Back at the Bench

The garden has been (mostly) put to bed.  I admit I have been lazy about getting it ready for next year, and I know I'll pay for it in the spring :(  I had plans to try and rearrange the fencing so I could fit in a couple more beds before the weather got too cold, but it never happened.  Those three weeks my daughter was home in between the end of ESY and the beginning of her new school year just sucked all the motivation right out of me.  I know it's kind of backwards - one would think after three weeks of being prevented from doing what I wanted in the garden that I'd want to make up for it as soon as she was gone during the day, but no - I didn't have the motivation to do much besides sit around and read.

 
I'm feeling much better now, though, and have been back to making new jewelry.  I've listed some new work at the DaisyCat Jewelry shop on Etsy, and I hope to take more photos on Monday and have the rest of my new work up before Black Friday.  This is the one time of year I go out of my way to remind everyone I know "Hey, you know someone who makes jewelry for a living - and this is the one time of year you can justify spending money on jewelry, even if it's for someone else!  Buy presents!"

So this is what I've been up to:

Work-in-Progress - Sterling Pendant with Rutilated Quartz and Rhodolite Garnet

This pendant is almost done.  I love rutilated quartz, and work with it as often as I can.  The stones are now set, and it's been polished.  I'm going to add some dangle to the link at the bottom, but I'm not sure exactly what yet.  I'll post another pic when it's finished.


Here are some new earring designs that I made earlier this year that I finally got around to taking photos of and listing:

Almandine garnet and Sterling post earrings

Handmade chain and Amethyst earrings

And another new pendant:

Sterling pendant with Carnelian and Citrine

 Hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxed (?) holiday next week!

Product Photography Shoots and New Work

It's been a very busy couple of weeks!  I had a custom order for a friend bumped up from a Christmas deadline to a Thanksgiving deadline (!)  and had to get cracking on that.  She and her kids had collected quartz from her grandmother's back yard and tumbled it in a hobby rock-tumbler.  One of them was heart-shaped, and I was asked to set it in something to give to her Aunt - the pendant pictured above is the result. 

Again, last week we had lots of doctor's appointments, cutting into my creative time as always.  Oh well - health is necessary!  I finally got around to taking some new product photos so that I could list my new work in my shop in time for the holiday shopping season.  I'll do another round in a few more days. 

I now have a better photo of the Paisley Pendant I was working on earlier.  I still have trouble getting any transparent stones to look right.  I need a nice neutral spotlight to shine straight forward onto the stones like in this photo setup that I really would like to have some day.  I would take photos a lot more frequently if it were easier to do!  My current lighting setup is a jury-rigged bunch of hardware-store reflectors with photo-floods and frosted Mylar for diffusion, none of which are designed to go with the stands I have for them.  It's hot, I have too much equipment crowded up in a tiny bit of floor, and I'm constantly tripping over stands and power cords!  If I could set up all the lighting more permanently it wouldn't be as big an issue, it's the setting it up and packing it up that always seem to take forever.  I'm going to make getting the new photo setup a priority for the coming year!  The more frequently I list the better the exposure I get.

I was finally able to get photos of some of my newer ring designs.  The sodalite here is a nice one.  I want to work on more rings with stones on them.  I tend not to do as many like that because anything with a stone in it will take longer and be more expensive, and I'm trying to build up a nice assortment of basic, inexpensive rings to build off of. 

Most of my stacking rings are variations on a theme, but I figure that's OK as a starting point.  I have lots of basic variations for people to choose from, and I can make them in pretty much any size, so I never have to worry about running out of something critical.

So that's what I've been doing this week!  My next project involves scanning a whole bunch of really old family photo albums so I can restore the photos and make slide-show DVDs for my in-laws for gifts! I love digital imaging, but scanning reams of photos is very tedious.  I can't wait until I'm done with the boring stuff.  I'll show you the before-and-afters when I have something to show for my effort!