A lesson in photographing jewelry

What I had intended to be an hour or so of photographing the pendants I got back from Clayworks yesterday turned into an entire day of frustration, a giant headache and oh yeah, no new listings in the shop to show for it. I'm kind of a perfectionist especially when it comes to my work which is why a few snapshots just will not do. There should be a dynamic photo for catching your eye plus enough descriptive shots to show the entire piece to someone who can't pick it up and try it on. I have pretty much figured out my formula for photographing my pots and can do that in just an hour or so depending on the amount of work that needs to be listed. Easy. Jewelry, not so much. I'm sure it doesn't help that for most of my shoot today I had left my overhead lights on and couldn't figure out why my sunlit photos had this yellowish cast over them. Duh. I finally built myself a modified white box with a dark gray backdrop and a sheet of picture glass on the bottom to try and simulate that professional looking reflection that you see in fancy catalogs. I tried some with props (pretty much everything in my house that is not nailed down), some without and some hanging. Here are my favorite from about 150 pictures I took today. Let me know what you think, I would love some feedback!

Spring sneak peek!

I finally got my thermocouples in today, yay! That means tomorrow I will be taking my kiln apart to try and replace the old ones. Then maybe I can get some of this new work through and listed in the shop. This is just a teaser but you can see some of my new designs for garden markers. I have both the kind that sticks right in the dirt and some that will hang from a wire. All of them are designed for you to write on. Can you tell I'm ready for spring???
Don't forget to check out my post on the Lillyella blog today. I highlighted some of my favorite ceramic soup bowls on etsy.

February is a bust.

I thought that February would be a little more productive than January but alas...not so much. As soon as I got going on my huge back order of work my kiln gave out on me. I am 99% sure it is the thermocouples which I have on order and hopefully will get here before the next snow storm hits. As of right now my bisque shelf is filled to the brim with work waiting to be fired and I'm going to have a mountain of glazing to do soon.

I did however give myself permission to try out this scoop I saw illustrated in the new issue of Clay Times magazine. The one they made was thrown but I used my hand building techniques to create my own version. I have been wanting to make a scoop for a while now and am pretty excited to have a prototype. I have also been working on some garden markers for spring! I'm ready for it to be here already!! Hopefully I will have pictures of the new designs soon.