Monthly Archives: August 2011

Lessons Learned or How I Put the Photography Tutorial to Use

Jewelry, Photography, ,

Loryn’s photography tutorial would be useless if I didn’t actually put it to work. After watching her take photos, thinking about design and white space (which I had a lot of in my previous photos), and considering a photo list of all the shots you need when posting items to be sold, I was set loose with my camera and Photoshop.

I have been on a shell, mother of pearl and pearl kick lately in my jewelry. There are so many varieties of shells and pearls in so many colors and shapes that the opportunities and uses for them are too numerous to name or even demonstrate. I will show some of my tributes to mother nature’s wonder: Mother of Pearl.

Three shell necklaces nested together.
I call these my "UFO" necklaces.

These are the three I have completed so far. The pink and white necklaces are both made with pink shell donuts, white quartz round beads, and silver 6/0 and pink 11/0 seed beads. The black necklace is made of black shell donuts, black shell flat round beads, and silver 6/0 and black hex seed beads. I made the hook and eyes out of 18 gauge sterling silver wire.

Pink shell UFO necklace.

Black shell UFO necklace.

The difference in my photography before and after is rather dramatic. These are so much more clear and are visually interesting. Previously I had way too much white space and very little actual design. I would just drape the necklace in a circle and shoot the photo. Here I am trying to make the photos a little more dynamic. My camera is better than i remember it being (I haven’t used this one in a long time or all that often when I did use it) and the lights are wonderful (Thanks Loryn for letting me borrow them). My set-up is really pretty small and doesn’t take up a lot of space and being in a rather unused corner helps a lot. It is also really close to my worktable, so no more excuses for bad photos.

Close-up photo of the trio of UFO shell necklaces.
Nice close-up photo of the trio! Go Kristin!

And one more shot of my clasps from all three necklaces.

Close-up photo of the hook and eye clasps.
Made with 18 gauge sterling silver.

I think it was a very successful tutorial. Let’s all thank my sister Loryn for putting an end to my atrocious affront on humanity with bad photos. Thing of it is, I can appreciate my jewelry work more and see that it really is getting much better and more put-together now that I have some good photographs of it. Of course, I can also see all the flaws and errors much more easily with macro photography. etsy here I come!

–Kristin

Jewelry Photography 101

How to, Jewelry, Photography, ,

Loryn came to B-ton this weekend to help me get started taking jewelry pictures for my etsy shop. Photography class couldn’t start until I had the tools and environment under control. I had to clean up the are and get the photo table set-up. I have an old drafting table which has become my base, the lights are borrowed from Loryn, the camera is my old Fuji Film 3800 FinePix, and I bought a roll of banner paper from Pygmalion’s, the local art store.

Set-up of photo table.
I have hung the brackets and you can see the dowel that will hold the roll of banner paper.

Living in an A-Frame house can cause some difficulties in hanging anything from the walls, so to hang my banner paper which would become my photo backdrop, I purchased two closet rod brackets. I hung these from the walls and put a dowel though the roll of paper. This drapes down to the table and provides a great backdrop that I can replace easily and even write and doodle on with no costly consequences. Just cut and roll out another sheet and you are good to go.

Then came the actual tutorial.
—Kristin

The photo table with backdrop and lights on each side.
The full photo setup

Loryn here. This is what the full photography set-up looks like. After shooting thousands of objects for sale on eBay, I got the best results by having two lights balanced on each side of the object. The tripod is helpful, but not a necessity with Kristin’s camera, which has good image stabilization.

The power strip has to be close at hand (or foot, really), so we can turn the lights off and on easily. The photo lights are 500 watt daylight bulbs. They are very, very hot, and they have a 5 hour lifespan, so you only want them on while shooting. A truly professional set-up would include lights that are slaved to the camera, so they only come on when you press the shutter release. We’re not there yet, if we will ever be.

Jewelry positioned in the photo area.
Putting the jewelry in place

Here I’m trying out different positions for the camera and the jewelry. The camera has a 6X zoom, so it needs to be fairly close to get nice tight macro shots.

