I'm in your Etsy, Selling all my things!

[jeshyr]

In January I set myself the goal of getting my Etsy shop open before our April exhibition at Wyrena. It seemed at the time like a ludicrously long period of time I allowed myself ... ahem. But I got it done - the exhibition isn't open for another five whole days :)

Come take a look at Handmade RJ, which currently only has jewellery but will also have some of my felt and crochet creations as time goes on ...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HandmadeRJ

I am *insanely* nervous about this!! I am the opposite of a procrastinator usually, so the fact that it's taken me since January to get this functional says a lot about how nerve-wracking I've found it. I have no idea why it's making me so nervous, I just know that it is, so any encouragement would be welcome!

Hugs,
r

Comments

[splodgenoodles]

I have just looked (saw it on The Ohter Place) and I am impressed!

Tell us more about the exhibition!

[jeshyr]

Teeny tiny exhibition at Wyrena community gallery in April, featuring 3 generations of my family! Me, maternal cousin, both our mothers, and maternal grandmother - three generations who all do art and crafts :)

It's here: Wyrena Community Gallery.

Unfortunately it's in Croydon! Aka: "end of the bloody earth". Some nice family peoples are driving me down there nekt Wednesday for the opening but probably that'll be the only time I get to see it :/

[pauamma]

My first thought was that Croydon would indeed be at the end of the Earth for you, but since you mentioned driving, I assume you mean this Croydon instead. :-)

(also, nice stuff!)

[jeshyr]

It's truly bizarre mentally - because I grew up in that area I always knew 'ringwood' and 'croydon' were local suburbs. It breaks my BRAIN to try to think that ours are named after theirs and not vice versa!

[pauamma]

I've been known to play similar (or perhaps reversed) mindfuck tricks on UKers by claiming that East London is not east of London, but 6000 miles south.

[acelightning]

oooh, pretty!!! you really have a remarkable eye for combining things that go together in unexpected ways!

i seem to remember, a long time ago, you posting something about "lampwork artist Anne Oberin" ;-)
her beads are beautiful, and i love what you do with them.

[jeshyr]

*hugs* Thank you!! I'm sure you know Anne is my Mum, but just in case :) She is talented too and generously gives me spare beads to do this stuff with. Basically 95% of the bits and pieces used in these, even the tools, were leftovers from her or my aunty Helen!!

[acelightning]

i wasn't quite sure whether Anne was your mum or your aunt. but it just proves that your whole family is talented! :-)

[synecdochic]

i've already drooled over all of the jewelry (in person! did i say enough times how absolutely wonderful it was hanging out with you because omg, now i have met a jeshyr! and when i talk to you online i have that mental picture of you + your space + flatmate + kitty to help fill out the words-onna-screen!) but i will happily drool over it all again! i especially love the color and balance, and the way the accessory beads complement the focal beads without taking attention away from them.

also, serious kudos for the photography. it's beastly hard to take good product photos, and i know every inch of the frustration it causes sometimes, but those are well framed, well focused, well lit, and well posed -- they aren't static and stuffy like some product photography winds up being, and they're not blurry or underlit or out of focus in the least. you should seriously pat yourself on the back for that (without dislocating anything, please!) -- it's a really hard thing to do and you pretty much nailed it. so you should be proud of not only the jewelry, but of the presentation as well. :)

[jeshyr]

Thank you so much!! Your enthusiasm when you were here was really helpful and motivating and made me feel very warmfuzzy and happy :)

The photography made me CRAZY, seriously. My Mum is a semi-pro photographer so I started off trying to do things the way she does but it turned out that looking up stuff about how to do good photos with my iPhone was much easier for me and as you see it turned out great in the end! I am just so pleased I got it done....

[synecdochic]

you don't need special cameras, etc, to take good product photography, just the right light and a willingness to experiment! they came out wonderfully, really.

gold star for you, babe. seriously, well done.

[kake]

I was also going to comment on how good the photography is!

[jeshyr]

*glowy* Thank you!!

[kaberett]

Yes! All of these things!

Also, if I didn't feel guilty about the airmiles, etc? I would be ALL OVER the rainbow-on-velvet choker. Drooling here!

[jeshyr]

PS
Thank you for giving in :) *huggles*

[vass]

Totally lovely. And huge props for getting it up there. That shit is hard. I look forward to the crochet!

[jeshyr]

:) Thank you! *glowy*

[tyger]

Woah, awesome! :D :D :D They're all really nice. Most of it's not my style - I tend to ping on silver - but I'll definitely keep a bookmark for presents for relatives. :D

Do you know how long the exhibit's going to be? I have a friend who I think might be interested - she's really big into jewellery as art, in particular - but she's currently overseas, so. =/ The website is being less than helpful.

ETA: I just showed Mama, and her response can probably be best summed up as *______*. She is really, really impressed. :D

[jeshyr]

Thank you! *glowy*

Exhibition will be for most of April I believe? Four weeks from wednesday, approximately. The website is so crap I couldn't find us there at all :(

Oh and as for style, they're not MY style either! I basically don't wear jewellery, which is sorta odd, but I do like making it.

[tyger]

:D

Okay, cool, I will let her know~ :3

XD Hey, you have fun, you make awesome stuff, why the hell not! :D :D :D

[cesy]

Ooh, those are pretty.

[jeshyr]

:) Thank you!

[jesse_the_k]

Lovely handwork, nifty color sense, great attention to detail, uses tornado crimps therefore superior person, and outstanding photography. I've got 30 pieces I could put up if I could only get a freakin' decent picture!

If you have a chance, I'd love a link to the "product photog w your iPhone" resource.

