Episode 102 - Finding New Venues for Your Art with Yang Liu and Anna Chedid

Yang Liu and Anna Chedid join us to talk about branching out with their paper flower art to new venues, audiences, and outlets.

Finding new outlets for your paper flowers is thrilling and scary, rewarding and difficult. How can you successfully branch out with your art? 

In our latest episode of Paper Talk we spoke with Yang Liu of Shanghai 1984 and Anna Chedid of Flores da Annita. If you’ve seen Yang’s work before, you know she has a beautiful minimalistic and sleek style. She’s brought this style to her new digital magazine, Doublette. Anna also has something new on the horizon, as she has a paper flower book due out this fall, and we can’t wait to see her bold play with color on a printed page. 

They both spoke with us about the journey into something new—taking their paper flower art and finding new venues, audiences, and outlets for it. Listen to the episode to hear all about how they’ve successfully transitioned into these new ventures. 

For now, here’s a sneak peek at three things that have helped Yang and Anna branch out.

Listen to our conversation to hear:
► How Yang created her beautiful layouts for Doublette.
► What is happening in the art world digitally, and how you can join in.
► How to overcome creative blocks.
► A behind the scenes look at what it takes to write a paper flower book.
► More about the making and future of Doublette.

Play to Your Strengths

 As Doublette took shape, Yang wanted to print it. We are paper artists, it makes sense! But as she dove into the making of her digital magazine, she realized that she would need to invest a lot more time learning and using programs that are compatible with magazine publishers. 

Yang had to make a choice: spend a lot of time doing something she isn’t passionate about or adjust her plans to play to her strengths. She chose the latter, and so her magazine went digital instead. Someday she may print Doublette, but as she said on the podcast, she’ll probably pay someone to help her.

When you’re branching out with your paper flower business, focus on your strengths. You don’t have to do things the way other people do them, and your creativity tackling a problem might actually be a good thing. Yang has been surprised by how many people around the world purchased the first issue of Doublette. A print only magazine wouldn’t have the same reach.

“I meant Doublette to be almost a travel journey as well. The first issue I started in Shanghai, the place of my birth. And for me, I want Doublette to visit different cities and bring in both florals and food from those locations.”

Let Things Go

 When you’re wading into unfamiliar waters, you sometimes need to channel your inner Elsa and let things go. As Anna said about her book writing process,

“I’m learning to let some things go, to let other people control some things that I’m not able to.”

We paper florists are creative, small business owners. We’re used to wearing all the hats. But it’s okay if you can’t or don’t want to do everything! You can get help, like Anna did with her book, and your project will only be stronger because of it.

 You can hear more about Anna’s book writing journey and what exactly she’s letting go of by listening to the episode.

Prioritize Your Creativity

Yang quit her corporate finance job during the pandemic. There were multiple reasons for this, which you can hear more about in the episode, but one reason was that Yang loves paper flowers. She loves running her own business that she’s passionate about. 

As Yang pointed out,

“The pandemic forces you to think about your priorities really quickly.”

The past year has given lots of us time to think about what we really want from life. Take this opportunity to prioritize your creativity. You can let yourself take chances. You can try something new. Being surrounded by such uncertainty has brought into sharp focus just how important it is to do things that make us happy and bring fulfillment.

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