Paper Talk

We talked with Bob and Michelle Jorgensen all about their products, business, and how they face challenges in our latest episode.

If you’ve used doublette, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Rose Mille.

We love our German crepe paper, and we were excited to chat with one of the distributors of our favorite product on our latest episode of Paper Talk. Bob and Michelle Jorgensen joined us to talk about the behind the scenes of their business and to get our feedback about what paper florists most want when it comes to crepe selection. 

Michelle founded Rose Mille in 1998, and has long been a leader in bringing materials and workshops to crafters in many different disciplines. Listen to our conversation to hear all about the fascinating world of importing handmade supplies from Germany and more about what Rose Mille plans to offer next. 

In the meantime, we were inspired by Bob and Michelle’s scrappy attitude when it comes to making lemonade out of lemons—or in their case, snowman noses out of spun cotton that was supposed to be much bigger. Here are some of the creative ways they have met challenges that can help us all push ourselves more.

Repurpose Materials

Just like in the snowman nose example, Bob and Michelle have had to be creative sometimes when it comes to the materials that arrive. 

Their distributors in Germany source from small, cottage industries that produce handmade goods. That can mean that there is one person in a small village who makes carrot-shaped spun cotton, and if that person passes away without a child willing to take on that business, that product is just gone—or at least won’t be available at the same level of quality. 

But when a shipment comes in that isn’t quite right, Bob and Michelle try to salvage what they can and repurpose materials. The teeny carrot-shaped spun cotton becomes snowman noses.

You may make a paper flower that doesn’t come out quite right, or maybe you can’t get your hands on the perfect material for your project. Don’t give up! Maybe you can turn that flower into something else. Maybe you can use a different paper. A little creativity can go a long way.

Welcome Competition

Michelle shared the story of how they first started carrying crepe paper. You can hear all the details in the episode, but in short, they were the only ones importing German crepe at the time. 

Four years later, Lia Griffith started her partnership with Werola, the manufacturer of doublette. Werola decided to make some colors only available through Lia Griffith and no longer available through Rose Mille. 

That’s frustrating when you’ve been in the game longer, right? Well, Michelle kept a good attitude about it. “There’s room for everybody,” she told us on the podcast. She acknowledged that Lia Griffith showed people what to do with crepe, which they hadn’t been doing at Rose Mille. 

That kind of attitude gives you more room to move forward, which Bob and Michelle definitely are. Instead of bemoaning the fact that some color combinations aren’t available to them, they asked us which combos we’d like to see as paper florists. Which brings us to…

 
Ask Questions

We love that Bob and Michelle asked us what we and our listeners wanted as paper florists! There’s really no better way to get your customers what they want and to be successful as a business than by really listening to your clients.

If there is a doublette color combination that you’d like to see, or if there’s any other products that would help your art, email Rose Mille at [email protected]. You’ll hear in the podcast just how eager they are to hear from paper florists. Don’t be shy!

Listen to the episode now to learn even more about what Rose Mille has to offer and how they operate.

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

New crepe paper and colors Rose Mille will offer this spring.

More about the fascinating cottage industries in Germany.

How they decide which products to offer.

Other challenges that they’ve had to overcome.

Remember to hop onto our weekly meeting on Clubhouse on Thursdays at 7pm PST/10pm EST, and to join our Facebook group where you can share, connect, and grow with us. Please also consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this.

We’ve brought in the amazing Christina Shay to help us update Paper to Profits to be easier for students to use and complete. Learn all about it in our latest episode.  

Do you have a to-do list a mile long? Feel like you’ll never get through it all?

We’ll be honest: we’ve felt completely overwhelmed many, many times. You may think we’ve got our crap together, but we don’t always. 

That’s one reason why we brought on Christina Shay to our Paper Talk team. She is an integrator who oversees our brands and helps us keep the big picture in mind. We chatted with her in our latest episode of Paper Talk about her journey from the corporate world to focusing on small businesses, plus our extensive revamps of Paper to Profits. 

