The Joys of Photographing Jewelry

I've been taking pictures of some of my jewelry so I can list it on my website and my Etsy shop.

You can really see a piece clearly when it's in digital form. Like these earrings below.

Does anything jump out at you?

There's another pair exactly like this out in the world somewhere!

Don't ask me how I missed this when I mailed the earrings out. If you have a pair just like these, send me an e-mail and I'll send you the pair above free of charge. I'd rather you have two pair than two mismatched earrings!

As I said earlier, I've been taking new photographs of jewelry, and editing photos with my new Windows photo program that came with Windows 10. I'm also listing some new things on Etsy and my website that haven't seen the light of day before now. Here's a teaser:

Cleaning up photos is a full time job! I'm no photo expert, so sometimes I spend too much time trying to get the tint and light just right so the photo truly represents the colors as well as possible. Sometimes I tinker too much and the photo becomes a lost cause.

I have yet to figure out a good background for photographing light stones like Aquamarine, Light Amethyst and Rose Quartz.  I like to use scrapbooking paper, but there are times even that doesn't work. I've also tried vinyl flooring, black vinyl material, real wood, ceramics, and even one of those storage boxes that looks like a book (which is what I used for the gray mismatched earrings in the first photo).

 

Sometimes I want to pull my hair out and give away my jewelry just so I don't have to waste another minute taking and editing photos. 

And then I get a few good shots and I think maybe I'm getting the hang of it.

Maybe....

And then the day is over and the next time I want to photograph jewelry I have to start all over again.

Hope you have a bright and wonderful day!

Woo hoo I can open my eye!

No, it doesn't hurt, but it sure looks gross.

And I have a zipper on my head.

Hope you're having a great week!

Friday Free-for-All

Hangin' out at Caribou with Donna G. 

I'm going on vacation soon.

Not a real vacation, mind you.

Not even a sta-cation.

But I will be absent and away from home for a few days, and then I'll be house-bound for a while.

I'm having surgery on Tuesday to remove a very small Meningioma that sits at the base of the optic nerve canal. The tumor is small, but it is causing me to lose some of the vision in my right eye.

I've had this done once before, in 2008. Different surgeon. Same hospital. Could be the same tumor as far as I know. This type of tumor is usually benign and slow-growing. It's actually compressing the optic nerve and is affecting my peripheral vision on the right side. I don't see cars that come along side of mine unless I turn my head, which sometimes I forget to do. The impact to my vision is easily discernible on a visual field test which has shown a slow degradation on the entire right side of my vision in my right eye.

My vision will slowly get worse as time goes by and will go away completely if I don't have this surgery.

Since I've been through it before, I know what to expect. That is both good and bad. Good because I won't be surprised. Bad because I know what's involved and how long it will take to recover.

When I mention my vision being impaired, most people think this is some kind of eye surgery, or that they'll go through my nose or my eye to remove the very small tumor.

Nope.

In order to resect (remove) the tumor, the doctor will actually remove a portion of my skull and move the brain out of the way.

It's amazing what doctors can do these days. And with technology like the internet and Youtube, I've actually watched a few videos of this type of surgery being done on other people. I wasn't freaked out or grossed out at all. I thought it was fascinating.

But maybe that's just me.

I have a cute little diagram that shows what they're going to do. I've also seen images that are a little more life-like. You probably don't want to see any of them.

Anyway, I'll be in the hospital for 3 to 5 days, and will be somewhat limited in mobility for a week or so. Last time, my husband banished me to the living room and bedroom level of our 4-level home. I expect to sleep a lot, but I also need to walk more than I did the first time around. I would like to be stronger sooner. Thankfully I'm not working right now so I don't have to worry about taking a leave of absence, but I also don't want to drag it out any more than it needs to be.

While they don't actually call my tumor a "brain tumor" because it isn't attached to the brain, basically I am having brain surgery.

So keep me in your thoughts and prayers on Tuesday, April 21st at 12:00 CST.

Hopefully I'll be back soon!

Bead, Read, Eat and Need

I realized this morning that it's been a whole month since I last posted.  Time sure flies when you're having fun, and I have been having way too much fun lately. 

