Project De-Stash

Sometimes I really wish that I had a room all to myself for my stash of stuff that I use to make things with.  The set-up I do have is pretty good though, everything is stored in the under-stairs cupboard in various boxes and I’m pretty good at storing like with like – the feathers are in one box, the jewellery in another, lace and little bits of fabric in another and so on.

For ages though I’ve been meaning to have a good sort out and (against my magpie hoarding tendencies)  sort out all of the things that I’m probably never going to use myself, get them photographed and get them up for sale, either on Ebay or on Etsy.

Over the last week I’ve sifted and sorted, and today I have taken many many photographs.  I don’t have enough time today to get them all edited, so that’ll be my job over the next few days – editing and describing and then getting them all up on-line and hopefully selling them.  All monies from project de-stash are going to be put towards a new tent for me and the kids so fingers crossed!

In the meantime, pop over to the 1st Unique Gifts blog to see what everyone else has been up to.

Busy waiting for Santa…..

…or rather, ensuring the small people in my life have some pressies from Santa to open on the big morning : )

My last post talked about the playing around with photography I was going to do and I did manage to get a couple of hours playing around.  Trying to use the natural light available to me is something of a mission – I live in an old Victorian terraced house and the way they are built pretty much ensures very little light seeps in through the windows.  There are certain times of day in particular rooms where it’s great for a couple of hours, but that very much depends upon the weather outside too – and this being the UK it can be a a bit dismal this time of year.

First up is the photo of a carnelian bead and glass lamp bead bracelet I made recently.  Not perfect but better than some of my other photos recently.  What I should have done (and will do in future) is tape a piece of semi-transparent paper to the window that was offering me the natural light.  That will hopefully get rid of the glare on the bottle.  The pretty perfume bottle is a nice way to show off the bracelet don’t you think?  I’m a bit distracted by the gap I can see in the frame that’s sitting behind the bottle too, so I shall have to make sure that doesn’t happen again either.

Next up is a picture of a choker.  Now, the colours in this are a little off, so I’ll have to tweak the photo again I think before putting it up on Etsy.  They’re only slightly off – the red flower is not quite as bright as this in real life, and the fabric is slightly more red than it appears here.  And I’m distracted by the marks on the bust – I had thought I’d cleaned her up but in my keenness to get some photos done I obviously managed to overlook these.

Something that I’ve been puzzling over is how dreadful my Macro photos look with this camera – I just can’t get close to an object.  After Googling the problem I discovered it’s one of the failings of the camera (as is the over-saturation of reds) so in the next photo I tweaked it with Picnik to get the look I was after:

Pretty don’t you think?  I’m going to play around with that little option a lot more – I love those arty shots of an item that have something in the foreground in sharp focus and everything looking all soft and fuzzy….

Last up is a pretty straight-forward detail shot of a second choker.

So although this may not look like much really, I think it’s a pretty good jump forward with regard to my photography.  In fact, I was seriously considering buying a new camera but realised that in the end it had to be down to me, and that as I can’t actually afford a swanky new camera I ought to just get down to being a little more clever with it.

What I don’t have a shot of is the light-box I made with a card-board box, some gaffer tape and parchment paper, but the next time I have a free weekend (not until after Christmas now) I shall be playing around with that.  So I’d best get to making some small items that can be placed inside it!

Getting busy….

Here in the UK the Autumn nights are drawing in and Winter is peeking around the corner.  As much as I want to curl up every evening with a book and a glass of red I am making an effort to *up* my game as a maker and seller of quirky jewellery and costume items.  ”How so?”, you may be asking….

Well, photography is not my strong suit but I’ve been reading up and taking notes from various sources (ok, yes, that means I eventually read the same stuff over and over….) and recently I was inspired by some photos that were taken by a member of a craft forum I belong to, using just angle poise lamps and tissue paper as filters for the brightness of the bulbs along with his digital camera.  The pictures were great and it has inspired me to have a go this weekend.

Alongside this I have been spending a bit of money on some items to help display the jewellery I make.  I’ve got three nice picture frames and with a little shabby-chic paintwork and the addition of an inner of wadding and cream fabric I’ll have something new to place/pin items to, both for photography and for general display purposes when I’m at an event.

And I’m seriously considering buying a plain dress form too (although goodness knows where I’ll put it in the house….) so that I can get better photographs of costume items.

I’m determined to crack the photography problem!

 

Headdress Drama

Yesterday produced a flurry of Etsy activity that was….interesting.

The upshot is that this piece sold to someone going to The Secret Garden festival in the UK.  What was even better about it was that the customer was on Etsy looking for inspiration for something she was making and decided to buy my headdress instead.  Yay!

So first of all I get an email asking how quickly I can get it sent to her as she’s in the UK and she assumed I was in the US.  Nope, I’m here in good old Blighty.  I can send it today (yesterday IRL).  Ok, customer doesn’t have a Paypal account……  That’s ok, I can send an invoice and she can send via Paypal without setting up an account.  DOH!  There are to-ings and fro-ings that I won’t go into but eventually the sale is made, the price is paid and I get it in the post at 3pm guaranteed to get to her the next day (today).

As would be expected her last email to me was to check that the item was as good as it looked – I assured her that it would be better than it looked in the photo as photos are not my strong suit……

The feedback was worth all the online fretting – “She just arrived and she’s GORGEOUS, thank you so much!!”

Ah, I love a happy customer…….