pictures of pendants

For the most part I've been happy with the results of the new photo set-up.  I haven't purchased the graduated background yet- having recently added up last year's expenses, I'm not in the mood to buy just yet.  The white matte board seems to work well with the pendants I photographed.  I didn't purchase a gray card either, but tried taking a shot of a piece of my previous gray background before photographing each pendant.  This seemed to work as far as color adjustment goes.  I may need a stronger watt bulb overhead, but Picasa's Auto fix seems to do a nice job of correcting any brightness issues.  On the minus side, I ran into problems with Picasa when it was time to size the photos for Etsy.  Usually, with my desktop editing I size the longest side of a picture to 800 or 1000 pixels.  When I did that with Picasa and copied them to my desktop library they shrunk to postage stamp size.  I fooled around a long time with this pixel thing and still need to experiment some more with it.  The first two pendant pics I posted on Etsy are a little smaller than I would like but I got tired of re-editing.

This is something I could enjoy making now and then.  I kept a few pendants at the market and I did sell a couple there, but decided to eventually get the rest on Etsy. There are already a couple of very accomplished jewelry people at the market who have some really nice stuff.  I'm there for pottery, not jewelry. The show which remains nameless was the reason for making pendants.  I thought they would sell well in that particular show.  I was wrong about that!  So here they are Etsy. 

taking it for a test drive

Trying a new photo set-up here after months of dissatisfaction with my pottery pics.  I studied several set-ups other potters shared on their blogs and found some great information which I put links to in this post. I really liked Emily Murphy's set-up but thought Joy Tanner's was a little more doable for me.

Here's my version of Joy Tanners.  I did use the clamp light overhead but have kept the clip-on desk lamps used in my old set-up for now.  I used compact fluorescent bulbs, the daylight kind. 100 watts equals 26 watts in the compact fluorescent and 40 watts equals 13.  I must be stuck in the past because when I say 100 watts that just puts a better picture in my head about how bright the light is.  The overhead light is 100 watts.  In these pictures the side lights are 100 watts also.  I did take some shots with just the 40 watt bulbs on the sides and didn't see a big difference between the 40 and the 100 watts.  Those clip-on desk lamps are only supposed to take 40 watts so I will have to decide if that's adequate.

 

Here's a few first attempts.  By the way, the background is just a large white matt board.  I will probably go with the graduated vinyl but wanted to make sure things were going in the right direction before I spend money on that. Picture #1 has no editing done to it.  I really would like to get to the point where I don't have to mess around with a lot of correcting.

1.

#2. Same picture, but I clicked on the Auto-fix in Picasa.  Like this one better.

2.

Picture 3- I wanted to see how this glaze, which has more shine to it, photographed.  I was disappointed.  One tip I picked up in my reading is using a gray card can help keep colors true.  Another was to focus on the background before placing your pottery in the frame.  I did the latter because I don't have a gray card, but it looks like the card might be a smart purchase.  White balance would be another help, but I don't have this feature on my camera, a Nikon Coolpix L16.  

3.

This is what Auto-fix did with it.  Still not there.

4.

I hit the Auto-fix for this mug because it was washed-out with too much reflection.  It might be necessary to make more side diffusers and double-up on them.

5.

 



That's it for now.  The education continues.

etsy neglect, last minute shopping, etc...

Now that things have settled down- last firing for the season done, some house projects most of the way done, uh, Christmas shopping not done, I actually wouldn't mind some etsy sales.  However, I have let my stock dwindle on purpose-  Not happy with my photos and need to stick with a direction for the shop, not the complete hodge-podge it's been.  Here's some good info from Emily Murphy's blog post about photographing pottery which I found on Musing about Mud's blog. So, I believe I'll be doing a little experimenting this January.  She (Emily Murphy) not only shows and explains her set-up but lists links for others.  The one using natural light really appeals to me, but may not be practical with some of my glossy glazes.

And now for the pretty picture segment of our show to help the last minute shoppers in the area make up their minds:  Here are a few things I've bought at River City Farmer's Market for myself.

A painting by Gale Karcher.

 

The black background is flat with all those individually painted wood pieces glued on top.

My well-used kitchen wash cloths.  A couple of different vendors make these crocheted cotton cloths.  I like them because they hold up better than store-bought.  Look better too. Notice they are right next to my own honey jar, which is filled with honey from a market vendor.  Oh, (light bulb) a gift idea- honey and a honey jar.

 

A wall hanging by Debbie Cunningham.  I have this hanging on a cabinet in the guest bedroom.  That's and old beaded purse that belonged to someone in my family hanging above it.

Oh yeah, and some earrings made by Kate Mulligan and Janet Smith, and a flax-seed filled heating pad from Strahler's for my neck. Also, I've bought several wooden boxes from George Corbitt for gifts.  He just brought in some new ones with inlaid figures of horses and herons that are amazingly detailed.  Come and see!

there's no place like home

That ran through my head a couple of times at the farmer's market Saturday.  I've been absent from the market for several weeks because of the shows I was doing.  It was quite the project getting set up again and I feel very lucky we have a building so I don't have set up and tear down every time. Business was great, which I was amazing because of the complete disarray my stuff was in.  People were buying before I was even 10 percent set up.  One couple asked if I had honey jars, which I hadn't unpacked yet.  I managed to find one pretty quick and was going to look for the other one I knew I had, but they said they were happy with the first one.  Decisive.  I like that.
I do have my slow days at the market. Wish I could predict those so I could just stay home and work.  It was completely unexpected that I would have such a good day in the middle of that setting up mess.  Nice welcome back.
Here's some vases from the last firing.  Same shape, different glazes-

I have another of this glaze combo at the market. Something I noticed when I looked at the  Harvest Moon show pictures was the dominance of decorative pieces.  I very much appreciate functional pottery and hadn't realized I was leaning so much into the decorative area until seeing those pictures.

Ahhh......Weathered Bronze.  I have a customer who wanted to see more pieces made in this glaze so I'll put these aside for him.  This is a very strong glaze and is not appropriate for just anything.  I lined these vases in a clear glossy glaze for easier cleaning and to make sure of the seal.  I am still learning with this glaze.  Every glaze has it's special characteristics:  how it acts where it breaks over texture, what it looks like where it's thin or thick, and how it reacts when it overlaps with other glazes or coloring oxides.

Focus, focus.  It seems I focused on the Japanese Lanterns and not the vase.  The Japanese Lanterns are very worthy so that's O.K.   These lanterns are a couple of years old but since I store them in a dark place when fall is over they retain their color pretty well.
Nice turquoise glaze.  I'm always thinking of phasing it out, though. Looks very anemic if applied thin, tends to crawl it it's  the slightest bit thick.  Customers like it, which makes the phasing out thing difficult.

I neglected my etsy shop all summer.  Mostly, I was unhappy with my photos so I let a bunch of stuff expire.  I did experiment with a different photography set-up but wasn't especially pleased with that, either.  I'll probably never be completely satisfied with my pictures.  I'm thinking of eventually taking it in a different direction:  I'd been kicking around the idea of carrying only decorative items instead of functional in my shop even before seeing this little trend in my show pictures.  I do have a number of non-functional items listed already.  Anyway, whether functional or non-functional, I've started the slow process of getting it repopulated.