Loryn photographing jewelry
Photography in action

I’ve always thought that product photography is similar to taking portraits. Every object has a “face,” even just metaphorically, and a close up of that face is the shot you want for your thumbnails. Here is the “face shot” of Kristin’s pearl necklace:

Pearl necklace with dangle
Close up of Kristin's pearl necklace

Didn’t Kristin do a beautiful job designing this? She let me wear it when I got married, and it looked wonderful with my pink dress.

After the face shot, I pull back for the complete object. With necklaces, the challenge is to get the item to fill most of the frame, instead of a mostly white shot. It’s easier with a multi-strand necklace like this.

Multi-strand pearl necklace
The full necklace shot

After a few adjustments in Photoshop, the photos are ready to go! Check out the next post for more of Kristin’s jewelry!
—Loryn

Hey Sister, Go Sister, Soul Sister, Go Sister

craft

Woohoo! So, Loryn is coming down to B-Town to visit me this weekend. In fact, she is on her way now. This is the first trip for quite a while that is just for fun (for the most part) with very little on the agenda. Loryn is going to train me in photography 101 with and emphasis in macro photography for my up and coming etsy jewelry business. More on this later.

Anyway, I don’t know if it has been mentioned yet, but Loryn is a vegetarian and I just love to cook for her. It makes for a complete different set of challenges in food preparation. Tastes and food combinations change quite a bit when you take the meat out of a dish. The key I have found is not to approach vegetarian cooking with this idea. You have to think of it as a whole dish, with nothing missing, and build up complex flavors and aromas (not that you shouldn’t do that with all cooking, but I have to focus on it more for vegetarian cooking).

Currently I am experimenting with quinoa. I have never made it before, but I know that Loryn really likes it, so I bought some at Sahara Mart today on my way home. I am making a black bean recipe from allrecipes.com that has very high marks. Right now my house smells wonderful, all cumin and oniony.

I changed the recipe a little (I so rarely follow a recipe exactly that it is more of a statement if I said I DID follow it) and added some red bell pepper and tomatoes. I also made my salsa recipe (listed below) to add as a topper.

Kristin’s Fool-Proof Salsa

  • 1-14.5 oz can Red Gold Basil, Garlic & Oregano Diced Tomatoes
  • 1-14.5 oz can Red Gold Green Chilies Petite Diced Tomates
  • 1-vidalia onion diced
  • 1/2 a bunch of cilantro diced
  • 1-lime juiced
  • dash of kosher or sea salt
Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. This can be eaten immediately, but the flavors mix better after being refrigerated for at least an hour. I serve it with yellow corn chips and I never have any left over after a party.

Boy, it sure takes me a long time to post a blog. The food is done and Loryn should be here very soon. Here is the finished product:

Plate of quinoa and black beans.
- It smells so good!

It tastes very good. I will have to start keeping quinoa in my pantry as a staple from here on out. She’s here!

Bon Apetit!

–Kristin

Creativity, Lost to the Web

craft, Creativity,

I love to craft, and I love to draw. There are a lot of creative endeavors that I like to pursue, and since we have started this blog, I have come to the conclusion that I even might like to write. But there are times when I am surfing on the web and I come across something that is so incredible, that is so creative that I am embarrassed. (For example, look at this Sarah Mensinga website.). Those are the times that I ask myself, “why can’t I do that?” “What am I missing, why can’t I create like that?” As I wallow in my own self pity, saying less than savory things to myself, I decide that I will never make another thing. Forget it. No way. My hands will not touch a paintbrush, a pencil, pliers, you name it. I am finished. I am done with that part of my life that gives me so much pain. As I continue to argue with myself, imagining that I am packing up everything to give it to Goodwill, there is a little part of myself that is saying, “stop being a baby, grow up, how are you going to know if you don’t try, you have faced tougher things than this.” And eventually I have to admit that this little part of me could be right. This part of me could probably be right. This part of me is most likely right. Okay, okay this part is right, and I get back to the part of my that I truly love, besides the wonderful art that people create gives me wonderful images to look at and maybe some ideas to try out myself.

-Cheri

A Rose Jar for Another Century

collections, craft,
Mason jar full of rose petals
Mason jar full of rose petals

Several years ago while I was selling on eBay, I came across an antique Japanese ginger jar full of rose petals, with a slip of paper that said “Rose jar, 1868.” That slip of paper and those petals elevated that object into a story. I wanted to do the same thing with the dried roses from my wedding bouquet.

