The Empress Models a Statement

You may remember I blogged about The Empress in April. I thought she'd make a good model for the necklaces I design. A picture taken of a necklace flat makes it lifeless and it's difficult to get a good sense of how it will hang. Sort of like this:

The colors are true yet the spirit of the necklace is lost. So enter The Empress:

She brings the necklace to life. You can see how it will hang. It seems clear an additional picture taken on the Empress will show a potential customer how a necklace will look when worn.

What do you think? Has the Empress made a statement?

New Work: Fine Silver Clay

Bronze clay has encouraged me to try fine silver clay (pmc) again. I tried it awhile ago but as I've mentioned, I always felt Cindy + clay = lousy beads. My foray a couple of years ago into pmc was proof to me.

Yet, I've seen several pieces I'd like to duplicate and put into jewelry but the shrinkage with bronze metal clay is around 30%. That means, if I have a small piece I'd like to duplicate, it's going to shrink 30% making it difficult to finish.

Silver clay (pmc 3) shrinks much less, something like 10%. So I can duplicate smallish (1/2 inch or 12mm) and be able to finish it. Here's my latest piece:



On a photography note, see how much different it looks here on the roses and black background? I like how it looks here but the top one gives a truer picture of what the piece looks like. The one below, I think, sells the piece.



Right now, I'm not selling the Victorian Belt Buckle as a component so no link to my site today. I've created it specifically for jewelry. In my next post, I'll show you the finished piece.

So, tell me, readers, which picture do you like best and why?

Photography, Through the Looking Glass and Re-assessing.

Thanks for commenting on the photography yesterday! Seems lots of us struggle with the long necklace or photographing the pieces to their best advantage. Erin's work always looks spectacularly lovely so I'm going to try the focus on the one piece and pooling the rest of it. I've also thought of having one of my teenager's friends model and take a photo in that "cute off head show only the torso artsy way." Stay tuned, the photo issue has yet to be solved!

I've put a few more items up on my website. I ran across smaller (14mm) glass nuggets in the craft store. They were so tiny, I wondered if I could router them to make some charms. You may not think 14mm is tiny but you need room to make a groove plus hold them in your hand while you cut the groove - 14mm doesn't leave much room. Would I be able to make charms?

Success!



I've entitled these "Through the Looking Glass Nuggets" and they're available on my website. I've included the crystal glass nuggets too on Lynn's suggestion.




The past couple of weeks, I've had a series of migraine headaches that have virtually incapacitated me for days at a time. The blogging has been spotty because of it.

I've promised myself never to apologize for not blogging but I think this odd situation warranted a reason.

Migraines. Blech.

Fall is coming and I've got to re-assess. How much time am I really going to have to do everything I want to?

I'll be sign interpreting more hours a week until December and I need to work on my online sales more.

So, I've come up with a schedule. I'm going to blog four days a week: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm going to start my blogging schedule next week, August 30th. If you read regularly, then you'll know which days to come on over!

The good news is, my website will have more on it and I'll be sending out my newsletters regularly. YAY!

Are you re-assessing? What are you planning for?

Photography Phaux Pas

Can we talk photography? Photos can really make or break your work when you sell on line. You need good photos to replace the ability to see a piece in person. I've invested in good quality photo equipment, camera with a great macro, photo booth set up, lighting and backgrounds. Many of the photos I take are very good yet there is one style of jewelry that is eluding the great photograph - long (40"+) necklaces.

I'm going to use my recent experience entering the fabulous Use the Muse II contest. BTW be sure to visit the gallery and see the winning entries - amazing and lovely work!



I participated in Use the Muse II to push myself. I made glass links to complement the lovely selection of beads I received in the kit. I love to create long chain-y style necklaces but the problem I have is how to photograph them. My entry for the Use the Muse II is a great example of the photography phaux pas I commit with long necklaces. Here are a couple of the photos I submitted....




