10/27/2025
If people ask us what was one thing that changed the business for the better, it was this job from all the way back in mid-January of 2021 when our founder got a phone call that changed everything. "Would it be possible to make half a million seed bombs...by March?"
This was definitely the turning point at Papercraft Miracles, going from two employees to 70 overnight and all during the height of the pandemic! Receiving a contract for half a million seed bombs is the quickest, albeit unconventional, way to test your production capabilities. We had seemingly endless tables of people working non-stop from 7am to 8pm (and sometimes later) in rotating shifts and an endless production of pulp being made all at once in our ground floor studio and basement papermaking studio.
On top of that, we also had to find interesting ways to dry all the seed bombs before we could pack them up, which involved some creative problem solving. We had seed bombs drying on racks, on giant silkscreens and even in cargo nets hanging from the ceiling! A few times during all of this chaos, when the seed bombs didn't dry fast enough, some of them were already growing on the rack! On the final day of production, when every little ball was finally finished, we had all our drying racks full including a custom-made 4-layered 4x8' drying rack and even stood there with hair dryers blasting til the last possible second to make sure they were all bone dry before loading them into the truck.
When all was said and done, we drove the seed bombs all the way to the packing facility in Chicago and delivered them ON TIME, on the day they were due, 30 minutes before the factory closed. 😅😅😅
To say it was the job of a lifetime was an understatement. It was an two months of straight creative problem solving, hard manual labor and laughing our asses off with exhaustion. Being on a huge team like that, all working together towards a common goal is something we wish everyone had a chance to experience at least once in their lives. We had people from all walks of life...high school kids working their first jobs after school, immigrants who spoke no English at all, retirees who were lonely from the pandemic alongside artists and musicians who were out of work due to COVID restrictions. Most days it felt like summer camp, being in community with so many others, day in and day out. It was magical.
And what were the 500,000 seed bombs used for, you ask?? They were included in biodegradable piñatas that were given out as part of Lowe's Spring Garden Giveaway event all across the United States. Talk about being the change you want to see in the world. We were honored to rise to the occasion and would definitely do it again.
