lovely packaging.

Heather said...

The way you did the tags is beautiful! Love the thread idea. I usually wrap my paintings in brown mailing paper and then tie it with a brown satin ribbon. I love the brown-on-brown color palette and the dual texture of brown paper and soft shiny ribbon. I think it makes it extra special to feel like you're opening a gift, not just a package :)
I was so excited to open the little package that made its way to me yesterday! Such fun and so pretty!~

Becca said...

Wow! The tags came out beautiful. I would be thrilled to open a package and find your lovely packaging :)

Tina said...

Love your new tags. Congrats on the article in Artful Blogging.I really enjoyed it - love you blog and your work, great photos.

Veronica said...

The packaging is so seductive you could sell it!

Jo James said...

Lovely lovely!

virginie said...

From your creations to little details...always talented, such a pleasure to visit your blog....A bientot..

rosedale's 4head said...

beautiful work...i wish my great aunt didn't sell just about everything...the simplest best stuff in my gr. grand's estate...pity for me...

Unknown said...

i love these tags! now i just want to buy a tag! he he! hope all is well with you!
merle

Seth said...

Wonderful tags! And it was great to hear your thoughts behind their creation.