APRIL FOOL'S SALE!

Since today is the last day of my Spring Cleaning Sale, I decided to up the anty as it were.  Today only, everything in my studio is a whopping 20% OFF!  Yes, everything.... new pieces, old stock, puppets, destash..... EVERYTHING!
Fools and Jewels

Come on over to my studio and check it out!

Spring Cleaning SALE!

I have decided to clear out some of my old jewelry stock to make room for new stock. This means savings for you!  From now until April 1st I am offering 10% off everything in my studio!  If you tweet, blog or Facebook this sale, please leave me a comment and something special might come to you as well. ;)

Come on over and check it out!

http://www.artfire.com/users/divapixie

Catching up

Wow.  So much has happened since I last wrote.  Both on the jewelry front and on the home front.  In the past two weeks I have:
~Caught a BAD head cold.
~Had my parents and grandmother come for a week long visit.
~Fixed up my kitchen.

~Hung curtains in the livingroom.

~Worked on my final concert for my students at school.
~Been filling a large custom order for resin buttons.
~Been recruited to do a jewelry line for an online fashion website.
~Been asked to sew some quick curtains for a local community theater production.
~Helped my father sand, water seal and assemble a cedar bar for my dinning room.

Yep... that about sums it up.  It was a LOT.

Preparations for Carnegie Arts Wine Tasting and Art Auction are underway

At least on my end, preparations are underway.  Last year I had the pleasure of being asked to donate a few pieces of my jewelry to the art auction.  Of course I was delighted to do so.  It is a great way to get my jewelrypieces out in the public eye and the proceeds go to benefit a local art gallery.  I made three pieces especially for the auction.  For my trouble, I received a pair of tickets to the event.

A piece from last year's auction, made by myself.

Lee always likes to attend this event so he had been going for years.  We went and had a great time.... except for one thing.  I had donated thre items for the auction.  All three of my items were placed on the Silent Auction table instead of in the actual auction.  I had donated three items in the hopes that they would at least place one in the full blown auction.  I was hurt and upset by this.

Another of the pieces donated to the auction by myself from last year.

This year, I have once again decided to donate items to the cause. I will once again be creating brand new pieces fr this event.  However, I am stipulating that at least one of my items be placed in the actual auction. If they do not agree to this, I wil not donate anything.  I don't really think it's too much to ask.  I just want the exposure of having the auctioneer takes public bids on my item and watch it being displayed by the lovely volunteer "Vanna White"s. 
I have been planning to begin work on these pieces all week.. and have yet to actually sit down and do so.  I have however been giving a lot of thought to what kind of pieces I want to create.  My goal is to once again make three items.  I plan to make one piece out of something vintage that has been repurposed, like an old vintage rhinestone piece or beads or chain from a broken piece of vintage jewelry.  I plan to make one small copper wire wrapped pendant with fresh water pearls.  And the last piece I can not decide on a design yet..... perhaps a large pair of wire wrapped earrings. 

What's new today 2-10-11

Well, today was the first day back at work after my two day snow break.  Everything went smoothly.  And we are already to the weekend again.  Wow... what a strange week.

I have a few things to share with you.  I have been working on a custom pendant as a part of a trade I have arranged with a fellow artisan on Artfire. I -finally- finished it this week.  I hope that the recipient enjoys it as much as I've enjoyed creating it.

While I was snowed in my house I also spent quality time with my puppy, Wynton.  He's a little over 4 months old now.  He's a cream colored toy poodle.  We had a good time playing and napping.  I have to brush out his coat once every day or so.  And his hair is so long now I have to band it up out of his eyes.  Normally my boyfriend's mother does his grooming (she used to groom and show poodles for clients) but I have had to learn to take on a bit of the maintainence.  It can be very frustrating, especially when he doesn't want to cooperate. Anyways, here's a picture of him right after he was brushed out.
That's all for this blog entry.  I have several other jewelry pieces in the works, which I will fill you in on at a later date. 

Experiments in photography~ Take 2

OK. I used a link from a fellow blogger's entry to learn to make a homemade light box. Mine turned out pretty crude but it does seem to function the way described.
How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio.

So, after completing this box, I immediately wanted to try it out.  I have an old goose neck lamp on my bookshelf.  I placed it on one side of the light box and took some photos of a few new pendants.  Upon taking these photos, I noticed that one side was lit up fairly nicely.  However, the photos still have a slightly grainy texture and some shadows.  This leads me to believe that I need another light source on the other side of the box. 
I am also very curious what natural sunlight would look like utilizing this box.  I plan to take the light box outside this afternoon and see what that does.  Below is a photo I took last night with my crude light box.  I need to do some tweaking methinks.


A valentine inspired piece I've been waiting to photograph and list.



Spring Fever

I was featured recently in a collection based on Spring items!  And I totally have a case of Spring Fever right now too.
Would love it if some of my wonderful readers would go check out the collection on Artfire and give it a comment or rating.  Pretty please?

Longing for Spring

Curated By: daffydill

ArtFire.com

Fine Art Paintings

Photographing my pieces

OK.... I am not a professional photographer and while I have several friends who are, I often find I just can not capture my pieces with my camera.

That being said.... I have been trying repeatedly to find and try new ways of photographing my jewelry pieces.  Recently I took a few pieces and tried using some different backgrounds and props.  See the example below:



This photo is taken in daylight out in my front yard on a bench under a tree.  I like natural light and at first found this gave me the best photo results.




This one was taken on the same bench in the same location and using natural sunlight as well.

 


This is utilizing the same natural sunlight in my front yard only using a few pieces of colored cardstock and a lovely rock I found in my yard. 

Another picture taken using a colored cardstock background and natural sunlight.

Now, I'm not certain which I personally like better. Each has their good points. So I ask you readers... which photo makes you want to purchase the necklace more? And why...?



I intend to try some new things in the future in regards to photographing my jewelry pieces. I shall kep you all informed as this project evolves.