Photography props and backgrounds

My thoughts…

I’m practicing again with my photos…

Backgrounds….

Many pictures of jewelry are done with solid background. Typically, a clean slate really focuses the attention on the piece not the background. I personally love black backgrounds, though some designers feel they are visually stale.

If you have a flowery swirly jewelry design, with a paisley, checkerboard or overly textured background the photography is going to seriously distract the viewer. You’ll want to give some serious thought to what are you selling, the fabric or the jewelry. Does the fabric detract or enhance your jewelry design.

Now, if your jewelry designs are going to be in a catalog or a similar publication you will have to follow submission guidelines; most often requiring a solid background. When using stark white background against color; especially dark colors, the contrast is extremely high. When photographing with a white background you have to verify the white actually comes out WHITE and the design colors actually comes out the proper color! Many photographs can be ruined simply because the white background appears greyish, off color, and the piece will often have an unusual color cast.

Props

Props can add character, tell a story; thereby ADDING TO THE VISUAL appeal of the design. The use of different colors and/or props can make a stunningly gorgeous statement. They should be simple and focus attention to the piece. The whole prop does not have to be in the photo to be effective, its shadow or texture can reflect the beauty of the jewelry design.

Some of my favorite props are things found in nature. While my designer friend Lola from Metal Chasers loves using antiques, especially glassware, bronze candlestick holder and similar objects. Lola was the inspiration for this blog and has greatly helped me improve my photography skills. Much of what I’ve learned about photography has been gleaned from Lola.

Recently I received a wonderful suggestion from eSMArts team member, Stacie of Creative Junque, suggesting that I use ceramic tiles as background props. Looking forward to trying this suggestion, I really believe this will add interest without distracting from my designs.

Practice, practice and more practice

I suggest, taking several photographs with several different props, backgrounds, camera angles, and lighting. This will give you a selection of photos, which gives you the ability to choose the photo that shows your design to its fullest potential. What works for one piece may not work for the next. The more photos you take, the more experience you will gain, you will find your style, and hopefully photography will become second hand…

I’m still practicing…

Making Wire Jewelry … My A.R.T. online workshop

Two Sizes of Wire - Lesson three

Lesson three combines different wire gauges to create different textures. “The necklace was designed especially for a plain round neckline.” I choose 14 gauge Gold Parawire and 18 gauge non-tarnish Silver Parawire to complete the project. Again the 14 gauge wire proved to be somewhat a challenge, I found that my wire coming off my spool was very wavy, and I was very concerned that I would never be able to form the design correctly. But once I filed and rounded the ends, and made the first loops, the design formed beautifully with no wavy wire. I did change the size of the mandrel after making a few silver coils, and if I had more time, I would even make them smaller. Maybe next time…

The Leaf – Lesson three

This leaf lesson is considered a simple design with the intent to teach you that the process of bending wire, while promoting your growth in bending wire for future lessons. The leaf dangle was not difficult to accomplish, and would make a lovely necklace or bracelet. In a future design I hope to incorporate beads to add some interest to the overall design concept.

In this lesson we were given the option of making a necklace or a pair of earrings.

I choose the leaf earrings as my project. Wish I hadn’t…. making a matching pair of earrings proved challenging, though I finally completed a matching pair.

The earrings are very practical and comfortable to wear. They are designed as a two sided earring, were the back is as pretty as the front. Especially nice for women with short hair or women who love wearing their hair up and off the back of their necks. I was slightly disappointed when I found that my ear lobes were too small to carry off the leaf design successfully. I liked the two sided design concept and will try creating another pair of two sided earrings in a future project, just not in a leaf design.

Moving on to lesson four…

My Second Wire Wrap Jewelry Charm Swap

Swaps n’ Challenges

Summer-Patriotic Theme

Kites flying in the summer skies, Angel Fish swimming in the ocean, 4^th of July picnics, dancing feather floating in the summer breeze, ice cream cones on a warm summer afternoon, gone fishing...

My charm swap arrived today….

Wonderful designs, created by lovely ladies…

Kites/God’s Eye was the theme of Donna Clark’s wonderful charm. With a little imagination you can almost see Sue Schoch’s angel fish swimming in the sea; coral, shell, glass bead bubbles and green kelp just completed the picture. Valerie Jewell created a fantastic fishy; her design represented fond memories of the 4^th of July, summer picnics and going fishing. While, Pam Takacs created a patriotic and beautifully designed Lampwork bead, in what else red, white & blue. Not one, but two delightful dangle charms were created by Jayne Jackson representing both themes; 4^th of July and her wonderful patriotic hearts. Sherry ”Dancing Feather” created one of her signature copper feathers in a patriotic theme; a lovely design and a very useful cell phone charm. Our swap hostess, Karon Adams designed an amazing pair of Ice Cream Cone earrings.

This was a small swap, only 10 participants, lovely charms were made by all. I will treasure each and every charm.