You can listen to the episode to hear all about Christina’s work with small businesses and what she sees as their biggest challenges. You’ll also want to hear all about our amazing changes to Paper to Profits, but we’ll give you a little peek here:

Softer Tone

As we’ve mentioned before, Jessie practiced law and Quynh has a background in business, marketing, and finance. This means that we have a wealth of information to pass on to other entrepreneurs, but we can also get caught up in business speak and legalese. If you don’t have a similar background, it might be difficult to follow some of the jargon. 

Thanks to Christina’s work launching other creative business courses, she’s helped us soften some of this specialized language to make it more accessible to a wider audience. Christina herself has an educational and work background in business, but she has a keen eye for spotting areas with a stiff tone you’d probably encounter in a college course, not a class for artists. She’s been invaluable by shaping Paper to Profits into something a creative business owner of any background can benefit from.

We want our high value content to reach and help as many of you as possible, and a softened tone will help more people understand and get through our course.

Accountability

Last year we included a one-on-one mentorship session at the end of our inaugural Paper to Profits course. We wanted to help our students on an individual level with whatever was holding them back or giving them problems. 

What we found, though, was that not everyone made it to the end of the course to get to that mentorship piece. Life happens. We’re all busy. We know that. So to help keep students on track, we’re shifting that mentorship piece and breaking it up over the entire length of the class. 

We’ll meet together as a group after each section to discuss what was covered, problem solve together, and keep one another accountable. This means that you’ll have a deadline to finish a chapter. 

If that sounds overwhelming, keep in mind that you can always go back to review content—and know that this will help you actually finish the course! Think about projects you’ve started that didn’t have a deadline. Did they get shoved to the back burner whenever something else came along? Are they still sitting unfinished in the closet collecting dust, either metaphorically or literally? Your business matters. It deserves some attention. Our Mastermind sessions will make you accountable to yourself.

Jessie and Quynh discuss how powerful it is to say no to certain projects. Learn how they judge when to turn down work and which factors you should weigh.

When starting out as a paper florist, every paid project feels like a blessing. You’re grateful for the money, the exposure, and the experience. But at some point, you’ll have to say no to a job. Maybe you don’t have the time, or maybe it’s more complicated: you’re starting to lose the joy that you first felt when making paper flowers. 

So how do you decide when to say no to new work?

It’s not easy, we know. That’s why we talked all about it in our latest episode of Paper Talk. We delved into the factors you should consider, red flags to watch out for, and how to structure contracts to protect yourself when unforeseen circumstances turn a yes into a no late in the game.

We covered a lot of ground in the episode. Here’s a little taste of some of our advice when it comes to making a decision about a new project.

Find Your Style

Yes, we know—this is a big topic that is worthy of its own episode (like this one!). While we don’t have the space to discuss how to find your artistic voice here, we do want to emphasize why it’s important when it comes to saying no. 

When you do the work to find your style, you’re really figuring out what brings you joy. You know what will feel authentic and satisfying. You’ll make things that you are proud of. If you can articulate what your style is and recognize it, then you can identify which projects will be the best fit for you. When you are approached by a potential client, it will be very clear if you are a good match for one another stylistically. 

As Quynh said in the episode:

“You need to try it all at the beginning of your journey, but once you start clicking with certain clients and clicking with certain bouquets or flowers or projects that bring you joy, you need to bring that into your life even more and start doing less of the things that don’t make you happy.”

KonMari your paper flower journey and make more space for things that fit your style.

Trust Your Intuition

You’ve probably heard that you should trust your gut. We agree that this is usually sound advice when it comes to paper flowers. If a potential client feels shady and your gut is screaming at you to run, then run! Is your intuition telling you that something doesn’t fit your style or that you really don’t have time for it? Then say no. 

Jessie did offer a useful insight in our episode, though. She pointed out that sometimes our first reaction to a new job is nervousness. Maybe it’s a type of project you’ve never done before. Maybe it’s a new flower. Maybe it’s a really famous client. Feeling nervous in those situations is completely normal! 

 Make sure that you take some time to examine your gut reactions. Is your intuition telling you something is wrong and not a good fit? Or are those butterflies a sign of excitement tinged with fear? Only you can tell.

Give Yourself Time

As Jessie said in the podcast,

“It takes time to learn when to say no.”

