Lace and Science

I can't believe it's already Friday again. These short holiday weeks play havoc on my need for structure, but the week wasn't so bad. Doing the giveaway this week boosted my mood and I'm fairly certain the exposure is also the reason I finally got a few days of steady sales. I'm not naive enough to think that the slowness is completely behind me, but I feel better and I've gotten some good work done as well.

After I finished some lovely colorful earrings yesterday I got back to  he white thread. This project really is slow going, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. For immediate satisfaction, I keep getting some great lace photos with my phone of all things. I Imagine if I was a better photographer I could sell things like this...I'm not though, so they'll just make my blog prettier.

I'm currently halfway through the second round of the last piece and the next round goes very quickly so I'm hoping I'll have this done by Monday. The one thing that will stand in my way is that we're suppose to be moving my mother into her house this weekend. If you were wondering was all the family drama recently had been about, it was all about her buying a house and absolutely nothing going right and money issues and her crazy current landlord, so I'm not certain even this weekend will be on track. It's one of those, 'I'll believe it when I see it,' sort of things.

In other news, after a failed science build in a lesson on electricity, I purchased a circuit making kit for the kids so we could do it again correctly without worrying about which components might be to blame for it not working. It arrived yesterday late in the afternoon and the kids immediately had to get building. It was really neat to see them both excited even though it was technically just the oldest that needs to play with it. It even managed to pull them away from Mine Craft, the game that has stolen their free time away. I just thought you might like to see the two legged kids after all the cat pictures.

Well, here's to a stress free and productive weekend...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Abstract

It was another long day of schooling with the children. You see, the oldest has reached the point where she is required to occasionally write essay answers and while she can verbally spout off answers that are generally well thought out, she dislikes writing them. This causes us to have a bit of a power struggle as I insist that writing is in fact necessary not only for school, but you know, life. Of course my Achilles heel in school was the numbered word length papers. I contended that if I could answer the question complete with all needed supporting information in fewer words that was in fact better than filling a paper with fluff to meet the requirements...this didn't always work out for me, but I still stand by my assertion.

After schooling I managed to finish the necklace that needed making and I got back to the art piece. I stopped to take a picture, but again I went for abstract. Honestly I think it looks like art all by itself, but clearly I'm biased as I took it. I was just thinking of looking back through all the times I took pictures of piles of unpressed lace and see how many of these sort I've taken over the years. Maybe I'll actually get prints of a few to hang, okay probably not, but it could be a neat idea.

I'll be back at the art piece today. I'd say I'm about a fourth through the last piece, so it's the home stretch. I also got a custom request for a few pairs of the earrings I showed you yesterday, so I'll be making those up today as well. This month is definitely picking up a bit and here's hoping it continues to get busier. I am much more focused with orders and deadlines, not that I don't enjoy a little free time, but too much is not so great. I much prefer busy.

Take A Picture

Despite my advanced state of zombification yesterday, I did manage to get done all the tasks I intended to...mostly. I relisted a couple of things after remaking them and, well, that's about it. I almost sat down to work out a new pattern, but I kept getting distracted by children and other household tasks. I did get one sale yesterday which provided me with one other piece to remake, but that's it. I do have the feeling this morning, that something interesting is about to happen. Let's just hope for good interesting and not bad interesting.

Since I don't have anything else to share really, I thought I'd just go ahead and answer a comment question I got this morning. The question was, how did I manage to capture the bright colors of the neon pieces? Well, I'm no photographer and I certainly will never claim to be partly because my brother is and has taught it and he'd likely laugh at the thought. What I have done though is learned a lot about capturing product images over the last six years selling online. The first tip, there is no substitute for natural light. Outside of an expensive studio setup with proper lighting, reflectors, etc, the best you can do is bright, indirect sunlight. The other thing I've learned is to tell the camera to let more light in than you might think is perfect. Use the ISO and aperture settings to get that image bright and if your camera has a white balance make sure it is on the right setting for your light conditions. It is easier to edit a photo darker than it is to make it brighter...in my experience anyway. Speaking of editing, I don't use a single picture that hasn't gone through some sort of tweaking in a simple editing program. I adjust levels and sharpness and try my best to make the colors match real life, but I'm just using slider bars, nothing precise.

So, what if you can't get natural light? Well, I've used a light box and they can work, but they create really sterile looking pictures. If you have daylight light bulbs, use those. Avoid a yellow cast and if you can't you must make sure that your white balance corrects for that or you will get a yellow picture which try as you might, won't ever perfectly edit away. Let's see, any other hints. Don't take pictures on a bedspread with the date showing in the corner and for goodness sake, focus the camera, though good lighting helps with that too. There are tons more bits of unsolicited advice I could offer, but my picture aren't all perfect and I'd feel funny going on about it. I did however manage to write up this blog post with no significant events to share so, go me. There is no set plan for today either so, I guess we'll just see which way they wind blows.

