I took the plunge and created an NFT Collection in cyberspace to celebrate my passion for cats. Yes, even at my age I love to try new things, especially if I can do it creatively. Including Koh Lanta in the collection name was important because I’m very happy that I picked Thailand and Koh Lanta for my retirement. Looking at this collection, I see a celebration of both my love for cats and for my home on this remote island.

Designing the Happy Cat Koh Lanta Collection

Designing the collection took longer than anticipated, not due to any processing, but due to the thought process that went into it. I first had to pick a main sketch to base the collection on.

It was natural that I would pick my happy cat face, the sketch I have been doodling on everything since I was a kid of three. It was at this age that I got my first cat, and totally and hopelessly fell in love with cats.

My passion for cats has continued throughout my life. It provides me with so much happiness and purpose that I think I’d be lost without my passion for felines.

Numerology and Symbolism

Once I picked my design, I had to figure out what my collection would be like. I decided that I wanted to mint 18 images as this had been a very lucky number throughout my life. I remember when I was younger I’d get gifts of $18 on my birthday from family members and friends of my parents.

As I got older, I too would gift $18 to others, and pick the 18th of the month for days to do special things, even picking 18 of something like for a bouquet of flowers and number of fruit or cookies I would buy.

For each of the 18 images, I had to figure out something that would make it unique from the others. I decided on a mix of colors and to include fish, my cat’s favorite food. To continue with my numerology and symbolism theme, I decided that some of the images would have 13 fish.

I then decided that some would have a mix of colored fish, and others would have one fish a different color from the others, as the outlier. I love outliers, they tell us so much about the whole.

Deciding on the Image Name and Description

Figuring out what each image would look like took time and there was a lot of redesign as I thought about it. I also had to give each image a name and a description. This was a very creative process as I wanted the name to reflect what the image represented, based on my retirement in a foreign country. This made it all very meaningful for me, and I really enjoyed coming up with the names and explaining them.

The images truly represent my transition from a high tech career in Canada, to a retired expatriate in Thailand. This process became a very personal experience and helped me see how I’ve changed and developed, and how I now look at life during this difficult period on the planet as we all recover from the pandemic.

Developing the Images

I developed the images from a photo of my happy cat face sketch. Then I used a basic draw software application to draw the fish and change the background and fill colors on the images. It was very easy to do and I ended up with about 25 images. I then had to pick the 18 for the collection.

This seems simple, but it took a few days as I kept changing my mind about which image best fit the name and description. I actually enjoyed this whole process and found it creatively satisfying.

Easy to Create/Mint the Images on OpenSea

OpenSea is one of the top sites for NFTs, and it provides a super easy process for creating NFTs and for building a collection. I basically followed the prompts to create my first image and then made selections to add each additional image to the collection. It was time consuming as I had to be careful to ensure each image had the name and description assigned to it.

I made a few mistakes with duplicating images, giving the wrong name to come and got a few descriptions mixed up. However, it was simple to fix even though it took time to go through all the processing steps.

Pricing My Collection

I’m currently stalled at deciding the pricing for my collection. My 18 NFTs are in cyberspace on OpenSea, but they have no pricing. Since I’m not doing this to make money nor trade in cryptocurrency, I’m not sure if I will price them. I could price some, and make sure that a few have insane prices to ensure they remain in my possession. It is doubtful any will sell, but I want to make sure at least a handful stay mine.

Another factor that may reduce any likelihood of sales is that I haven’t yet paid gas but selected to have it charged when an image is sold. The gas, or processing fee for minting an image, is based on many factors, and could be extremely expensive for all 18 images in my collection. So far, it hasn’t cost me anything, and I want to keep it that way.

I’m 68 and a Player in the NFT Marketplace!

It is totally insane that at my age I’m a player in the NFT marketplace, or is it? All the articles and marketing for NFTs seems to be targeting the ultra rich and the younger professional. I did a bit of research, asked a few questions, and got a good grasp of what this marketplace is all about. I designed a collection, built it and created it in cyberspace, along with creating a crypto-wallet.

It was all so easy to do and loads of fun. I love learning new things and then trying them out. Don’t let age get in the way of trying something. And don’t listen to those that say we are too old to understand something new. Maybe they are the ones that don’t understand something old.

What creative project have you completed recently? Do you think of NFTs as financial tools only, or as creative outlets? What NFT collection might you think of creating, just for the fun of it?