Millions of people have seen Lauren Bowe’s nostalgic summer pool toys… but there’s a dark side to the charm of viral fame.
There’s a really cool ceramic artist named Jeff Rubio who, in addition to creating cheeky vases and wavy pots, uses huge ceramic beads, rope and steel to create giant beaded lizards. For those of us who use colorful pony beads and plastic string (in Pennsylvania we call it “gimp” but I think it’s regional?) to make little lizard charms that hang on our backpacks and fanny packs . Let’s say it’s a fun nostalgic lens. lightning.
In Minneapolis, Lauren Bowe has spent the last few weeks making her own large “beaded” creatures from Styrofoam pool noodles, which she cut into pieces, cut diagonally into beads and used to create huge floating “keychains” that she placed on a rope around the house.
“My friends and I love spending time at the lake and always buy floats. I got out my bead making stuff because I was going to see Taylor Swift and I needed to make friends for my friends bracelet,” Bao laughed. “I saw these beads and something came to my mind and I thought, ‘You know what? I can do it”.
Because I’m a millennial, I first came across Bow’s creations on Instagram over the weekend, where her first ’90s keychain (a classic gecko) has racked up over 100,000 copies since being posted on June 27th. Thumbs up.
On TikTok, the follow-up video (this time of a turtle) racked up more than 200,000 likes and 2 million views in just two days.
“I don’t have a niche craft that I want to do, but I’ve always enjoyed creating things,” Bao said. She’s no stranger to virality either – back in the City Edition days, we wrote about a popular joke in which she printed out and laminated an unlimited number of breadstick passes to trick a friend into thinking he was: You can’t eat breadsticks during the first olive. Visit to the garden. “It was just a case of me having an idea, saying, ‘I can do that,’ and then doing it.”
“However, I have to tell you that there is a downside to this,” she said. “Being viral sucks!” Bowe primarily uses Instagram to “post” and keep in touch with friends. Here she is, her true self… and her noodle making skills are going viral, with thousands of new followers who aren’t quite sure who she is.
She had already gone viral and knew that her popular posts would lead to a steady stream of followers once they realized she didn’t specialize in making fun crafts for strangers. Some people will leave quietly, some will be a little angry about it. “I took it personally! And now… when I post something personal, they’re like, “I don’t care.” I’m stuck with posters for the rest of my life. ”
“At the same time, it’s a good incentive to keep creating things because that’s what I love to do,” she admits. Of course, there were some good things: for example, someone she had followed for a long time on Instagram messaged her to say that he had made a float inspired by her.
For Bow, that’s the whole idea behind her content – fun, easy-to-use, inexpensive crafts that anyone can try for themselves. All you need is two pool noodles from the $1.25 store (“They’re a little out of reach right now, 25 cents more,” she laughs), two hours in front of the TV, and voila—make this pool toy in a 90s style of your own. .
There’s good news for Bow’s new float-obsessed followers: she wants to make another, larger key float, complete with keychains, before the end of the summer. All she had to do was find some more noodles first.
“I was looking for bigger noodles to make them bigger, but they already have everything we need for school, so I guess I’m a little late,” she laughs, although we don’t. This will eliminate the possibility of a large number of potential float makers emptying out the local dollar store. “If you have a great idea, you need to buy the next one before you launch it.”
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Post time: Oct-29-2023