It took me a while to find just the right container. I would have loved an antique ginger jar, but those are not going for 50 cents at every local garage sale. Mason jars, on the other hand …

Wedding bouquet
Wedding bouquet

Here you can see my bouquet before it dried. The pink and yellow roses are beautiful. My Uncle Bob and Aunt Rita bought the flowers as a wedding gift, and Cheri arranged them. Cheri also made boutonnieres, and I saved my husband’s along with the bouquet. I hope that 100 years from now, the roses and that slip of paper will tell our story.

-Loryn

The Link Behind the Cartoon-What a Cat!

Creativity, What a Cat!, ,
Link-What a Cat!
All right! All right! I'll sit for a portrait.

I thought it would be a good idea to let everyone know, that yes, there really is a true Link. Justin brought him home from a summer spent in Indianapolis.  It was only a short time before I attached myself to him too. Link is a one in a million cat. We have six cats and a dog. And I love each of them, but Link has this specialness about him. When he looks at you, you can feel how much he truly loves you. It is like, our house is where he was always meant to be. It is so unusual to have a cat that seems to go out of his way to make you happy. Most of the time a cat demands from you, but he is really not like that. Don’t get me wrong, he does have moments of being contrary, and being a bit of a terror. But all in all he is one awesome cat, and he inspired me enough to draw a cartoon of him each day for a year. What a cat!

-Cheri

A Puzzle for the United Way

craft, ,
Finished puzzle
Puzzle in its display frame.

Here’s my craft project for the week—a puzzle for the United Way Rally on August 5th. I’ve been on the committee to plan the rally for the last three years, and every year they challenge my crafty skills. This year, we wanted a big gesture that demonstrated how the United Way, the agencies the United Way supports, and our community are all interconnected.

Interconnection is the theme behind the UW logo “Live United,” and it’s why I am a big supporter of the United Way. Everyone in Cass County knows someone (or is someone) who has been touched by services supported by United Way. If you or someone you know has received blood from the Red Cross, gotten a ride from Cass Transit, used the Y, or been a Scout, you’ve benefited from UW donations. I give time and money to United Way because I know that every dollar is helping people right here in Cass County.

I designed the puzzle to focus on that interconnection. There are 15 agency puzzles, each in one of the small circles around the edge. Within each circle are seven facts about that agency, and each fact is on its own puzzle piece. The United Way logo was in the middle of the puzzle, with concentric rings radiating out to the edges, and the puzzle itself was the shape of Cass County. At the beginning of the rally, each table assembled an agency puzzle. Then, near the end of the rally, each table placed their puzzle on the main board to make the complete puzzle seen above. The last pieces placed were the campaign goal for 2011.

Work on the puzzle
Cutting all the pieces to fit.

Here, I’m trimming down the agency puzzles so they can be mounted on foam core. The puzzle was too big to place on a single piece of paper, so I carefully lined everything up so you can’t tell where one sheet ended and the next began.

United Way puzzle
Fitting the pieces for the United Way logo.

Here I’m lining up the mounted pieces with the center pieces. The concentric rings really helped with alignment! To give you an idea of the size, the big worktable is 5 feet by 5 feet.

Close up
Closer view of the puzzle pieces.

Once we had all the pieces cut and mounted on foam core, we could start cutting the individual puzzle pieces. There were 110 pieces total. My mom, Lynne, helped by cutting, cutting, cutting, and then cutting some more!

Cut pieces of puzzle
It's getting late and the studio table is full of puzzle pieces and debris.

We ran into a snag at this point. The puzzle pieces needed to be magnetic to attach to the sheet metal backing. My first idea, to use magnetic primer, was a complete fail. If you’ve been thinking about using it for a project, be sure to test it first. A magnet will stick to it after two coats, but it itself is not magnetic, which is what I needed for this project. Also, it makes a very rough and irregular surface, which would be hard to paint over if you were putting it on a wall.

Plan B was to attach magnetic strips to the pieces. Mom had picked up quite a pile of magnetic strip at garage sales, so we thought we were set. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough, and some of the strip was so old that the adhesive wouldn’t stick. Mom made a late night run to Walmart to get more strip. Unfortunately, the adhesive on it wasn’t any better! Out came the glue gun as a last minute rescue.

