Best Results Organizing

Happy anniversary!

Paper Doll strives, week in and week out, to keep these posts useful and entertaining. Long-time readers know how passionate I am about the research that goes into finding the information and the goofiness that goes into the writing — all to help you lead more organized lives. It’s exciting that after three years, we’re still going strong, and I’m thrilled to continue the anniversary tradition begun in 2008 and carried on in 2009.

I’m proud of the in-depth projects we’ve done, like the six-week series on decluttering books, the four-part series on paper-related organizing products displayed at this year’s NAPO conference, the three-part series on organizing tax paperwork, Get Organized Month’s four-week series on paper control and organizing basics and last autumn’s super-sized six-part Who Knows Your Secrets? series about the agencies and organizations collecting paper trails on you and your financial life.

I’ve also loved researching and writing many of the one-off posts. Some were timely (like about the U.S. Census, the CARD Act and the need for new Puerto Rican birth certificates); others were timeless How-To posts, as in how to:
 
— replace Social Security statements
— go green with greeting cards and office supplies, or
— create document inventories

And of course, we had posts that mixed organization and fun, like those about organizing board game rules and fortune cookie fortunes.

Writing a blog requires inspiration, and I get that from you, my lovely readers, and from the wealth of ideas out there in the clutter piles and magazine articles and news stories I encounter. Usually, it’s easy to come up with a topic, but hard to remember that brevity (and not book-length posts) are the soul of wit.

Sometimes, however, writing a blog about paper is like being pecked to death by ducks, with motivational and technological frustrations at every turn. That’s why I like to use the anniversary post to share some of the paper-related delights that lift my spirits when I’m feeling less like a Paper Doll and more like a wastepaper basket.

Speaking of ducks, Paper Doll was thrilled to receive permission to share this charming original work by Canadian artist Mui-Ling Teh called 3 cm Family Swim:

 

If you’re not fascinated, double-check the scale of the ducklings. When I saw Mui-Ling Teh’s page of amazing miniature origami at her RedBubble store, I was charmed. For those of you already looking for 2011 wall calendars, please be sure to check out each spectacular month of her calendar pages. (My favorite is December’s Arctic Playground, but use the comment section to tell me what you liked best.) For those of you who like to be dazzled at Zazzle, note that Mui-Ling Teh has a Zazzle store at http://www.zazzle.com/muiling* (and yes, the asterisk is intentional…think of it like a smooch from a tiny origami duckling).

While some of the paper art that inspired me was as small as miniature origami, other items that caught my attention were larger than life, or at least life-sized. For example, Chilean artist Don Lucho’s Casa De Carton art installation drew clicks on blogs all over the world when he built an entire apartment out of cardboard and paper — furniture and dcor included:

From cardboard bathrooms (with handmade toilet paper) to kitchenettes with cardboard spatulas,

Lucho recycles packing materials into eco-art that wows the onlooker. For more of his projects, including a life-sized (but bloodless) cardboard auto accident, check out the posts at Pulpfactor and RebelArt.

In a blog that covers the gamut from recycling to conspicuous consumption, I’d be remiss to leave out Japanese artist Yuken Teruya’s work — he makes art trees out of the sides of the shopping bags in which his art is displayed! Be sure to click on each of The Saatchi Gallery’s Yuken Teruya works, from a McDonald’s take-out bag to the Louis Vuitton shopping bag below:

(Since last year’s anniversary post covered paper art shoes, it’s nifty to present the art of shoe bags. Next year, who knows? Shoebox art?) Be sure to check out the colorful Le Bon Marche bag and the stunning Marc Jacobs bag!

So, what might have come out of those shopping bags? While there were numerous newspaper-based dresses from the eco-fashion designers at last month’s Green Catwalk Event in New York City, Paper Doll feels that nothing they created is as stunning as the Louise Goldin paper dress created for Coutts & Co. in London:

(Curious about how it was constructed? There’s a video!)

Given that we’ve just finished a six-part series on book-related paper, the whimsy of UK papercut artist Su Blackwell requires a spotlight:

Talk about fairytales coming to life! Paper Doll is a huge fan of Jasper Fforde’s witty Thursday Next series (starting with The Eyre Affair), where “real-life” people can jump into books and interact with literary characters. Don’t you wish you could join this tea party? Blackwell’s visually arresting papercut art spans the literary spectrum from Alice to Peter Pan to Narnia. I can’t stop looking at her Woodcutter’s Hut:

It’s a temptation to cross the Atlantic to see Blackwell’s current Remnants exhibition at the Bront Parsonage Museum in Haworth (through the end of November). Can’t travel? Be sure to visit Blackwell’s site to view other book sculptures, installations and amazing commercial projects.

Papercut artist Rick Jones captivated me first with the title, Small Gods of Domestic Chaos, and then with the artwork, itself:

and I can believe many professional organizers and our clients can imagine feeling a kinship for this emblem of work style.

And what could be more domestic than the scenes created by Anastassia Elias, who crafts miniature worlds inside toilet paper rolls. Her three-dimensional Rouleaux projects miniaturize, with depth and clarity, tableaux raging from tango lessons to classroom studies, a visit to the zoo (and specifically, the giraffe pen) to sports scenes, and even laundry day:

Andrea Dezs was born in Transylvania, lives in Queens, NY, and creates for a world beyond imagination. She came to my attention through a New York Times article which displayed, among other pieces, a colorful painting of Star Trek-like aliens in leotards and deelyboppers. But her papercuts and silhouettes, from the political to the commercial (including an album cover for the Dixie Chicks spin-off group, Courtyard Hounds) to the “What is…oh my…will you look at that?!” are particularly captivating. This piece is one of multiple companions to Richard Rodriguez’s Final Edition: Twilight of the American Newspaper that ran in Harper’s Magazine in 2009:

For you left-coasters, Dezs’s exhibition at San Francisco’s Frey Norris Museum goes through November 6, 2010.

This week, we are fanciful. Next week, Paper Doll will begin a fourth year of focusing on organizing paper to save you time, money and effort. Until then, please celebrate the entertainment value of paper. Meanwhile, I’m headed off to learn how to create a papercut city skyline for my paper dolls.

Thank you for three wonderful years!