the best helper

Angel helped me take some pictures this past weekend.

I'd moved the items I haven't photographed yet out of light box so I could take photos of a couple finished pieces and a work in progress for a new pattern.  Yes, all of those pieces there are finished but not yet photographed.  I still haven't caught up from Christmas.  That pile doesn't even include my newest dagger fringed bracelets that are still in the living room.

When I was finished and went to move all of the not yet photographed items back, she didn't want me to put them away and pawed the felt like crazy.

She even tried to hang on with both paws and bite the felt.  Unfortunately eventually I did move everything back.  The fun can't last forever.  But it sure was nice for a while.

book recommendation, other hobby, redone listings

I have another bead weaving book from the library that I've been reading this week: Seed Bead Fusion: 18 Projects to Stitch, Wire, & String by Rachel Nelson-Smith. There really are only 18 projects in this book, and the bead weaving projects are all based off of 2 basic designs. While it is not one of the more diverse beading books I've ever seen, it does have some of the best instructions. The book includes directions in writing, drawings, and photographs for EVERY project. I've never seen anything quite like it. The photographs are all excellent quality. The other unique strength of this book is that there are pictures for each finished project of exactly what is explained in the directions and nothing else. I don't know if anyone else gets frustrated by this sort of thing in most books, but I think that it can be annoying to read directions for a basic peyote cuff and not understand what to do because every picture uses a different sort of bead or has a much more complicated clasp. This book is not like that! It is also not for a beginner, but it allows someone with a little knowledge of basic bead weaving techniques to take on some more advanced projects because all of the directions and pictures are so good.

In other creative endeavors, I finally tracked down a free transcription for Golden by Fall Out Boy, which has been one of my favorite songs for over a year. No, I don't just keep Chopin books around for photographing jewelry, I really do play the piano. :P I haven't in a while, and it's been fun to work on a new piece again.

I finally edited and upload the pictures that I took of some of my older items last week. Take a look if you get a chance!

monochromatic retro charm fringed peyote cuff

double stranded raspberry right angle bracelet (2 versions currently available)

turquoise right angle bangle
double stranded blue and purple right angle bracelet

weekend happenings

Last night was the annual med school Frolics at Iowa. I got a picture of the sign this year.
Basically Frolics consists of 30-40 students from each class putting on a "skit" (which can include music, videos, etc.) about what their year of med school is like. It's one of the best events all year. Out of the 3 years that we've been, this show was the best yet. Good times.

In other non-jewelry related matters, Jake's desk chair broke this week. Target had a wonderful model on clearance so we ended up getting two new chairs. I took my old one to work (because believe it or not, the old one is much better than any chair I've ever had there). Yay for another upgrade to our living room! It would be nice if we enough room for a separate office space, but for now, this works well.

Our washing machine has been on its last legs for a couple months. I was hoping that it would make it until the summer, but it started smoking twice during a load on Friday. Thankfully I managed to get it to finish the current load (pictured below), but I'm not risking that again.
We bought a new one from Best Buy yesterday. They had a front load model in open stock that we got for a great price. It's small, but very efficient. We're having it delivered on Saturday so I won't have to take off work.

I spent most of this afternoon cleaning and getting stuff done around the condo, but I took a little time to work on some more button earring studs and button tacks. I also took pictures of a couple finished button studs and reshot a couple older pieces. I like spacing out my picture taking. I get burned out and my pictures get boring if I take too many at once.

I will be listing a coordinating button charm bracelet and earrings tomorrow. Stay tuned!

more earrings and experimenting with poses

I've continued to make a few more smaller green items as I work away on my next flower cuff. I'm still catching up on renewing items on Etsy and deciding what photos I'd like to use for my earrings listings so I haven't listed anything new yet. But here's a peak at what I've been doing.

I have always had more trouble photographing pendants that I have bracelets/cuff. I got inspired by my earring experiments and decided to take some hanging shots of my newest pendant.


My classic music background shots of it turned out pretty well, too, this time around and show off the vividness of the greens better. I think that a couple of each of these shots plus one with a clear glass would make a nice mix for a listing.

I have one other finished pair of green earrings, too.

I did a little hunting over the weekend for another prop for my hanging photos and came up with this lovely tea light holder at Target. I've been really into candles since this past fall so it fits in nicely with that, too. I'm sure that you can quickly figure out why else I like it as well.

I LOVE the tea light holder and will continue to use it. I'd like to find something else with a similar shape to the first candle holder that I featured in this post. Maybe a wine glass like this would work well. It just happened that this comes in green, I swear!


As always, feedback is much appreciated!

red/purple square stitch cuff

I listed the third version of my square stitch embellished cuff design tonight. As I was thinking last month, this one is in red and purple! I had a little trouble keeping the purple from hiding in the shadows in these pictures, but I'm still pretty pleased with the results. And I'm very pleased with how the cuff turned out.



I've been thinking about making a dark turquoise/dark blue one for a while, but I think that I'm going to make a neutral one next. I'm still on a neutral kick from my Natural Sparkle bracelet. :)

I had an unexpected opportunity to take some photos of my newest reworked design during the day because my meeting (not at school) this morning was much shorter than was expected, and I had a couple hours at home before I had to be back to work. I'll upload and edit them later tonight. :)

fall gold remake and other recent happenings

I recently updated my fall gold right angle bracelet listing with two new versions of it. Both versions now have button clasps. (Previous versions had beaded clasp.)



I also sold the longer of my two rainbow button embellished right angle bracelets. The shorter one is still available here. :)

I have finished a few other pieces this week as well, including a custom order for one of Jake's med school classmates. I braved taking some pictures inside with natural daylight during the week. If the cold, cloudy weather continues I may be forced to do the same thing today, too. I think that it will work out okay, though.

Etsy Bloggers Team

I got accepted into the Etsy Bloggers team tonight! I know that several of you who read my blog regularly as members as well. I'm excited to be a part of it, too. :) Writing is as much a part of me as making jewelry is and has been so for a much longer amount of time. I have the buttons for the team posted on the right hand side of my page now. You can also check out their blogspot here: http://etsybloggers.blogspot.com. Those of you who are part of the team, please let me know if you have any advice/tips about the group.

Despite the fact that it was snowing for a while this morning (thankfully none of it stuck...it's too early for snow!), I had some wonderful lighting for taking pictures this afternoon. I should be able to upload and edit them this weekend.