Making Wire Jewelry....My A.R.T. online workshop

“Experimenting with heavier wire”
Lesson 2

The Lapel Pin

As I started my second lesson today, I found that my planned design just wasn’t feasible, the wire just wouldn’t cooperate. The heavier gauge wire had a mind of its own. All wire has a natural curve, and experimentation taught me to take advantage of this curve. I also came to the realization that I would never be able to duplicate this design form. I really wanted to flatten the wire on my lapel pin, but decided that I would leave it for another time.

What a surprise when I re-read our instructions and found that I needed to make to pins.

The first Lapel Pin is constructed of 14 gauge Copper wire, this is the design that we were to complete, minus the dangle. For the second Lapel Pin I used 14 gauge Gold Parawire, letting the wire free-form into the design shape, again adding a dangle. Not fond of Lapel Pins, the 14 gauge wire is hard to work, and I feel the pin would damage most fabrics.

A Simple Chain Bracelet

Simple concept, not so simple to construct.
Lot’s of filing, lot’s of burrs…
File, file, file …and file more burrs. Time to consider buying a selection of burr cups.
This simple bracelet is constructed from 16 gauge copper wire, and has a 14 gauge copper clasp.

I did enjoy making this design!

My First Wire Wrap Jewelry Charm Swap - WWJ

This is a collection of all the charms that were submitted by the talented jewelry artist that participated in my first charm swap. Karon Adams made this lovely window heart display showing the beauty of all the charms.

The theme for my first charm swap was Valentines Day/Saint Patrick’s Day. Each participant could choice either theme or both, using there creativity to create 6 charms, or more if they so choose. I wanted to make a charm for each participant, but found that I didn’t have enough supplies on hand, so I only submitted my six charms. The charms that I received are pictured in the photo on the right.

Today I’m waiting for the charms to arrive from my second charm swap…they should be here any day!

Photography…...it’s driving me crazy…

I even own a light cube!
I am so photo challenged, and more I try, the more confused I seem to get. I’m currently trying to improve my jewelry photos, with not much success. Much of the information that I have gleaned has come from my jewelry related online groups, where they suggest a solid background in the black, grey, white scale, not using props. I did get some decent photos with a white background, but they just seem to be missing something, not really to my liking. So today I decided it was time for me to try using a black background, and found that I liked them much better than the white background. I fiddled with natural lighting, and artificial lighting. The natural lighting was more successful, but even though it’s a cloudy day, the sun moving in and out of the clouds, proved to present problems.

It has been recommended by other artisans not to use props, but out can the props away, why not try to take a chance and see if I could take a photo that I actually liked. Much easier to photography earrings if your using props, and yes, I liked the photos using the props.

Now I need to decide to watermark the photos or not to watermark the photos. In some ways a watermarked photo looks more professional, but the question is, does the watermark distract the viewers eye, as they view the jewelry.

I did come to a conclusion; I personally think my photos listed in my Etsy Store look better when I’ve used props. Yes, I like the black background, and props. Still need a lot of practice, as practice makes perfect. Now if I could make a decision on watermarks. Check by my blog or Etsy Store, and see how my photography improves…

The Adventure Begins...

This is the beginning of my first week of my online workshop, Making Wire Jewelry, aka: MWJ…

I hope you enjoy this journey with me…

My first lesson begins…"An Ancient Design"

“Over four thousand years ago an Egyptian goldsmith produced a lovely and unusual necklace made entirely of wire. As far as we know, he was the first designer to use the coil principle and the first to fit coiled links together in this ingenious fashion.”

In this first lesson I had the choice of a bracelet, necklace or earrings or all three. As I tend to procrastinate, I finally decided that I would make the bracelet, with my wire choice being 20 gauge copper wire. I love copper wire! Love the look, love the feel, love the color.

My Adventure Ends as Another Begins

I belong to a wonderful group "Artists of the Round Table... A.R.T. for short".

I've just finished my first online workshop "Bead on a Wire", aka; BOW. The workshop was based on Sharilyn Miller's book "Bead on a Wire". This proved to be a terrific learning experience for me, I really enjoyed the workshop and this learning format. We had a week to complete each lesson, 15 lessons in total, and a few breaks in between.

So I decided to take the next online A.R.T. workshop "Making Wire Jewelry", aka; MWJ. This workshop is based on the book "Making Wire Jewelry 60 Easy Projects in Silver, Copper & Brass by Helen Clegg & Mary Larom. This will be 16 weeks...

So as one adventure ends, another begins....

Transition

Iron Challenge Necklace

Iron Bead Challenge
November 2007

The diverse selective of beads were the primary inspiration for this project. My goal was to complete the project with all the beads provided, while adding only a few focal elements. All the beads in the challenge kit were used, except for one wooden bead, while adding only three other elements to construct the design.

Jade focal beads, Glass beads, wooden beads, glass seed beads, copper clasp, copper chain, and copper wire wrapping

Necklace length: 24"

Focal element length: 3"