Creased greeting is a LOUIE AWARD finalist!

The Greeting Card Association, the industry's trade organization, has announced that Creased, Inc.'s Imoseyama Imprintable Greeting/Favor is a finalist for the 2003 LOUIE Awards in the Creatively Finished category.

The Imoseyama Greeting is one of the most special pieces Creased has yet designed. The origami piece is two cranes joined together. These two connected cranes, named imoseyama, are made from one piece of paper using the technique developed by Rokoan Gido, a Buddhist priest in Japan in the late 18th century. In the Nara Prefecture of Japan there are two mountains, Imoyama and Seyama, separated by the Yoshino River. Together these two mountains are considered lovers or a married couple and are called “Imoseyama.” Cranes in nature are known to mate for life, so these special joined cranes, symbolize peace, harmony, longevity, and true love.

"This is an great honor for us," said Creased vice president Mark Wilson. "Sok has worked so hard since he founded the company to come up with new and exciting designs that truly make use of the potential of origami design, and the imoseyama favor is one of the most beautiful things he's done. It's very gratifying for him and for the company that the industry is starting to notice the beauty of his designs."

Established to honor creative excellence in the greeting card industry, the LOUIEs have drawn nearly 25,000 entries from over 950 companies since 1988. More than 90 companies were first time entrants in the 16th Annual LOUIEs. This year's LOUIE competitors submitted their best work, including everyday and seasonal greeting cards, with both humorous and traditional greetings. Publishers, ranging in size from one-person creative operations to multi-employee companies around the world, are among those competing for the coveted LOUIE Award.

“The LOUIEs are recognized more and more each year on a worldwide basis," says current GCA President John Beeder of Hallmark Cards, Inc. "The companies named as Finalists in the 16th Annual LOUIE Awards clearly reflect the talent, creativity and ingenuity that encompass our industry’s distinct products.”

The LOUIE Award judging took place at the historic Hotel Washington on January 29-31, 2004 in Washington, DC. This year's distinguished group of 19 judges included Creased's president, Sok Song, as well as creative and marketing professionals working directly in the greeting card industry and representing GCA members and non-members alike, as well as retail buyers, an industry supplier and a representative of the United States Postal Service. (Sok, of course, did not judge the categories in which Creased competed.) The judges individually reviewed and scored each card submitted on a 1-10 point scale. Each entry was judged on existing criteria including Imagination, Impact, Artistry, Harmony, Sendability and Value.

Winners will be announced during this year's celebration honoring the LOUIEs on Monday, May 17, 2004 at the Lighthouse, Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers in New York City. George Little Management will showcase the 2003 finalists in a special LOUIE Awards display at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center throughout the National Stationery Show, May 16-19, 2004 in New York City.

Retailers, visit our Wholesale Site. For more information about the Louies, visit the GCA site.

Spring retail clearance— all items 20% off!

Between Sunday April 18 and Saturday May 15 we're going to be clearing out our current stock and planning a whole new season for our online retail store. That means you'll be able to take advantage of our Spring retail clearance sale and get 20% off all the items in our retail store, from our six lines of Creased brand handmade origami greeting cards to all kinds of origami paper, supplies, and more. Chiyogami, double-sided, foil, harmony, mesh, momigami, opalescents, oversized, plain, prints, tissue, washi and more! Plus origami kits, books, and supplies like bone folders and other items that can make origami easier. Order now while supplies last! Browse our online Catalog.

Natural History Museum Christmas tree celebrates origami

With this year's stunning incarnation of Origami USA's annual holiday tree, which was officially lit in a ceremony held at 11 a.m. on November 24, 2003, June Sakamoto has truly outdone herself. June's vision of a tree which brings the ocean to life has been stunningly realized, from the construction of the sea floor, alive with anemones and manta rays, to the rippling schools of fish and dolphins soaring over the beautiful waves on top of the tree playing with the large ball like pearl as well as a mobile of twinkling stars wheeling high overhead. The various origami sea life are so perfectly arranged that they look completely natural and fluid: everything on the tree seems to blend in as well as to jump out at you at the same time, creating a wonderful visual harmony. Completing the illusion of an undersea spectacle are several series of acetate bubbles running straight up to the top hung in strands on the branches of the tree, ingeniously arranged in progressively smaller sizes to perfectly convey air bubbling up to the surface. (For pictures of the tree, go to http://creased.com/ousa/holidaytree.htm).

This is the way origami should be portrayed, as art that reveals its complexity and beauty as you take it in, and Creased president Sok Song was honored to be a part of it. Watching visitors gather round this tree, whether by ones and twos or in teeming crowds of children, we noticed that they all marvel first at its rich beauty, then at the fact that this beauty was achieved through origami, through the simple folding of paper with no cuts or glue. Like the best origami art, this tree has the power to bring a new appreciation of origami for people who aren't familiar with it, young and old alike.

Every time you look at it you see something different. One of our nonfolding friends, gazing at the tree in amazement, remarked that like any piece of fine art, you have to look at it from all different perspectives to comprehend its depth and dimension and how much thought went into each aspect of its creation.

June has been doing this for over five years, every one of those trees has been amazing; but this year's tree outstripped them all. Because this year's theme was an innovation, little could be reused from past years, so over 1000 new origami models ranging from fish to shells and many different varieties of sea creatures were made from scratch. All in all over 4,000 pieces of paper were used to create this marvel. June's clever idea of folding seaweed and coral to use as the background setting, almost like garlands, took over 2,000 sheets of paper alone. 500 acetate bubbles were folded for the tree but only about 400 were actually used for the final tree design. This is a great example of how the tree was not just thrown together by placing models anywhere and everywhere, each and every piece of origami required a lot of thought on placement and many times several pieces were moved around to find the optimum space for the particular models.

All of the design elements had to be created from scratch this year. June started working on the tree even before last year's was taken down, pouring 500 hours of her own time and a great deal of her own resources into making this tree happen. Every aspect was thought out and rethought out until it was perfect. Her extensive planning and vision show in every detail of this creation.

And June is already thinking about next year's tree--and making plans to make it even more amazing.

Creased Natural Line highlighted in Greetings Etc.

The main trade magazine for greeting cards, Greetings Etc., featured Creased products in a special spread saluting handmade cards in its January/February issue. The Butterfly card from the Natural Line was featured, along with a selective handful of cards with handmade elements from other manufacturers, most larger and better known than Creased. The spread celebrated the importance and growth of the handmade card as an especially personal form of greeting. Visit our Greeting Card Catalog.

More new stores join Creased family

In recent months we've added several new stores across the country, including shops in Maryland, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Thanks and welcome to all our new family members. To see if there's a Creased reseller near you, contact us at info@creased.com. To see a full list, see our Partners page.

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Thanks to all our friends, customers, and partners. Your support means a lot to us, and we really appreciate it. Stop by again soon for more news, products, and information.

Have a question or a suggestion? Email us at info@creased.com.

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