Thought I'd share what's on my table today, and it just so happened to rhyme:  Bead, Read and Eat.  Four words just works better, though, so I added one more since eat doesn't rhyme quite as well with bead and need.

BEAD:  I realized how much I love working with Amethyst, and how quickly it seems to sell.  I have nothing gorgeous in Amethyst in my finished jewelry inventory so the next few days I'll remedy that situation. 

Last night, while watching The Juror I made an Amethyst necklace and bracelet.  I wanted it to be all amethyst, but decided at the last minute to add the lavender freshwater pearls.  I'm still debating what kind of clasp to add.  I SO love the facetted coin shapped beads.

READ:  What I'm reading lately is Torch Fired Enamel Jewelry: A Workshop in Painting With Fire by Barbara Lewis.  I love the look of enamel, and since I don't have a kiln but I do have a torch, this method is one I could easily do.  As soon as I buy some enamels!  I have to admit that I'm not at all into the style of jewelry created in the projects section of this book.  But I have some of my own ideas of what I'd like to enamel and how I want it to look.  C-Coop makes gorgous jewelry components (and the owner lives in Duluth, Minnesota!) and I'd like to try my hand at making similar pieces like the pendant on the left. 

EAT:  Not really a healthy lunch, but I bought some Cheese Curls (or Cheesy Poofs, as Cartman calls them) the other day when I stopped at Cub for my Cappacino.  This is why grocery shopping while hungry is a bad idea.  Oh well, once in a while we have to eat something bad, right?  I love the Cappacino that comes in a red plastic container.  I'd have to go upstairs to read the label so I'll leave it at that.  The French Vanilla flavor is my favorite.  I love it because I can heat some water in the microwave and stir it in.  No fuss, and no cooking, is my motto these days.  Yesterday I had a breakfast bar for lunch.  Yes, I'm lazy.  Not sure when that happened, but I can't deny it.

NEED:  There are so many things I could write about under this heading.  There are so many things I should be doing, like cleaning the house and cooking a decent meal.  But should is not Need, is it?  Lately all I do is what I WANT to do.  Sounds like heaven, right?  Except that I don't think we were built to be so self-indulgent. 

I get nothing done during the day except washing a few loads of laundry.  I do have my sales tax ready to file, and just need to run a few reports to get my business income taxes done.  I spend too much time on the computer.  Everything I need to do relies on using the computer, but when I turn the computer on, it sucks my brains out.  Even the laundry sits in the washer or dryer for hours at a time. 

So what I need to do is write a task list for the week or day and make sure those items get done before I can take any time for what I want to do. 

Of course, I've made this resolution many times before.

Sunset on the Lake

I’m trying a new thing in Windows; It seems I can write to my blog on my computer and somehow it will get uploaded to Blogger. 

So here’s a picture I took as I was driving home the other other afternoon.

This is Bald Eagle Lake in White Bear Lake.

It was a very pretty scene, and I had my camera with me, so I took a pic.

Enjoy!

A Day in the Life of ... an Artist?

Today is Tuesday. 

I turned on my computer because I need to respond to an e-mail from my sister regarding moving some furniture from my garage to her house in San Diego.  Have I done that yet?

.... No.

After stripping the sheets off the beds, I started my first load of laundry for the day. 

There are at least 4 more loads to do.

These are the other tasks on my to do list today:

• Pay bills
• Pay my Dad's bills
• Vacuum and dust the house
• Clean bathrooms (two of three at the very least)
• Wash the kitchen floor
• Look for a job
• Make myself a new watch (I lost my picture jasper watch somewhere in my house and have finally giving up hope of ever finding it again)

Tasks that should be on my list:

• Clean my Dad's house
• Talk to a realtor
• Clean out my bedroom so I can move in my grandmother's secretary
• Sort through all the things in my garage (furniture, trunks and assorted treasures from my Dad's house
• Figure out how to dispose of some furniture, bicycles, tvs, 1959 encyclopedias and other assorted definitely not treasures

The washing machine stopped 10 minutes ago so I should go put the sheets in the dryer and start the next load.

It's already 9:56 a.m. 

Guess I'd better get moving!

But first I'm going to have breakfast...

Hope you have a very productive day!

~Laurel