We gave lots of sound advice that will help you better decide when to say yes or no. But like many things in life, experience is the ultimate teacher. You should experiment and try new things, but you’ll also end up making mistakes along the way. That’s okay. You’ll be better for it in the end. Be gracious to yourself and give yourself time to figure it all out. It does get easier the longer you’ve been in business. 

Listen to the podcast to hear even more things that you should consider when making these decisions, and how you can gain the confidence to say no. 

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

Factors to weigh when deciding to say no or yes.

How to find what kind of work you want to focus on.

When you should step out of your wheelhouse and try something new.

How long you can negotiate back and forth with potential clients.

Why you need a contract and if you should have an out clause. 

Join our Facebook group where you can share, connect, and grow with us. Please also consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this.

Learn why you should be on Clubhouse and how you can connect with us for our weekly meeting.  

Have you heard about Clubhouse? 

It’s an app that lets you gather together in virtual rooms to have audio-only conversations. Think somewhere between Zoom, Whatsapp, and old-fashioned phone calls. The app hasn’t been around that long, so don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with it. We’ve been exploring Clubhouse and chatted all about in our latest episode of Paper Talk.

You can hear all of the ins and outs of how the app works, You won’t want to miss out on all of the helpful things she shared in the podcast, but for now, here are some ideas to inspire your experimentation on your paper flower journey. 

Focus on Listening

In the episode, Jessie pointed out how many visual cues we rely on during face-to-face conversations. You can pick up on some of these on Zoom, but if you’ve ever been to a video conference, you know that lag times and bad lighting, and tiny screens can make it easy to miss those cues. It’s easy to end up talking over each other and then having everything screech to a standstill while you figure out whose turn it is to speak.

 But we don’t really do that with phone conversations. When we’re focused on one sense only—listening—we do a lot better in letting the conversation flow naturally. And that’s how Clubhouse feels.

Without visual cues or distractions, you’re really forced to listen to whoever is talking. That’s all you’re doing. You really get to delve into people’s thoughts more. You’re forced to concentrate on their words alone. As Jessie said, “This app is about listening to other people.” Simply and well put.

More Intimate Conversations

One thing that popped up in our podcast episode several times is just how intimate Clubhouse feels. Even if you’re in a big room with lots of other users, the conversation flows so well (because of what we mentioned above). 

There’s also something really personable about hearing another person’s voice. You pick up on their inflection and the more nuanced meaning behind things than if you only read their words. 

 In the podcast, we talked more about why this intimate set-up makes such a difference for the level of civility, as well. Give it a listen to learn why you don’t have to worry about internet bullies, or if they do show up, how you can easily report and avoid them.

Connect with Other Paper Florists

Clubhouse rooms cover almost every topic imaginable, which is fantastic for making connections both in and out of our industry. As we covered in the episode, we’ve been able to chat with people we’ve never imagined being able to hold a conversation with before. That level of intimacy that Clubhouse builds is really amazing compared to other social media platforms. 

We’re particularly excited to start a weekly gathering of paper florists (or any craft or paper enthusiasts who want to join). There are so many amazing people in our community who we haven’t been able to meet in person. While we’re still holding out hope for that in the near future, we want to hear your voices and have those more personal conversations with you.  

Listen to the podcast to hear how you can get invited to Clubhouse and how to join us.

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

How Clubhouse works and how to learn more about it.

Why you will benefit from using it.

How to get invited by us (because it is invite only).

How Clubhouse differs from Zoom, phone calls, or other social media.

Why you won’t have to deal with internet bullies on Clubhouse.

Join our weekly meeting on Clubhouse on Thursdays at 7pm PST/10pm EST! Also, join our Facebook group where you can share, connect, and grow with us. Please also consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this. Thank you for listening!

We talk with paper florist Sue Bowen about how to experiment with new materials, techniques, and styles in order to find your artistic voice.  

How do you find your paper flower voice? Or if you’ve been a paper florist for awhile, how do you help your artistic style evolve naturally? Style isn’t something you can copy, at least not successfully. It has to come from a genuine place inside of you. But how in the world do you hone in on that? 

With experimentation!

Sue Bowen is one of our moderators for our Facebook group and is always ready with encouragement and helpful insight (if you haven’t joined, you really should!). In our latest episode of Paper Talk, we chatted with Sue, and our conversation kept circling back to this need to experiment.

