My Photo Area and Other Jewelry Stuff

It's been too long since my last blog post, and after wracking my brain for something interesting I thought I would show you my photo setup and other jewelry related stuff. I work in three different areas; the dining room table is where I make jewelry, our office is where I take photos, and I did have a soldering bench set up on the basement but as of last night that was dismantled (please ignore any dust or clutter you might see).

Normally I like an all white background for my jewelry. I love that clean crisp feeling and rarely use props. Below you can see how I set up to take photos. You can't see it in this picture but to the left is a window that faces north. It lets in the perfect amount of filtered light, unless it's a gloomy day. I use an old parlor table with a white craft paper background. Propped against the desk is a large piece of foam board which reflects the light from the window back onto the table. It's worked very well for me, and with Picasa it's easy to crop, add fill light, highlights, shadows, etc.

With the arrival of autumn I wanted to switch to a darker background. Here I'm using an old crate which is propped up on a plastic tote.

While I was cleaning up my soldering station in our basement I came across this pile of bezels I made during Stephanie Lee's Homesteader's Metalsmithing Class a couple years ago. Unfortunately this, plus a soldered chain is all I made for the class. My mom was very ill and I just didn't seem to have the desire to keep going. It was kind of fun to uncover these, and I can see I have a long way to go in terms of soldering. 

Here's a delicious pile of beads I won from Malin some time ago. The colors are beautiful! Blues, greens and browns are my favorite to work with.

Below are some wonderful enameled beads I won from Keri at Lemonade Stand. I can't wait to use these beauties.

Recently I have been wanting to get my jewelry into shops, so I purchased a Plexiglas display case--pictured below.  It's a bit smaller than I realized but it will do for now.  The first shop I approached told me my jewelry was too expensive for her shop. The second shop was moving to a smaller place and would not have room for anything extra. I'll keep trying and hopefully I'll find a shop that fits my jewelry.

And I just want to say I abhor (my polite way of saying it) Blogger's new interface. No matter how I put together a post, the photos do not stay where I want them, and the text wraps around the photos even though I choose left formatting. There are huge gaps between photos and text, but when I try to eliminate them the photos slide up beside each other or the text splits between the top and the bottom of the photo. I've tried it with formatting, and without formatting. I've tried it in compose mode and html mode. I'm so frustrated with Blogger!!!!  Am I the only one?

On a more pleasant note, October 24th is my one year Blogiversary! I've been the lucky recipient of so many giveaways and now it's my turn to give back. Stop by on the 24th to celebrate with me.