[synecdochic]

very brief "product photography 101": diffuse your light (use a lightbox, or if you don't have one, string up some sheets), use full-spectrum lamps if you're not shooting outside (we prefer indoor shoots to outdoor/sunlight shoots actually; sunlight's too strong), calibrate your camera's white balance (i don't know if the iphone will let you do that) take at highest res possible, and crop-don't-zoom whenever possible (zooming makes most cameras harder to focus and the tiniest movement will make it defocus).

if you don't have a tripod, build one out of books/etc to rest the camera on so your hand tremors don't defocus the image. also, don't be scared to adjust colors, balances, etc, after the fact in whatever photo edit program you use (and if you don't have one, there's always GIMP, though i use my Perfectly Legal Copy of Photoshop and Sarah just uses iPhoto) and always, always, always crop the photo afterwards rather than just accepting the framing at time-of-shot. (relevant: rule of thirds, although for product photography the rule i generally use is more a rule-of-two-thirds).

[jeshyr]

Pretty much what Rah said.

I made a light box much like this: http://www.flaxandtwine.com/2013/02/diy-photo-light-box-finish-fifty-project.html ... Actually I geeked out a little and made it collapsible because I have NO STORAGE SPACE WHATSOEVER but the effect is the same.

And I don't use a tripod but I take each photo 4-5 times (just tap the shutter button on the camera a bunch) and usually at least one of them works! That way I can set the whole schebang up in my lap while I'm on the recliner and do it that way - can't sit up long enough for tables to work.

I've been using halogen globes because when I got regular incandescents the heat they put off made my dysautonomia flare up - it's hot under stage lights! The halogens are not 100% ideal but they're quite sufficiently ideal and come with 90% less fainting so that's good overall :)

Hmm ... I think that's about all. Oh I spent a *bunch* of time looking at everybody else's product photos and trying to figure out what I liked about the ones I liked, ditto for listing text actually. So I ended up with a list of things I wanted to emulate ... that helped.

[jeshyr]

Oh, and take the photograph WAY more close up than you think is sane. Literally camera 2-3 inches from the piece at the closest! If you tap the iPhone screen you can get it to focus very very close, and then you have less cropping to do afterwards and it looks better. I always take pics too far away if I am not concentrating on this fact!

[jesse_the_k]

Many thanks for these helpful, specific, hints!

[synecdochic]

yeah, that's another good point i forgot to mention: you'll wind up taking umpty gajillion shots for every one you use. and that's good! glory of digital pics. shoot two dozen now with different angles/props (if you're using props)/focal length/etc and sort them out later in post-processing. when i'm photographer for a batch of stuff i usually wind up junking at least 95% of what i shoot, and i plan to do that.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks so much for this useful info — one might almost say the "condensed OJ of prod photog."

[synecdochic]

welcome! i added a bit in reply to something jeshyr said that made me think of it: take way more shots than you think you need. like, i think nothing of shooting a string of a dozen of a single piece with the exact same lighting/props (since we use props)/focal length/setup/etc. increases the chance of that one perfect angle/pose/etc not being blurry :)

[jeshyr]

Tornado crimps rock so much! I do wish I had smaller ones but since all my stuff was given to me, I am seriously NOT complaining!!

There was not a single photography resource actually - my Mum has a DVD called something like "jewellery photography with iPhone" but I never got around to watching it! I just looked at different photography blogs a bit and copied Mum a bit and did the things syn said in her other comment.

[jesse_the_k]

I love my tornado crimps, but I'm concerned they're going to disappear. Some people swear by the "magical crimping tool"
version 1: http://www.firemountaingems.com/search/?Keywords=magical+crimping+tool
version 2: http://is.gd/vbPK1e
buy I'm dubious.

Thanks for the hints ... I may come back with a "how do I suppress an unwanted shine?" sort of Q. Did you consider, and then eliminate, showcasing your necklaces on a human head (or paper simulacrum therein?

Wishing you all the best with your etsy store!

[synecdochic]

i've never found a posable prop like that to work: the black velvet ones eat light, and the plastic ones have even worse shine problems. we only use the black velvet necklace prop when it's something where the drape matters, and even then it's very hard to get a good shot (that was the only usable shot out of two dozen taken on the frame, for instance).

i get a lot of mileage out of the book as background, or just the plain muslin sheet from ikea. if i need drape, i usually hang it on a matte glass bottle, though you have to shoot at an angle to avoid reflection and glare.

[jesse_the_k]

Oh! The matte glass bottle is a thing of wonderment! Thanks again.

[synecdochic]

yeah, it's not often a good choice for feature photo on etsy because it's hard to get the whole necklace in the shot while avoiding glare, but it's good for a secondary shot!

i also like to drape the necklace off the side of a book and shoot from the side on a sharp angle, or stage "i just walked in the door and took off all my jewelry and threw it on the table" shots, but i'm pretentious like that sometimes ;)

[jeshyr]

My Mum has a bust that's made of cream velvet and it's *yummy* to take photos on but honestly my DIY light box isn't big enough for anything like that so I went with the KISS principle!!

I adore D and Sarah's photos but it's all I can do to manage my simple ones and since they look fine I went with it :)

[synecdochic]

the book that features widely in the photos, btw, is one of neal stephenson's baroque cycle. it's a perfect prop -- thick and heavy, nicely textured cover, and it's got great maps in the frontispieces ;)

(a photography session often concludes with one of us saying 'thanks for writing doorstops, neal!')

[jeshyr]

I don't know much about crimps - like I said all my stuff was donated to me and my donors use tornado crimps so I have those handy so I used them. I'm trying to avoid buying stuff until I can finance purchases with the sales, for obvious reasons :)

[ephemera]

ohh - pretties!