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!

 

Akasha Queen of the Damned Headdress

Here’s the one good pic so far.  I’ve had to do some bits and bobs to finish it off but over-all I’m pretty happy with this!

Akasha, Queen of the Damned headdress

Little by little I’ve been working on a headdress for a customer who is attending a Hallowe’en party as Akasha Queen of the Damned.  If you’re unsure of what I’m talking about then you can see some stills from the film here and the headdress I’m doing a version of is the one with pendants and coins on it.

It’s been one of those projects that has required a lot of looking at pics from the film, has required a few coats of thinking about, and it’s underway and should be finished by the end of the week.

As usual, early on in the process it looked pretty ….bleak…. then I found some pendants that totally rock and even though they’re not actual Turkoman pendants (as they would have used up the whole of the customer’s budget before I was even started) they’re doing a damn fine job of looking cool.

And because I’m rubbish at documenting what I’m working on as I do it there are no pics yet, but you can be absolutely sure that once it’s done the pictures will be here.

Weekend Tasks

This weekend I shall be child-free so I really need to organise myself.  My under-stairs cupboard is full to bursting with *things*.  Some of it needs to be sold but isn’t suitable for Etsy really, so Ebay is the way to go.  So I need the motivation to get it all out, get it photographed, sized where appropriate, and get listings written up ready to go onto Ebay.  This includes fabric, lace, jewellery, clothing, beads and braids.  If I have time some of it might get made up into stash packs that I can sell.  People around me are very generous and let me have all manner of things that they think I might be able to use.  Being a magpie means that I am sometimes unable to say no when I should but I figure that everything is useful one way or another.  But as the children’s toys and books are increasing with every birthday (and of course Christmas is coming up) I need to both make some extra money and create some space for their things.

Other items need the same treatment (photos and descriptions) but can be listed in my Etsy shop and I like nothing better than having a whole heap of draft listings ready to go so that I can add a new item every day over a period of time.

Then of course there’s the task of gathering up everything that is already listed on Etsy and making sure it’s all in one place instead of there being things all over the house in various drawers, bowls, boxes and decorating my bedroom.  This would actually be one of the more useful tasks to complete this weekend so maybe that one should be first on the list as it’s probably the easiest to complete in a short space of time.

Next there are all of the things that I stash as supplies for making new stuff – I really need to remind myself of what I’ve got and see if I can be inspired….or at least remind myself of what I have, week out things that could be sold as they are or dismantled and sold for supplies if I think I may not be able to use them.

Once I’ve done all of this I need to get on with finishing a custom Tribal belly dance bra and belt and get on with a custom headdress order.  So I’m not sure that I’ve got enough time to do everything over the weekend, but I’m certainly going to make a good attempt at it.  Probably fuelled with coffee and chocolate cake to keep me going!

Oh, and let’s not forget that I have a Belly Dance event, Hipnotic, to run and dance at on Sunday night

Fun’s over

Back to work…….

Shiny Up-Date

The school summer holidays are well and truly up us now, so for me that means limited time to create, practice dance and choreograph in readiness for next term.

No matter.  I shall be doing what I can in the next month and we’ll see what comes of it.  And now, as a small child has fallen asleep (never good at 5pm in the afternoon) I’m off to dig out the last couple of my tribal belly dance bras and see if I can get some pictures for Etsy.

Plus, if you’re interested in coming to classes I’ve updated the Blackwillow Belly Dance website with dates for the coming school year.

 

Head Stuff

I really must on with making some new headdresses methinks.

There’s always a million ideas, and a squillion bits of jewellery to plunder and some new flowers popped in to say hi on Sunday so I’d best get creating!

Once a upon I had planned to get around 10 or so pieces done to take to WOMAD but that hasn’t happened… never mind, it’ll probably be raining anyway so I should invest in umbrellas!

But I am tempted to look at vending at a couple of festivals next year, very tempted indeed….

Taking Great Pictures

As you may know, taking great pictures is not my strong suit but I’m going to be trying again to get better shots of my handmade and vintage items as soon as the dark skies clear and the rain stops falling.

Whilst I am not pinning all hopes of more sales from my Etsy store on simply having better pictures I am keen to ensure that I have the best photographs possible.

So this has been my research subject for the week – to buy a light tent or not?  What can I use as a fabulous but not too distracting back-drop or background?  Do I need a better camera?

I think the camera I have is pretty good, and I’m getting better at using the settings and functions on it and to be fair to myself I cannot afford a new one.  Having a tripod has helped enormously.  All I have to do now is make British summer conditions work for me, and find the best spots in the house to get the best light (something this is always going to be changeable and that I’ll have to be flexible about).

I’ve found some great articles online about photography and here are some of the better ones:

Table Top Studio

Handmade Marketing

Everything Etsy

I’ll keep you posted with progress….

 

 

 

Oh what to do….?

Suddenly I am child free this afternoon….

So here’s the list of what I need to do before 4pm:

Get ready for Hipnotic tomorrow; costumes, music, get paper plates from somewhere (why couldn’t I find paper plates in Morrisons?), make cakes and hide them from the kids, do some more dance practice, housework, ironing…..

Actually, scratch the ironing….

Or……..shall I have a cup of tea and read a book and have a nap?

The latter is very tempting……maybe that can be my reward if I manage to squeeze everything else into the next hour?