Making a Homemade 'White Box' for Product Photography

I've come a long way, baby.

That's how it happens with photography.  I've had a lot of practice with lots of sub-level cameras, where my good shots were out of luck.   My parents had given me a Canon PowerShot IS 2000 a few years ago for my birthday - it's incredible.  (All the shots on this blog thus far have been captured by this camera!)  Now that I finally have a camera that is meant to take high-quality pictures for the detail I want, I've taken full advantage of its features.  The only issue - creating an ambience for the product itself, with both lighting and setting.

These elements are more crucial - and a lot more difficult - to put together than expected.  When I first opened shop on Etsy, my jewelry was photographed against fabrics of my collection of pashmina scarves and patterned clothes.  I love those scarves, and I've got great clothes, and I turned on all the lights in the room.  I thought it was enough, really.  Some of the shots turned out to have a great atmosphere to them, but I would credit that more to luck.  Some of them, I found, got lost in the background of the crazy pattern, or the colours didn't come through right.  I didn't get it myself - with my own eye, it looked great.  Why didn't it come out the way I saw it in the camera's lens?  A good example of those shots will be from my first Artbeads.com Design Project with Swarovski materials.  Nice idea, poor execution.  Really, I just didn't know where I was really going, or what I was really doing.

Strolling around Etsy and a few forums, it seems that the common opinion is that when all else fails, the 'white box' is the best.  It brings a true representation to the colours and it's easier to balance out tricky elements like shadow, brightness, sharpness and exposure.  It also helps if you have a really good camera, like my PowerShot.  Ten mexapixels!  It's amazing in macro!

Lemme show you my very simple setup.

The cardboard box was something that had fit an electric vegetable steamer.  The cardstock is opaque and stiff, as supposed to regular paper that may not give a true white background and flop over.  The carstock piece on the bottom isn't fixed in, and is occasionally replaced with another colour background.  (You can see examples of that in the Artbeads.com Pantone Fall 2010 Project, where I had used a page from a French wine calendar, or the Artbeads.com Winter Enchantment Project, using a friend's artwork to complement the presentation.)

7000 Bracelets For Hope Blog Hop!

Lori Anderson, you work much too hard!

We're up for a new blog hop for a good cause with The Global Genes Project, an advocacy group who has created the "7000 Bracelets for Hope" initiative, a children's rare disease campaign.  Bracelets are made by jewelry makers all over the world and sent to families who have children afflicted with rare diseases to show them love and support.  The only condition of the bracelet is that it's main colour must be blue - their awareness ribbon is blue denim!  :)  I had signed up a little late for this blog hop, so I looked to my stash right away for some 'true blue!'

Some really excellent options, but there was one idea that kept leaping out at me.  Here it is!

If this bracelet was going to be sent to a special family, I wanted to make sure it was going to be a treasure.  These Czech glass beads glow with the most vibrant sapphire blue, they were my favourite of the bunch.  I love the brass cap detail that adds a delicacy to such a bold colour.  The headpins (a recent Etsy purchase!) were too thin for the beads to feed through and stop at the ball end, so I turned them into little 'curly cues' for an added detail.  The chain and lobster clasp both came from a thrifted necklace.

This bracelet, along with a note of encouragement, will be sent to one of seven thousand families who have children suffering from rare diseases.  This important campaign helps raise awareness for the needs of millions of these children around the world, and I am only too happy to help boost a family's spirits.  Learn more about The Global Genes Project to see how you can contribute!

Visit Lori's blog to check out the rest of the 7000 Bracelets of Hope Blog Hop! ... there's only 112 of them in this round, don't worry!  Thanks again to Lori Anderson at Pretty Things for organizing this Blog Hop!

Costume Jewelry to SHOUT About!

The costume jewelry for SHOUT! is just about done!  We have a meet n' greet at Zehrs Grocery in Orangeville tomorrow - in costume! - and I wanted to finish as much as I could so I can give the ladies some options on accessories.  I would like to make a few more than what I have here for each character, but funds are tight nowadays and so is time - curtain's in under a month!  We're still in the process of dealing with the finer details in the costumes themselves, which will be showstopping!  A few details have changed in the accessories, as well - instead of clip-on earrings, they'll have earwires; I couldn't find silver clip-ons for the life of me, and was concerned about their hold during our dance numbers.  I won't be putting magnet clasps on the necklaces, either - again, funds are tight nowadays!  A lobster clasp will be used for the necklaces; still has that same security when dancing around.  Let's check out what we have!

The Green Girl (that's me!)  Matching lampwork glass in coin and tube beads made a great chunky bracelet, strung on stretch wire, with a pair of earrings to match! I had made a second pair with faceted acrylic beads for a costume change.

The SHOUT! Collection ... and a Discount Code!

Groovy! Fab! Cosmic! Swingin'!  Celebrate the 'mod musings' of five groovy girls in '60s London, England, growing up in a time of changing attitudes towards gender as they discover the potential in their own lives and in each others'.  Minis and go go boots, flower power and rainbows, big hair and bigger dreams, all set to a soundtrack of some of the greatest hits sung by Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Cilla Black, Shirley Bassey, and many more!  It'll make you tilt your head back and Shout!

Playing The Green Girl in LP Stage Production's show has been a real inspirational experience for my jewelry design.  Yummy!  Not only do I have the chance to design the accessories for the costumes in the show, I made a few pieces for everyone to enjoy!  This collection is inspired by my love of the bright colours and mod fashions in this exciting era of fashion.  Yummy!

I also present a new discount code for you all to enjoy!  In celebration of Shout! The Mod Musical, I present a 15% savings for you all to enjoy with the code 'SHOUT2011'.  Check out the advert - made by yours truly! - that will be in our show's program!