New Year Blues

I managed to stay on topic most of the day working on my newest project, but then I got some, will call it annoying news. The mask for which I have devoted three weeks may not be the right shape for those who commissioned it in the first place. I had accepted long ago that this project had to be about me wanting to make something high end or couture or whatever and not about the commission or it wasn't going to get done. That being said, the thought of starting over from scratch to create something else at this point makes me kinda want to curl up in a ball and suck my thumb. I'm still waiting to hear back again, so nothing is certain yet. I don't have the time to wallow in this, with an ever growing list of custom project requests, I must keep moving forward.

I think I've finished the newest one, though it also is waiting for approval or rejection from its commissioner, so won't share a finished picture yet. What I just realized yesterday as I accepted yet another of these, 'I wonder if this is possible' requests, is the sheer number of things on my plate without payment. It's my own fault of course. I couldn't in good conscious request up front payment when I wasn't certain in any of these cases whether the piece could even be created. Sure, this means a lot of designing that might result in sell able pieces or a lot of wasted time for pieces that will never be. On the up side I've had no recent sales in my shop to distract me.

It appears that I am coming down off the high of finishing that mask. I seem to have landing somewhere in the 'why the hell am I even doing this' fields. This too shall pass. My cold is waning, the child is readjusting back to our home school schedule and I hope that my issues are just about readjusting back as well. I also decided that I haven't shared enough 'nonsense' lately, all focused on the tatting and creating, so here's a bit. On New Tear's Day, I saw all sorts of chatter on the twitter about starting 365 projects. You know, a craft, picture, etc. a day for the whole year. I tried a piece a day and got like 5 days in before I got distracted, so I opted to try out the picture a day. I stole a theme from an actual photographer and started the project. Now, I will never claim to be a photographer, if I take a good picture, it's more than likely luck. All my skills in this arena revolve around taking listing pictures of my lace, that is all. If you are curious, my project will reside on my flickr page here. I have begun with black and white mostly because like I said I stole the theme and my camera has that setting.

Just Breath...

Yesterday certainly took a lot out of me. I knew when I wrote yesterday's post up that it would cause a little drama, but I really didn't think it would get quite that crazy and heated. There was some heated discourse that I thought came to a nice calm conclusion, but it kept coming back. I'm afraid it became the thread that would not die over in the forums. At least I met some lovely people and got some of that attention I clearly crave.

Then the mail man brought me my photo purchase from gracedesignsphoto. You may know her better as TimothyAdamsDesigns wife, but she is certainly in possession of her own great talent. This photo not only calmed me down a bit after a few forum jabs landed, but it also so very inspiring. I managed to be her first sale and she tells me that she will be adding many new photos soon, so I do suggest you take a look. The colors are amazing and bright. She is also appears to be quite a lovely person.

So take a look. Take a break. Relax, put on the song "Breath" by telepopmusik and enjoy.

William Dohman

Whilst lurking the forums, I ran across a lonely post asking for "blog love". Being curious by nature I clicked through to his etsy page and I fell in love with the many colorful images in the photos there. So I decided immediately to give a little exposure to this brand new etsy photographer on my little street corner.

William Dohman creates prints from his travel photos from India, Japan, Holland, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, ect. Though he makes his living as an architect, he loves to share his travel photos with others and I'm glad he does.
Coming from the Midwest, he was shocked by the amount of street life and culture in other parts of the world. He could not sketch quick enough to capture it all so he was lured to photography. "Too many Americans are quick to assume that the United States is the best county, many of whom have not even left their respective state boarders. I show these photos to encourage others to travel the world and become aware of dissimilar cultures."

When he is not making things he is finding new things to create. "If I am not doing photography or architecture I am either painting or drawing. I have also taken up road bicycling. I find it's a great way to sort my ideas and thoughts while getting a great workout and exploring the city I live in."

Here's one of his beautiful photos along with William's description:

In Japan, tradition states that if you fold 1000 origami cranes, it will bring you good health and good luck. When someone is suffering from a severe sickness or injury, spouses, parents, children and other family members and friends would fold 1000 cranes to wish for the person's recovery. The paper crane has become an international symbol of piece through the work of a young girl named Sadako Sasaki and her battle with leukemia.

"I would love for everyone to list the ten places they want to visit before they die and actually try and plan them. It is a lot easier and cheaper than a lot of people think!"



Obligatory biography:

William Dohman fell in love with photography while traveling around the world, studying architecture. India, Japan, and the Netherlands were so unlike his West St. Paul roots, he felt compelled to document everything he saw, from kite strings to street life, broken playgrounds to the Taj Mahal. India was the first time he used a manual camera, and he was hooked—through trips to the Netherlands (where he studied at TU Delft) and surrounding countries, as well as a post-grad study of Japanese architecture. His obsessive snapping prompted his fellow travelers to remark that they didn't really know what he looked like, given his face was constantly behind the camera.
William finds his most striking images are ones of everyday life, objects, and hidden details—not the classically beautiful ones perpetuated by the media, but rather the ones most people tend to overlook. He frames them with his lens for examination, most often finding that the everyday people, places, and remnants are what truly express the life within a culture.

So go and visit Williams store, heck go visit mine too. I could always use a little more love!