light

The winter months make photographing jewelry so impossible--there are a few weeks in there that provide a 1 hour window of opportunity each day.

Spring and summer are so much nicer.  I can usually take pictures clear up until 7pm.  There's this stretch of a couple weeks though, that's happening right now, in which the sun shines so brightly through the window that I have to close the shade and put up various papers and cloths and things to block it so I can get an even light dispersal vs. bright sun spots and shadows.

It can be tricky.  But I've been enchanted by it lately.  Our neighbors have a swimming pool that is extremely close to our house, and it's right under my photography window, and since they've cleaned it and filled it up within this last week, I've noticed that the reflections off the water give the light a real magical quality.  It gets me distracted and I start taking pictures of the light itself, which never really conveys (at least with the camera and skills I've got) its real essence, or the feeling it gives me.  In the photo here, I took a picture of the feeling of a memory of splashing around in a plastic kiddie pool in my grandparents' shady backyard.  But the spirit is not actually captured.  The light felt just like that, though.

I've had to finagle the set up around so much that I feel my latest Etsy photos are a bit sub par.  In any case, I've got some new things up.  Some supplies: a collection of wood beads:

I especially love the big faceted one.  It was hard not to sand it a little and then emphasize the facet edges with some color.  This bead was actually in the latest supply exchange box I received--it was something that I "got back"--I put it in someone's exchange box a while ago.  No idea who it was, or how many people it went through to get back to me.  I set aside the several things that I recognized as my own in the last box and I'm determined to use them somehow very soon.  It's like a dare or some kind of made up meaning--like the things were just really wanting to get back to me.  I don't want to hurt their little feelings.

The down-pointed clear lucite drops here are also such beads that I got back:




I edged the facets with a little metallic color.  The shields are Shrinky Dinks.  There are a lot of new types of Shrinky Dinks out there.  This kind is called Crystal Clear.  I think it might actually be Krystal Klear.  Maybe not, but the packet was 'wacky' looking.  I didn't realize I picked up the wring kind.  I had a custom request to remake something so I needed the regular kind.  Oops.  Nothing wrong with the way this looks, but you can't use colored pencils on it--no textured surface to grip the color.  Sharpies work great though.  But I need to use pencils.  I'm glad I made the mistake though--I like the clarity.  Takes away the tell tale Shrinky Dink look a little.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

And there's these mismatch chandeliers:





I've been meaning to use the Red Cross pins as cabs for a long time.  I got them last summer in Kansas--a whole bag of them in various sizes and guises.  Someone had a little collection.  I was so happy it fit right in the setting. I knew it would.

Asymmetry and mismatch are a regular part of my deal.  I do it in a way that comes really easily for me though, and it's more comfortable than symmetry and matching.  I decided I wanted to challenge myself a bit, so I really went out on a limb with these, at least for me.  I still couldn't let go of my 'exact same length' ethic, though.  I had them different lengths at first, but it was just too much for me.  The first round had the left one there stopping at the pink lady and the right one as you see it.  I thought I had it compensated for with the other thing I had on before the chain, but I did it over and made it so there was at least one element on each earring that stopped at the exact same place.  I'm like  Rainman on getting earrings to hang at the same length.

I also relisted some custom things because I revised all the quantities to 10 with Etsy's new feature.  That sure is handy.  However, in a couple days I'm going to remove all of my custom listings including my faceted beads for a few weeks while I work on a project.  So--if anyone has been thinking of ordering some of the faceted polymer beads, now's the time.

I've also made some new styles of the faceted beads--they're ready-to-shippers:



I've got some glazed ones as well, but I had to temporarily remove the listing because I temporarily misplaced them.  I'm more of a matte person usually, but the shininess really brings out the details of the paint.  There's also a curious effect of looking through the gloss--it actually seems to add a substantial layer and serves like a little viewscreen of sorts.  It's strange and paradoxical how having a "screen" between object and viewer sometimes makes things seem more relevant or accessible. Or novel...