Bead or Blog....Blog or Bead?

I'm sure every blogging beader has the same conundrum.

I'm happier while beading than I am while blogging. Particularly since prepping for a blog post means taking and editing my photos, and preparing them for uploading. And it just doesn't seem like a blog anymore without a few photos! Why is that, I wonder?  I used to be able to just yammer on about feelings or hopes and fears or, well, crap, without the need for photos rearing it's ugly head.

Time is the commodity we all have the least of. Except for teenagers, who are immortal, and thus don't feel that spending their youth courting carpal tunnel of the thumbs while texting is a waste.  I feel like I'd rather spend my valuable time where it makes me happiest.

So my blog-productivity (blogitivity? productbloggity?) is down somewhat. But on the other hand, I really like sharing my work. I like the support I get from other beaders and readers. I like the suggestions that come along when I pose a question or have a knotty problem. And beaders always have knotty problems. If ya' know what I mean.  

So there are benefits to blogging that I don't want to forego, and I know that if I want to keep readers coming back, I can't just let this blog lapse for months at a time like so many do. I can't tell you how many blogs I've stumbled across at random where the last post was in July (2009), and that one says, "Oh, I haven't posted for months but now I'm going to be posting every day..."  Yeah. Right.  

Fresh and interesting content keeps people coming around. People who will show me their stuff if I show them mine. So, we're back to photos, aren't we?

I've been struggling endlessly with my camera. I couldn't get reproducible results from one photo to another. I got the darn thing repaired (thank you, Canon USA). I couldn't believe that it wasn't easier to take a simple photo.  Online I found a recommendation that for a camera to take good jewelry photos it needs to have a Macro setting, and a white balance adjustment. My camera has those.  Why doesn't it work for me?

So I returned to state zero on my camera. I wiped out all the custom settings I'd been trying, and read the darn manual. One more time. Whattaya know?  There it is on the Macro page, when I click the little flower button, it will take pictures as close as 2 inches, or 9 inches when zoomed. Though it seems like their measurement isn't to the lens, it's the back of the camera, really.  It will focus itself. Stop struggling, Lynn. Just let the zen of the camera take over....be the picture. 

And it worked. Finally. Closeups that are beautiful, and look like the object being photographed. I had to do minimal correction of the photos in editing software. Cropping, adjusting high/lowlights, and saving in the right format. I think I only used sharpening on one photo in the whole batch!

These pictures are of my most recent piece. It's a bracelet done with a peyote strap, in size 15, yes, 15 beads. I love the "fabric" of beads this creates, so supple and with a surface of glowing depth. Then I used a ruffled netting along each edge, with 3mm Magatamas in purple to highlight the edge. 

I used a slide bar clasp in sterling, and the large beads in the fringy embellishment are flourite rounds, 12mm. I love those. This bracelet came out exactly as I wanted it to. Can you see the subtle variation in the beads on the strap? There are patterns there which, when you hold the bracelet under the light and move it, are more obvious than in the pictures. I accomplished this by using two color codes of 15s, right next to each other, Artbeads Toho 506 and 507, one of which is more blue/green/purple, and the other more green/yellow. Lovely.  I hope you can see that pattern in the pictures.

I auditioned several different methods of embellishing around the clasp, most of which didn't work. This clump of Magatamas with the flourite coming out of it is great. The larger beads flop about and clack together, so you get sound as well as sight and tactile enjoyment of the bracelet.

This piece is a variation of the last bracelet I finished, using some metallic finish size 8 delicas in what the seller called a "rain" mix. Didn't look like rain to me, but it looked nice. I made my own hook and loop closures for this one...it's only marginally successful. But as an inspiration to move into a variation that was so successful, I forgive it for not being perfect.  Sort of. Maybe I'll give it to someone I don't really like. Or convince someone to adopt it because it's so pitiful. 

