A fellow artist started her journey on Twitch recently. Twitch is a streaming platform usually for gamers, but there is also a growing artist community there. In recent weeks, she has already reached a benchmark on the platform. She is now an affiliate. It means she can earn some revenues from the advertising run before her streaming videos and be financially supported by those who choose to 'subscribe' to her channel.
For the occasion, I wanted to show her my support in the best way I can: using my hands and making her something that will last.
The Midori ruler is a running joke between us. I keep tantalising her with my beloved Midori ruler and keep encouraging her to treat herself to one. Meanwhile, she reminds me that she has enough stationary as it is and is banning herself from getting any more.
I thought it would be a humorous wink to her if I added this element to the card.
To become an affiliate, one needs to reach 50 followers on the platform. So instead of centimetres, the ruler goes from 0 to 50 to represent the followers count.
That's not all.. there is a little surprise pop-up feature on the card!
When you pull on the bottom part of the ruler, the complete list of her 50 first followers on Twitch, comes out! There are in chronological order from the upper left column to the last right bottom column.
Now, she will have a keepsake of who was there to cheer her on from the beginning .
Originally I had added another mechanism to make sure that the list push/pulls in a straight manner. However, after glueing the back (so we don't see the trickery), the mechanism got stuck. So I eventually managed to remove it without unglueing the whole card. It may wiggle a bit, but that's okay. I'm sure no one will mind. It is much easier to manoeuvre this way.
Tools:
golden edge card and envelope, white cream tone by Quill London
Coliro finetec gold and black metallic paint
moblique dip pen and Niko nib
Higgins black ink
Tools to Liveby scissors
Midori ruler
white watercolour
Uni Kuru Toga mechanical pencil.
I had a lot of fun doing this project.
As a child, I used to do things like that all the time, and I have fond memories of my time trying to create pop-ups. I don't read or research about it, just think of my end goal and try different things until it works as best as possible.
I really would like to do another project of the sort. However, I lack project ideas. I work best when I want to do something for someone, communicate a feeling or when I have a clear assignment to work on. Without this minimum of a direction, I experience creative block because there are so many wonderful possibilities out there.
Making the videos was quite fun too, although I have a lot of room for improvement. Mostly, filming in macro without a steady hand is extremely hard. Oh well! I hope it lets the message comes across regardless. We all have to start somewhere sometimes!
Mostly, I really hope she enjoys it.
If you want to check her out and support her, you can click here (youtube) or here (twitch) and go show her some love.
Love x