Finished Our First Show for the Christmas Season

Our first Christmas show was yesterday at the Kamloops Craft-a-fair.  It was a very busy and successful show and great start for the season.  Our booth set-up was a little different again this year with some new display props added.  We used all of our new "hand" displays as well as some framed photos of our niece modeling our jewelry.  Seeing the pieces on an actual person must have helped as we sold more of these "modeled" pieces than any other.

We also made these little stands to show off our earrings.  I planned to make some from clay but had too many things to do and too little time so I improvised with these.  I will show you in our next blog post how you can make your own.

Jewelry Photo Shoot

I am currently finishing off some pieces to share with you in various combinations of the Pantone Fall 2011 colors.  In the meantime I wanted to share with you a few photos of our first jewelry photo-shoot.  We had a nice time visiting our niece, Leanne, and her family last week and she so graciously modeled some of our jewelry pieces for us.  Our plan is to have some of the better photos framed to hang in our upcoming shows this season.

The jewelry seems to come alive more when shown a real model as opposed to a mannequin.  In this collage, our "Fiesta Spiral" Necklace and Earrings are versatile enough to be worn formal with a dress or casual with jeans.  (Click on the photo for a larger view.)

Lend Me An Ear

Good photographs are so important when selling on the internet so I am always trying to improve them whenever I can.  My new lightbox has helped tremendously but I was in need of some good props for displaying my pieces.  I like to present a variety of photos of the item I am selling to show all the angles as well as how it would actually hang and help visualize the size and length.

I recently purchased this display which I thought would be perfect for showing off a choker style necklace as well as an earring.  I was sadly disappointed, however, when I discovered that there wasn't a single type of earring that would fit through the hole on the ear.  The hole was at the wrong angle and the "ear" was too thick for any ear wire to go through.  Since the display is made from plaster, drilling a larger hole was not an option.  The piece sat on my shelf for several months before I finally came up with an idea.

I took some photographs of the display.  I reprinted the picture in life-size on a heavy cardstock and punched a small hole in it.  I then placed my earring in the hole and photographed it again.

  

I like how it shows the proper size and length of the earring and it works for both dangle and post styles. I've learned that if something doesn't work just the way you want it to, it always helps to improvise.

Photo Testing

I've been experimenting with taking photos with my new light box and comparing them with the ones previously taken in the natural light.  Here are a few samples below:

Natural Light              Light Box

 

 

 

The first photo is of a pendant that I have had a hard time trying to capture in it's best form.  It would  reflect the light and the colors always seemed to appear washed out.  Both photos were taken on the same white paper background and neither one had any editing done to them at all.

The black and white earrings were also difficult to photograph in the natural light.  One nice thing about this particular light box is that it comes with a background cloth that is reversible with blue on one side and grey on the opposite.  I used the grey background for the earrings as well as the tiger print beads which give them both a much softer look.

These are the pros and cons that I have come up with so far:

Cons:

It takes a bit of space so you need a good place for it.  The inside measurements are 16" x 16" x 16", however the complete outside setup measures 21" deep x 25" wide.  Although any light box you choose will still require a bit of table space and extra set-up for your lamps (this one the lights are built in).

Pros:

1)  The inside is big enough for using an average to tall size jewelry display.

2)  I can take my pictures of my work any time of the day or night and I don't have to worry about whether it is a sunny or cloudy day.

3)  The photos I take are more consistent so I won't have to fidget with adjusting my camera settings as much and also means saving time on the computer later with having to make further lighting adjustments.

I only tested it out for one day but all in all I am happy with my light box so far and I think it is definitely a keeper.

My New Toy

We bought a lightbox today.  It happened to be on sale and I can't wait to try it out tomorrow.

It is suppose to help with taking better photos.  I feel our photos aren't too terrible but there is always room for improvement.  When we set up our new studio last year we had windows placed in the corner where there is no direct sun but plenty of natural light.

This was working out fine, however there are only certain times in the day when the lighting is the most optimal for picture taking and the photos weren't as consistent as I would like.  I'm hoping this lightbox will not only improve my photos but also help save me some time in editing afterwards as well.

So we will put it to the test and see....