You won’t want to miss out on all of the helpful things she shared in the podcast, but for now, here are some ideas to inspire your experimentation on your paper flower journey. 

Experiment with Materials

Sue first started making paper flowers from a variety of materials. She didn’t start with crepe paper. She tried new things. She figured out what worked and what didn’t. She decided what she liked. If she hadn’t been open to using new materials, she wouldn’t have discovered her love of crepe paper flowers. What a loss that would be for our paper flower community! 

 Don’t be afraid to use a new material, be it crepe or color tool or whatever. What’s the worst that could happen? That flower is a disaster, and you move on. You’ve learned something! But more likely, you’ll find something that works even better than what you were using before.   

Experiment with Techniques

We asked Sue what she’s been experimenting with lately, and she told us all about the many coloring techniques she’s tried. Some of them have worked better than others. She doesn’t know how colorfast some of the newer techniques will be, but she embraces that and let’s it lead her to new places.

There’s no one right way to do anything with paper flowers. What works for us might not work for you. Yes, we can learn from each other, but at the end of the day, you simply have to try things out for yourself. And if none of us ever explored new ways to do things, we’d never grow beyond our current techniques. Our industry would stagnate

Make sure to listen to the episode for more specifics about Sue’s color experimentations, including her foray into natural dyes.

Experiment with Style

Don’t worry if your flowers don’t look like other artists’ work. Make changes to tutorials. Do what feels right to you. We loved Sue’s insight: 

“It’s about making your flowers as natural as they can be...finding your own style, your own way. And I think that’s what people who are learning need to know they’re not trying to copy that other person’s flower, that the flower that they make is fine. It doesn’t have to look like that flower. It’s your flower.”

When you explore a wider breadth of new materials and techniques, you’ll be able to better figure out what works for you. Be bold with your stylistic choices, and make some mistakes along the way. In the end, your artistry will only benefit.

 We chatted about much more with Sue, and you can hear it all by listening to this latest episode of Paper Talk.

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

How Sue’s paper flower journey started.

Her biggest tip for improving paper flowers.

How she works through written tutorials, even though video ones are easier for her.

Where she sources her crepe paper in the UK.

How she experiments with colors.

Remember to join our Facebook group where you can share, connect, and grow with us. Please also consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this.

Welcome to our new Over Coffee segment called “Q & A with Our Community” where we answer questions from listeners about anything paper flower related. Be sure to leave your questions in the comments below or email us at any time!

In today’s episode, we answer questions about how to pack for shipping and what shipping methods we use. We also talk about the different paper mediums we use and how we decide which one to use for which flowers.

Be sure to leave your questions in the comments below or email us at any time!

In today’s episode, we answer questions about how to pack for shipping and what shipping methods we use. We also talk about the different paper mediums we use and how we decide which one to use for which flowers.

We chat with Martina Polelli about the history of the Italian crepe paper company, their products, and where to buy around the world.

Italian crepe paper is beloved by paper florists for good reason. We love the consistency, the quality, and the wide-range of options available for our artistry. 

In past episodes of Paper Talk we’ve chatted with the U.S. distributor of Italian crepe, Carte Fini, but we wanted to take things even closer to the source of Italian crepe paper goodness. In our latest episode, we talked with Martina Polelli of Cartotecnica Rossi, the actual manufacturer in Italy of one of our favorite crepe paper.

Martina discussed the company’s history, their product offerings, their process for choosing new products, and much more. You’ll love this little peek into the world behind the medium that makes our industry possible. 

If you can’t listen to the episode right away, here is a little taste of some of our favorite things about Cartotecnica Rossi.

Established History

The company Cartiera Rossi (which would eventually lead to the Cartotecnica Rossi we know today) was founded in 1878, and soon became one of the largest paper factories in Europe. Even over a hundred years ago customers turned their crepe and tissue paper into beautiful creations ranging from jewelry to hairpieces to flowers. Yes—while our modern industry is still growing and feels very young, crafters have been making paper flowers for a long time.

 Being a new company isn’t a bad thing. That said, wisdom does come with time. Cartotecnica Rossi has had over one hundred years to continually improve their paper, and it shows. Paper florists all over the world know that they can trust Italian crepe to be consistent and versatile. 