Onward to the SHOUT! Collection!

SHOUT! The Mod Musical - Cast Picture!

Curtain's just under a month ... and we are so excited!  We had a photo shoot at the Mad Hatter Pub in Orangeville in full costume - for the first time!  Click here to visit my blog, The Pursuit, for details about the day!

I had a little fun with Picnik.com to give the photos a vintage '60s feel, with a little text flair.  Whaddayathink?

from left: Abi Adekoya, Samantha Russell, me!, Justine Christie, Elizabeth Glenday

Design by Cassandra Does "Assassin's Creed"!

I was rather impatient on finishing the ideas I had mapped out from this week's BTW influenced by the video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood since they were rather fresh in my brain.  Fingers get so itchy, but they were rather relieved by Thursday's end.  I'm rather happy with they way they came together!

Amongst the historical figures in the video game, focusing on the corrupt power and influence of the House of Borgia, is Renaissance inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.  Nick has a beautiful coffee table book full of da Vinci's illustrations, from his spiritual sketches to the war machines designed for the Borgia's troops, all replicated in the game itself!  (There's a level where you use Leonardo's 'tank' design to destroy Borgia cannons!  It's awesome!)  I had used pages from the book as a background to photograph the pieces, a great addition to detail for these geek-inspired pieces!

This is also me fully admitting that I'm a bit of a geek-girl.  Yup, my best friend says I should carve a niche for it.  Let see how these fare.

Etsy Treasury: A Lime In The Coconut - Remembering Spring by Emerald Moon Design

Thanks very much to Jenn at Emerald Moon Design for including the Coconut necklace, no. 1 in her Treasury!

Latte Coffee Brown Doub... aloha2summer $32.00	B O G O / S A L E - Coc... designbycassan... $20.00
Brown Gladiator Leather... sandali $60.00	Natural Sunscreen in Li... rainwaterbotan... $5.00
Paradise Icon print 12x... impulseART $22.00	4.5oz Coconut Goats Mil... Germaphobe $4.50
Turkish Bath Towel...PE... TurkishBath $26.00	Coconut Earrings - Pias... TribalStyle $25.00
Natural Coconut Dispens... FLcoconuts $18.00	Dark Plum Coconut Shell... aloha2summer $32.00
Coconut Diamond Earring... VickyVK $18.00	Grace Dances at Beach J... maclancy $20.00
Two Hawaiian Coconut Tr... 3rdAveShore $116.00	Olive Wood Bead Wrap Br... DeOrdioDesigns $46.00
Lip Balm MONKEY FARTS L... HowardsHome $3.00	Adjustable Large Coconu... TheLoft10Beyon... $18.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Bead Table Wednesday, Issue #2: DBC Does 'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood'

Y'all folks are so kind with the previous - and my first! - BTW post, thank you so much for your comments!  If you enjoy my posts, you ought to check out the Flickr page featuring beaders and jewelry makers from across the world, sharing what's on their bead table every week!

Last week, you loved the Rockslide necklace, which will be available for sale in my Etsy shop very soon with other new designs.  This week is a very unique design concept and thrifted repurposed piece I picked up during a shopping spree at Value Village.  (Oh my, I will have to brag about that stuff in a later post.  Incredible finds!)  Nick has been playing quite a bit of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, an XBOX video game with its setting in 16th century Rome/'present day' 2012, with an epic yet complicated story about an ancient brotherhood called the Assassins and their lineage as they try to protect mankind from the Templars and protect an ancient 'biblical' artifact with the potential of great power to whoever possesses it.  It's a pretty damn cool game.  Eighty-five percent of the game's characters and events are historically accurate accounts of the House of  Borgia's power and influence through 15th and 16th centuries in Italy.  It's a pretty cool game, and he plays it a lot.  He's playing it right now.  (Not just as I type this, but probably as you're reading this a few days from now, too!)

You play as Ezio Auditore, a trained Assassino like his father, hailing proudly from city of Firenze, Italy.  The traditional Assassin costume is white and red, his traditional armour is patterned much like feathers of birds wings.  Nick had been bugging me for a while to make something inspired from the game, and I just happened across the coolest find at Value Village.  This'll be perfect for an Assassin's Creed-inspired piece.

Bead Stories in Pictures

So, I'm photographing away, bag o' beads after bag o' beads from my destash pile that I'll be listing on Etsy.  I've constructed a rudimentary 'white box' with natural sunlight, which is really helping capture a true colour representation.  I'm lining them up with the best features, excusable flaws, in groups, in pairs, in piles and all these fun configurations.  I had even included a prop; a white porcelain teacup from my Japanese tea set.  (It has the Japanese character for 'tea' on the side, hidden appropriately!)  It's pretty handy for keeping the smaller round beads together when I photograph them, especially when it's laying on its side.

The photos turned out really well!  The white made the colours and textures pop, and reflected light nicely around some tricky shadows.  Something else came from these photos, too - unexpectedly, I had created these little picture stories with the beads in the photos I took and ran with it.  These 'storyboards' were coming to life, putting personality into these little guys.

Here are a few of my favourites for you to enjoy!  Which one's your favourite story?

Just Call Me The Bead Hoarder ...

It's the curse of most jewelry makers and beaders I know, that we're buying stuff left, right and centre for potential future projects.  I've amassed such a collection of beads I'm not even looking at anymore, it just seems like too much to do.  I've started organizing the beads I know I'll use and the beads I can separate with, and I've put in a good dent.  I figure with the beads I'm not using I'll sell on my Etsy shop to make a little money back.  I'd even be up for trading if anyone has any stuff they're looking to let go of, too!

Here's a look at some of the beads I'll be offering up!  (My photography skills are starting to pay off, too!)

More to come, believe it!