In any case, with some adjustments in lighting and staging, I think I can move along in my quest for better photos now. I know it's not the camera. I probably shouldn't be taking all my pictures on a ratty beading matt with thread clippings on it, either. I have a lovely set up in the other room. 

Now I can move on to agonizing over why I don't have any Etsy sales.

More Micro-Macramé and Other Pieces

The micro-macramé has been going well. One of the projects in the book by Kris Buchanan I purchased caught my eye, and I tried out the leaf shape to see how hard it was. The answer is, the decrease/increase wasn't hard at all, but getting the beads in the center, which fall in a small gap, to be tight between the rows of knotting, isn't as easy as it looks. I suspect I did something wrong with the angle of the anchor cord as I did the second side. You have to drop a cord each time to make the top side, then pick it up again as you create the lower side of the leaf. Cool!

I'll continue working at this practice piece until I feel like I can fling myself into a real project. Not yet. A few more leaves perhaps. 

Some earlier pieces joined me in my photography tent, but the light wasn't cooperating, either that or I've forgotten everything from the last session. Pics aren't as sharp as I'd like, or the depth of field stinks, or something. 

First is a fun piece I did in a netting stitch, there are some vintage purple glass beads, some amethyst drops, but most of it is glass. Oh, and the little coral dumbbell shaped beads are so much fun. I wish I had a ton more of those, though they weren't cheap. When you put multiples together, they form such great shapes.

Next is one of the first pieces I did when I came home from Mendocino two years ago. That's when and where I found those wonderful black and white seashell beads. Yes, those shells are naturally striped that way! Not painted. They're combined with bone beads from Africa, some coral, and some onyx. I love this necklace, and actually made it twice, but the other one isn't as full and I like this one best. I treasure those shells and will have to use the remaining ones very carefully.

The lapis and silver necklace is also one of my favorites. The large silver beads are silver over ceramic, there's sea glass beads, along with real Afghanistan lapis that I took out of a crudely strung necklace I purchased at a swap meet several years ago. Silver spacers and liquid silver fill it out. Stringing liquid silver is a bit intensive. This was a "learning to get the lower multi-strands to connect to the single upper strands, and get them to hang right" try. The main lapis piece somehow came out a trifle to one side. Sigh. I don't really want to redo the whole thing, but you can't sell something that isn't perfect.

Last for this post, is the original embroidered pendant that inspired my friend Anne to get her commission piece. I finished this just before Christmas last year, for obvious reasons. I absolutely loved working on this. On the second piece, I incorporated a pin back to help anchor the pendant to clothing and/or to anchor the length of the sliding braid. When worn, this one is a bit fussy as it keeps sliding down and hiding the large fringe at the bottom. I'll have to retrofit a pin back on this one, eventually. 

I also did this directly on Lacy's Stiff Stuff, and that was before I realized that you had to either color the LSS with pens or cover it with ultrasuede so that white doesn't peek through the beading, because nobody can perfectly bead 100% coverage. So, not a perfect result, but still really cool. It impressed the heck out of family members at Christmas!

More gallery pieces as I get the pictures taken.

Teeny Photo Studio Built By Hand

Two weekends ago, I went to a local photography store, and looked at their tools for photographing close-up (what they call "macro") for the jewelry. Okay, they didn't have what I'd seen online, and the tools they did have were both expensive and somewhat scary.

But I did commit to a really nice table-top tripod with a magnetic mount. Love it. You'll see it below.

Then my niece (she of the photo expertise) sent me a link to how to build your own light-tent, I looked at that and at some of the other small jewelry/beading close-up light tents and other tools available online.  She also left me some neat florescent light bulbs which are supposed to be color-balanced, and some background sheets of paper in white, black, silver and gold.

Some of the kits I found online, that came prepackaged with light-tent, lights, reflectors and tripods, were reasonably priced, at $50, some were much more expensive, at around $300. I suspected the lower end kits were a bit cheesy, reviews online weren't complimentary of the quality of the lights, etc. The high end seemed a bit extreme. 

Building my own light-tent...