East Of Eden Gems

Social Networking & Chainmaille Day

2009-08-17T00:53:00.001+01:00

I started out today to make some decisions on the designs I have in mind for two of my latest beads, but ended up with more questions than answers. These led me to the site of Jim Mackintosh to look into his Wiresmithing creations. I think that might be the solution I need to create one of my designs. The other one is going to need more thought or be made in Fine Silver so I can use Fusing. So nothing to show you as yet.

That led me onto my BlogSpot and Plurk pages to check out what other people were saying about wire techniques. I have to confess that I’m not finding Plurk easy to master, but I’ll keep at it.

Spotting a name I recognised on Plurk reminded me that I hadn’t been on the Starving Jewelry Artists forum since the July competition had ended, so I dashed over there to congratulate the winner. Then I had a look around and was shocked to see that I hadn’t posted on the Welcome board for almost a calendar month!

A couple of postings later I decided that I needed to regulate my online activity so that there was more time for designing and making my jewellery. Although it might seem daft, I started up another blog so that I could keep track of what I am doing towards East Of Eden Gems and get myself into some sort of routine.

This led me to a post on Twitter and of course I had to join. To be honest I wasn’t in the mood for working out how to use another networking site. So I did a couple of ‘what I’m doing now’ posts and moved on to a project I’d been planning for some time.

Last year I bought a whole load of enamelled copper jump rings in several colours and my daughter has tried out a Byzantine tutorial in Fuscia and Black. It’s very pretty, but looks a bit fragile, so I’m thinking that I need to get some thicker jump rings in order to achieve what I want. I’ve also had to spend time drawing the links to get them to stay in design, but we’re getting there. It’s certainly worth the effort getting organised well before you start and practising to get your speed up on chainmaille in my opinion.

I finished off the day with checking out who was following me on Twitter and leaving them a message. Then I got side-tracked by Stephen Fry on there and I knew it was time to turn off or I’d never get to watch House on Sky, my one Sunday weakness.

All in all, a very productive Sunday. Not a day of rest as I’d planned, but just as satisfying nonetheless.

My Jewellery Photography Journey

2009-08-16T03:19:00.001+01:00

I think that taking photographs of jewellery is itself an art. It’s certainly something that I’ve not found easy. All sorts of questions and doubts have plagued me in my quest to show my work to others.

Should I aim for a picture that truly represents the piece or one that is staged like it could be out of a magazine? Is it ok to ‘doctor’ the final image with software or should you experiment until you get the perfect, natural, shot? And that is before I’ve taken the cap off the lens of my camera! Argh…

Eventually I summoned my courage and placed myself at the kitchen table in plenty of light from the patio doors and took some shots. They weren’t great and certainly would never make it onto the pages of Vogue, but they showed my jewellery as it looked in real life and that was good enough for me.

Hmm, first problem was how to show the earrings. (None of the males in the house wanted to model them.) Luckily the laptop lid covered that. Second problem was too dark, on came kitchen light. Third problem was camera shake. Oh heck they’ll do!!

Looking at the photo now I think it’s hideous, but I desperately wanted to show off my design at the time, so it served it’s purpose.

The next pair of earrings I wanted to have a better picture of and I scoured the internet for some tips and out came a glass from the cupboard and the snak.. err.. glass tank behind it gave some interesting background blur. Ooo nearly arty enough for a Sunday magazine!

Now I was really pleased with this photograph, but that layout wouldn’t work for every piece of jewellery that I made. How the heck would I get a bracelet, let alone a 20 inch necklace to drape around a glass? Back to the drawing board.

A life-changing move later, I was starting all over again with my photographing dilemma in a new house and minus all of my well planned props. But I had treated myself to a Wacom tablet and now had access to my mother’s angle-point lamp complete with daylight light bulb. I had begun an era of ‘mood’ photography. Dramatic sparkly gemstones on a silver background that faded to grey. Fantastic.

Except that some things are just too big for the tablet. Ok, so I will ‘doctor’ the photo and erase the lines. Nope, I didn’t have the patience. Well, sometimes you just can’t think straight and it took my kids to state the obvious. “Take the plastic cover off Mum!!!”

Yep, it’s better, but I can’t crop it anymore and the edges of the tablet are distracting. Also I’m not happy with the shine of the tablet at the front and the polymer clay beads are more shiny than they are in real life using the lamp.

It was time to bite the bullet and invest in a light tent.

Part 2 of this thread coming soon

How I choose my lampwork beads

2009-08-14T22:04:00.006+01:00

One of the things that I love about lampwork beads is that they capture a moment in the lives of their creator. If you look at the blog or picture storage of any lampwork artist you can see what I mean.

What really appeals to me is that once you’ve bought beads from an artisan you know the standard you can expect from future beads, whatever style they may be creating at that time. Sadly not something you can say for the majority of the mass market beads referred to as ‘lampwork’.

This was highlighted for me recently when I purchased some new beads from Vicki Honeywill of Pureshore Lampwork.

Having bought Terra Acorns from her I knew that my new beads were going to be just right for using in my jewellery designs.

When I laid eyes on Terra Acorns I just had to have them. They evoked memories of woodland streams and babbling brooks and I couldn’t wait to get them and be able to recreate those scenes.

This time I fell in love with her Sea Pod focal and Oceania lentils, because they reminded me of living right by the beach at Exmouth in Devon.

I’m looking forward to devoting some time in developing these interesting beads into something special.

I love popping around to all the sites of the Lampwork Artists that I’ve discovered on my search for inspiring beads. Seeing them develop their skills and try out new glass and techniques is really exciting. We have some very talented artisans at our fingertips thanks to the internet.

Gorgeous UK Lampwork Treasures

2009-08-04T22:23:00.003+01:00

We have some fabulous Lampwork Artists here in the UK and I’ve probably only just skimmed the surface of them, even though my favourites list of lampworkers is huge.

Today I thought I’d share some photos of my latest lampwork purchases with you. Please follow my links to see what other wonderful creations these talented people have to offer.

This was my first purchase and first experience of buying on Etsy. This amazing lampwork toggle fastener is called Amber Waves and was created in the studio of Pixie Willow Designs.

My next purchase highlights how useful it is to follow the blogs of artists whose work you admire. I was trying to think how to make a lizard jewellery piece as an 82nd birthday present for my mother when I stopped by at Saffie's Blog and saw the perfect ‘body’ bead.

This bead wasn’t actually going to be sold as it was a new design try out. Being cheeky I sent an e-mail asking if I could buy it anyway, as it being imperfect made it ideal for my use.

You can see the perfected design and other gorgeous beads by this Lampwork Artist at Aurorabeadz.

These were just the start of my recent bead stash, in fact I over-indulged again today when I couldn’t resist the goodies I discovered by following a forum signature. So you can expect some more posts about my new treasures soon.