Kind of blah, huh? Honestly, I didn't like the above pictures when I sent them but they were the best photos I seemed to be able to get. You don't get a sense of the scope of the necklace or how it all fits together or hangs on the body. The above pictures were only two of the 100 pictures I took but I just couldn't get a good photo even with the macro and my mini-cube set up and photographers lights.

I tried different backgrounds and ways to display it but just can't seem to hit on the right combination.

Is it better to pool the long necklace onto a flat surface?



The black seemed to wash out the color of the necklace yet the white above was just so so.



So help me out, dear Readers - how do you photograph long necklaces or are you committing a photography phaux pas?

Shooting pictures for step by step project.

I'm shooting some step by step pictures today for future article. The tools are out and the camera is ready. I'm going to use the underlighting so the steps and the tools are well light. It will make it easier for readers of the project to see. After the first set of pictures arrived at the publishers, the editor wanted more. So that's the reason for today's photo shoot. Gotta get it all done before the deadline at the end of the month.

Do you have deadlines looming?

Speaking of Photography....

Since I talked about photography the last time and a couple of you made comments about the underlighting, I thought I'd share with you where I bought the underlighting. It was part of the Bead Photography kit from TabletopStudio.com. Prior to that, I had a homemade set up with plastic boxes/ice cream tubs and utility lights. It was ok, but my pictures and lighting are so much better than they were before. I'm less reliant on PhotoShop to adjust the lighting now. I melted the sides of several plastic containers trying to get the light brighter and I don't have to worry about that now.



If you use the underlighting, use it judiciously. I rarely use it with beads as it will give a lovely although unnatural glow to the beads. Underlighting can also darken the subject - making the bead appear darker because everything around it is bright. But this picture of the coral glass bling links looks pretty darn good using it. It was an experiment - so if you use the underlighting, experiment with it.



By the way, I bought a new camera - loved my Nikon Coolpix but wanted a camera that responded a bit quicker. Since The Teen loves Canons, I bought an SX110. The Teen takes most of the bead pictures now but sometimes his schedule is so busy, I have to wait and wait and wait to get some pictures shot - so, this is to fill in.

(Photo Credit from DPReview.com.)

Photography Success!

I'm working on a magazine submission and my step by step how to pictures weren't quite up to snuff. So, another round of pictures with underlighting. Underlighting helped to make the pictures bright enough for the editor. The teen took the pictures so this might be his first magazine credit. Cool. The pictures are going onto a CD and out in the mail today.

I don't usually use underlighting - but this was a situation where I needed the light under my hands to get a good picture. You know what they say about photography and film, it's all about the light!

Zoo-licious Snow Leopard

The Teen's newest picture - The Buffalo Zoo's Snow Leopard. I LOVE this picture - he's entitled it "Reticence." Perfect name, I think - but don't expect me to be unbiased.

Seeing....

Did you look at something mundane in a new way? Comments say some of you did. Here's an art shot of a vinyl record - yes they're back - YAY. Taken by who else but The Teen.

Cool, huh? I'm proud he's finding amazing ways to express who he is. I'm one lucky parent!

What outlets do your kids have to express who they are?

Fish Eyes, Comments and Running on Empty....

Fun photos from The Teen's new obsession, a FishEye lens on his Holga camera. I took this picture of him at the Chicago Public Library when we went to see John Green. THAT was a cool space, an atrium with a glass roof and lots of light.

I'm behind with commenting to my readers. Sorry, All! I'll get to your comments and write some new posts today. I can handle the sign language interpreting schedule along with creating but when I add taxi-mom to the equation, I find it hard to juggle all the balls at the same time. This morning, The Bean Counter announced he'd had it with work and he was resigning this week. YikeS! I'm glad he wants to move on and I support it but give me more notice! I've offered to take on the breadwinner role but I'd like to be able to transition a bit better. Oh well, it will work out.

I'm feeling like I'm running on empty but it will be nothing compared to when I take over the breadwinner role - so I have Jackson Browne in my head this morning. If you listen, you will too!