AG is holding one of the handmade boxes I had made for Dots Collective filled with 2 handmade wooden pens with personalized carved “Dots Collective” on both pens & their wooden cases, 2 Rebels Refinery lip balms & hand sanitizers, a stack of my postcards I printed from my trips to entice them to do a world tour haha, a postcard print of a drawing I did of him, & my Finch “What it is to Burn” CD signed by the band from my own collection since 2002. The very first video I watched from AG’s Instagram was his cover of What it is to Burn & I knew this band was out to steal my heart haha… So I decided to give him the signed CD because they sign CDs for fans regularly so it would be cool for them to have a signed CD from a band they like that they’ll never have the opportunity to see nor get an autograph from. I was happy to do that for them. My friend was not able to watch them open the gift because it was minutes before closing time. So I have no idea how they reacted. She did say he was super happy & remembered me as the origami artist. Told her to thank me for him.

Photo by Tomomi

Here are photos of the handmade wooden pens made with exotic woods: Bacote (lighter) & Wenge (darker) with Maple wood cases. Photos of the signed Finch “What it is to Burn” CD. Sorry, I didn’t take any nice photos of it. I regret that now haha… I also had an unopened Finch lighter that I should’ve given to Hide since he smokes, not that I condone smoking but would’ve been a nice gift. Next time!

I have been collecting gifts for Noisemaker and Dots Collective for over 2 years now since I last saw them in Japan thinking I would've gone back to see them already. With the pandemic, Japan has kept their borders closed including restricting any mail/packages to US. It's been rough! These guys will have a gallery collection of boxes by the time I see them again.

First row (6 photos): This box was made to house 2 books I wanted to gift AG and Hide. The books are used because they are no longer being published. They have neat red slides of artwork that reminded me of their HUE color concept. I had ripped the cover sheet somehow so I had to add extra unnecessary hardware to cover it. None the wiser.

Second row (6 photos): This box was made to house a few small things I had collected including custom handmade wooden pens with cases, both engraved with Dots Collective (made by an artist in Texas). Also used my new lens given to me by my father in law, Mike, for the first time for this photoshoot! Took a bit of adjusting but I love it!!

Third row (6 photos): These boxes were made to house 2 very special pieces specifically chosen for each AG and Hide. I made cushions that pull out with the sides that fall flat to hold them in place using insulation foam and topped with acoustic sound proof foam. These bad boys are not going to be moving inside the box! The clear quartz cluster agate (eagle head carving) reminds me of some paintings done by AG so that had to go to him. The ammonite fossil (skull carving) goes to Hide since he likes schooling people about the Golden Ratio and of course, you have to think of the nautilus shell. Ammonites are the ancestors of the nautilus we know today and have gone extinct the same time as the dinosaurs did. It also has the best skull carving I've seen on an ammonite so far. All logos are debossed instead of my usual embossing.