Tag Archives: award

Orange County Fair 2011: A Winner is Michelle!

California, Crafts, Orange County, Photography

I’m not the only person I know who entered the fair this year: Michelle also entered. She’s not a photographer; she’s a crafter, and this year she decided to enter a project into the Recycled Products Paper Crafts division.

Now, I may be biased, but her project is just awesome. She saved up security envelopes we’d received in the mail, precisely cut out 4″ squares of paper from un-damaged portions of the envelopes, and then folded these recycled-security-envelope-origami-paper pieces into a kusudama, or ball origami.

A still life detailing how Michelle
A still life detailing how Michelle's recycled security envelope kusudama (ball origami) was made. In this picture the project itself is only half finished, with two additional flowers (each consisting of five individual squares of cut out security envelope) next to it. One flower is facing away from the camera, so you can see the USPS bar code from the front of the envelope its segments were cut from. Different sizes of individual squares of paper are shown below the project.

Each individual flower consists of five segments that each started as a 4″ square of paper cut out of the same pattern security envelope. These five segments were folded individually, and then glued together into a flower. The entire project is made from 12 of these flowers glued together, and then hung from leftover embroidery floss from an old cross-stitch project. This picture shows how it’s displayed at the fair:

Michelle won first place at the 2011 OC Fair for a kusudama (ball origami) project that made from recycled security envelopes. This is the way her project was displayed. Each individual unit of each flower was folded from a 4"x4" square of paper cut out from a security envelope we
Michelle's recycled security envelope kusudama (ball origami) displayed at the 2011 Orange County Fair.

Unlike with my photography entry, Michelle hadn’t received any e-mails inviting her to an award ceremony before my visit to the fair on Wednesday. So, it was with much excitement that I searched out her project in the craft exhibits, and saw this:

Michelle won first place at the 2011 OC Fair for a kusudama (ball origami) project that she made from recycled security envelopes. This is the display label for her project. (Marc C. Perkins)
Michelle won first place at the 2011 OC Fair for a kusudama (ball origami) project that she made from recycled security envelopes!

Congratulations, Michelle!

I, of course, took a ton of pictures. During this process a few groups of people stopped by to look at the project. All of them looked at it initially, thought the overall pattern was pretty, and started talking to each other about it (while I grinned happily inside). Then they started looking closer, read the description, realized it was made from security envelopes, and started to inquire about how Michelle must have done it. It was at that point that I had great pleasure to introduce myself and explain how it was made. It was a great afternoon, and a pleasure to meet so many friendly folks who think Michelle is as awesome as I do.

More pictures

To see more pictures from the fair, head to my Orange County Fair 2011 gallery.

Getting There

Orange County Fair: The Orange County Fair runs from July 15 to August 14 at the county fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, CA; they conveniently have a directions page here. Since I can just park on OCC’s campus and walk to the fair, I don’t know what the parking situation is like, sorry.

Orange County Fair 2011: A Winner is Me!

California, Photography, ,

I entered a few pictures into the 2011 Orange County Fair’s juried photography competition, and was ecstatic when I heard that two pictures I’d taken of a flowering octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana) had made it through the screening.

Greg, of Alpenglow Images, had alerted me to the presence of the agave on OCC’s campus, and the first picture came from a series I took with him back in March just after sunrise on a rainy morning (my Agave and Aloe Inflorescences gallery). At the time, the agave’s inflorescence was still growing, and the flowers were only buds protected by long spines:

Closeup of flower buds on the Agave vilmoriniana inflorescence. (Marc Perkins)
The Future. Closeup of flower buds on the Agave vilmoriniana inflorescence.

The second picture was taken about a month later (my Flowering Agave gallery), when the inflorescence was fully in bloom:

A flowering Agave on Orange Coast College's campus strives for the attention of pollinators (and photographers). I love the contrast of the yellow flowers on the blue sky. Agave vilmoriniana, octopus agave. (Marc C. Perkins)
A flowering Agave on Orange Coast College's campus strives for the attention of pollinators (and photographers).

I printed the pictures up, delivered them on the appropriate day, and heard nothing. My primary goal for this endeavor had been to just get my pictures through the pre-screening, which I’d heard wasn’t easy1, so my only remaining goal was just to see them hanging on the wall.

I’d been planning to head to the fair Wednesday (for their free admission with donation), but then just before I headed out the door I opened up my e-mail to find an invitation to the OC Fair awards ceremony! It was thus with much excitement and anticipation that I arrived at the photography exhibit, and navigated my way through the many beautiful images2 to the amateur plant category:

Pictures in the amateur color prints of plants cateogry at the 2011 Orange County Fair. There were tons of gorgeous entries. My prize winning picture is in the upper right corner. (Marc C. Perkins)
Approximately a quarter of the pictures in the amateur color prints of plants category at the 2011 Orange County Fair. There were many gorgeous entries.

A quick look near my image resulted in pure happiness:

A picture of me with my winning entry at the 2011 Orange County Fair. The first place blue ribbon is so pretty! My photograph was in the amateur color print of plants category. Many thanks to Nafis, who kindly took this picture of me. (Marc C. Perkins)
Me with my winning entry at the 2011 Orange County Fair. The first place blue ribbon is so pretty! Many thanks to Nafis, who kindly took this picture of me.

I won first place in the amateur plants color category!

It was a great start to the day, which I topped off with a deep fried Snickers, the absolute best way to eat a Snickers ever.

Many thanks to the judges!

Next up: Michelle entered a project into the recycled materials division, and I had an excuse (of the blue ribbon kind!) to take lots of pictures of that as well.

1 And what I heard was accurate: of the 3,774 entries into the amateur photography division this year, only 774 were accepted (a 20.5% acceptance rate).

2 The overall quality of the images this year was amazingly high; I found many of the “amateur” prints to be equal to or better than many pro images I’ve seen. There were hundreds of images on display, and the vast majority of them were absolutely excellent. If you’re looking for a fun way to see a wide diversity of great photography, I highly recommend heading to the OC Fair this year.

More pictures

To see more pictures from the two shoots, head to my Agave and Aloe Inflorescences gallery and my Flowering Agave gallery.

Getting There

Orange County Fair: The Orange County Fair runs from July 15 to August 14 at the county fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, CA; they conveniently have a directions page here. Since I can just park on OCC’s campus and walk to the fair, I don’t know what the parking situation is like, sorry.