Chocolate finish
Chocolate helped fuel the finish.

By this photo, we’re nearly done attaching magnets! The emergency chocolate helped get the project done.

Putting the puzzle together at the rally was fun and chaotic, and I hoped everyone learned something about the agencies and about the support the United Way provides in the community. The completed puzzle will be displayed at Logansport Memorial Hospital, starting on Live United Day, September 16th, so check it out. And if you don’t already, consider giving to United Way so you can touch lives throughout Cass County.

—Loryn

Pamphlets to the Past

garage sale finds

One of the more interesting garage sale items I found this past weekend is a booklet titled Business Letters and How To Write Them printed originally as Business Executive’s Handbook in 1937. I love these vintage pamphlets. They are an intimate conversation with history. These authors are speaking to you in the same voice they spoke to their contemporaries. I can learn and marvel at the conventions and manners of the early 20th century without the distortions of nostalgia and history books.

I was drawn in first by the section on stilted business language. The authors advocate a clear, organized and cordial style rather than the use of a special “business” style which “involves the elimination of all friendly feeling from the letter.” I am going to post a partial list of their phrases to avoid and I am pleased to note that their opinions are still valid and still needed:

as per your instructions; attached please find; contents duly noted; regarding your communication; this letter is for the purpose of inquiring; please be advised that; and pursuant to

I recognize every one of these and I may admit to using one or two, but  I refuse to admit to ever using “pursuant to.”

The section on libelous letters is as useful today as the 1930’s. To quote the authors: “The law cannot prevent a person from writing anything he pleases, but it can and often does make him responsible for his statements.” This seems to be good advice today as the seeming anonymity of the internet pushes the boundaries of gossip versus libel. If you insist on commenting about your sister’s bad haircut in your blog, the odds are good that she will discover your perfidy.

In 1937, libel was “defined as a false and malicious publication which tends to injure the reputation of a living person or the memory of a deceased person, and to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule.”

However, there were some rules to be applied:

  • If a statement could be proved true it was not libel. If “the reputation of a living person or the memory of a deceased person” deserved to be “exposed to public hatred, contempt” and ridicule, lawsuits were dismissed.
  • Also, “a libelous letter or comment must be communicated to a third party to be actionable.” It has to be read by someone other than the person defamed. Calling your sister ‘a dirty dog’ in the kitchen is not libel unless your mother was there too. This makes a lot of sense as having lawyers in the middle of you and your spouse’s private disputes would be costly as well as awkward.

1937 was the middle of the Great Depression and most of the libelous acts mentioned have to do with bankruptcy, insolvency and dereliction of duties. I suppose that it is libelous to say that corporate CEO’s are ‘dirty dogs’ who cannot be bothered with the ethics of business or concern for the future of their companies, but we can comment on the excesses of their salaries in comparison to our own. As the salaries are well documented and how dirty CEO’s are would depend on how many showers they take in a week.

The rest of the booklet is the standard stuff that we learned in typing class (when there were typewriters–aren’t you glad those clunky things are gone? And those erasers?) about letterheads, datelines, proper forms of address and the complimentary close.  (“I am dear Mr. President, Faithfully yours…” Not quite how we word missives to our elected officials, now huh?)

To me the best part of the booklet was the section called the Dictionary of Correct Usage. One of my pet peeves is the use of “bear” and “bare.” Bare witness has a totally different meaning than bear witness. I keep them straight with this sentence; I don’t know how many times I have had to bear the sight of bare bums when someone wearing low rider jeans leans over. Here is one excerpt from the Dictionary of Correct Usage and my own sentence clarifying it:

accept, except. ACCEPT means to receive with approval, reply to affirmatively, agree to; EXCEPT means to exclude, make an exception to.

I accept your offer to help me with grammar and semantics with the bad grace you would expect. I except your mother from any horribleness resulting from my bad attitude.

Really, people are bemoaning the loss of writing due to the influence of computers and texting and smart phones, but I think people are writing more than they ever have since there is such an eager and vast audience out there waiting to be entertained. At least someone out there in the ether will agree with what you say and even make the same writing errors you do.

-Lynne