About the Invention

When Plum's children were small, she decided to turn her Christmas tree into a "family tree." Each year she created ornaments out of family photos backed with gold painted wooden curtain rings. She hung the personalized ornaments on her "family tree" with ribbon. Over the years, as her family grew older and the collection grew larger, she looked for a commercial product to save her from hand-making her own ornaments every year. Unable to find such a thing, she developed her own solution. The Photoball™ was created in 1996.

"I spent the year getting it from the design stage, speaking to engineers, getting blueprints made, getting prototypes made, finding a factory, getting the box designed... all that stuff. I had no idea how hard it was going to be. People in the ornament business are amazed that I did this so quickly."

The clear Photoball™ is hinged at its base and clicks open, revealing a hidden frame. After placing two photos back to back inside, the ball clicks shut and is ready to be hung on the tree. Within the year, Plum set up production in China and has since sold 350,000 Photoballs™ in Canada through major retail outlets such as Wal-Mart. Canadian Tire and Black's Cameras. The Photoball™ was renamed Pictureball™ for the U.S. market.

Plum is an experienced "creator." In addition to the Photoball™, she pioneered parenting newsmagazines in Canada. In 1984, Plum started the award-winning newspaper, Kids Toronto, a monthly publication for parents and children under twelve from her basement, and formed KidsCanada Publishing Corp.

Publisher of Kids Toronto until 1993, and president of KidsCanada Publishing Corp. from 1983 until 1994, she sold the profitable company to Torstar Ltd., which also owns the Toronto Star newspaper. Kids Toronto is now run as City Parent.

Kids Toronto won many international awards, including a Toronto Marketing Award, 1986, and Plum won first place for her editorial excellence in her regular monthly column from Medhill School of Journalism and Parenting Publications of America. In 1990, she was given the Toronto Sun newspaper Women on the Move award in recognition of her outstanding achievement in business.

About the Inventor

In so many ways, Plum embodies the spirit of inventiveness. The running theme in Plum's life is the "creation" of new products and "transformation" of self. She has a storehouse of products on the go or waiting to get off the ground. In addition to being a product developer and publisher, she is also a portrait painter and writer, and has taught English at high school, worked as a copywriter for Sears Canada, a creative director for United Florists, and acted on stage and TV.

An adventurer, this multi-talented woman is a risk-taker ready to take on big ideas and big challenges. There is no such thing as a problem - just a "challenge." As well, her entrepreneurial spirit dovetails perfectly with her inventive mind.

You would think that the first thing an inventor visualizes is the product. Not so! Plum likes to start at the end and work back to the front. First she plans the marketing, then the distribution, packaging third and product engineering last. The very first thing that she created when she embarked on the journey with Photoball™ was a T-shirt with a slogan.

Born in Virginia, U.S., Plum lived for several years as a young child in China before moving to Oakville, Ontario. Plum credits her creative mind to having grown up in a very stimulating environment. Her mother was "creatively encouraging." She disliked uniformity and taught her children to look at the world in new ways. There wasn't much money, and Plum and her brothers created entertainment for themselves. Plum is the mother of three grown children, who support her work tremendously. She says that her "best career" is being a mother.