Paper Talk Patrons can see a photo of the factory by watching the episode on Patreon. You’ll also get a look at all of the papers Martina shared, as well as a fun demonstration of how much the 90g can stretch compared to the 60g. Not a Patron yet? Find more information here.

New Products

To the delight of many paper florists, Cartotecnica Rossi released their 90 gram crepe paper last year. If you haven’t used it yourself, you have probably seen it used by another artist. Let us tell you: we are big fans. As Martina showed us, the 90g has five times more stretch than the 60g, but maintains that delicacy that makes for gorgeous and realistic petals. 

Martina also shared with us that there will be new colors released in the 90g lineup. While she couldn’t share specifics about these colors yet, she did tell us that they surveyed artists to learn which colors they most wanted. As Martina said, “We always start by listening to our audience. As I always say, it makes no sense to offer chocolate cake to someone when they ask for apple.”

We love Cartotecnica Rossi’s dedication to innovation and to listening to customers. We’re always excited to see what they come out with next. 

Listen to the episode for more information about how they choose new products, why they decided to make the 90g, and how you can get your hands on a color catalogue to help you navigate all of the options.

Environmentally Friendly and Safe

Not all crepe paper is manufactured by the same standards. Cartotecnica Rossi is ISO 14001 certified (meaning that they meet international standards for environmental performance), and they guarantee that their dyes are non-toxic. 

Since we are constantly manipulating crepe paper with our bare hands, it’s comforting to know that our medium is not going to cause damage in the long term. If you have children or pets, it’s also nice to know that if they get into your paper stash—heaven forbid!—that they won’t be harmed. 

Our conversation with Martina covered many other topics that you won’t want to miss. You can hear all of it by listening to our latest episode of Paper Talk.

Our Questions, Answered by Cartotecnica Rossi

We gathered some questions from the members of our Paper Talk Podcast Facebook group and sent them off to Cartotecnica Rossi for answers:

Why do some of the crepe paper respond to bleaching and others do not?

Because different pigments are needed to create different colors. The pigment allows the refraction of certain frequencies of light. There are pigments that more than others are consumed with light

Do you offer for sale any untreated crepe paper that is unbleached and has not been dyed?

All the papers to be creped are treated in some way, the paper itself for its formation requires treatment with glues and other compounds. There are cards with different concentrations of pingmeti, yes.

When we apply wet glue to the 180g crepe paper (the green coloured papers in particular) it tends to change the colours of the paper. Is there a way to prevent that from happening?

It is a chemistry and PH problem specifically. These days we are analyzing the problem of greens and we plan to carry out some tests to red

Is crepe paper a "green" product? Is it eco-friendly? Does Cartotecnica Rossi use an environmentally friendly manufacturing process to produce the crepe paper?

Cartotecnica Rossi has always been committed to reducing the environmental impact of its production, not only are we ISO 14001 certified but for years we have opted to use papers from renewable sources (all our papers are FSC) and for years we have been using non-toxic dyes and respectful of health without considering that most of the components used are of natural origin. Having said that, a project is being studied to constantly reduce the environmental impact of our business. That said, we are convinced that the main source of pollution is people's bad behavior. It is apparently easier to eliminate a product like plastic than to nod off bad habits. There is a lot of hypocrisy in this regard. Let's tell the truth

How can someone become an official distributor of your products?

Contact us, and together we will evaluate the feasibility of the project

Can you consider creating a crepe paper that is a "Red Ferrari" red?

Red Ferrari is protected by copyright, we still have a good range of reds and they do not rule out that they may be improved in the future

Are any of your crepe paper colourfast and/or water-resistant?

Our papers are not color fast. We have different types of water resistant papers such as printed crepe papers and metallized papers. We also have a line of solid colored papers that do not fade but rarely sell requests because the colors are less bright

Can you consider treating your crepe paper with UV protection to prevent fading?

Yes, but it is not easy to find a truly effective product

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

All about the different products Cartotecnica Rossi offers.

The history of the company and how crepe has been used in the past.

How they choose new colors.

Where to buy their crepe around the world.

How to tag your creations on Instagram so that Martina sees them.

Remember to join our Facebook group where you can ask questions about how other paper florists use Italian crepe, and please consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this.