Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Handmade Jewelry: Step 3

And so...now that we have a piece of handmade jewelry made and polished, we now have to document it in another way. Pictures...this entails a whole bunch of more work. You have to learn to become a photographer of designer jewelry. When I first started, I used a Sam Sung 2.o mega pixel digital camera. I'd take about 50 pictures of each handcrafted piece and hope to get one that I could use. ack! It wasn't the camera, it was me. Learning about lighting, the macro feature and backgrounds took a while. When I finally got it, I still would take about 20 pictures. When you have 200 pieces, this is indeed a real pain. sigh... I now have a Sam Sung 8 mega pixel digital camera and take a lot less pictures. yea! You can see pictures of my handmade jewelry at http://www.keystonejewelry.com/. Here is a picture of a piece I recently sold:

It is an Angelite surrounded by light blue freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals. I was truly sad to see this one go...but it went to a wonderful home. A young man I know bought it for his mother for the fourth of July. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met and was blown away. I would be too if my son bought me such a present...anytime! *smile*

This is how I take pictures of my handmade jewelry. I use a clear rubbermaid tub, a white sheet of paper and three lamps with REAL light bulbs. I bought the light bulbs at Wal Mart and the lamps with clamps at Tractor Supply (hardware stores carry them too). I set my designer jewelry piece on the sheet of paper...cover it with the tub...place the lamps on each side and top to shine through the tub...cut a hole in the tub for my camera lense...and snap away! I suggest neutral background colors of white, beige, or gray. These seem to work best for me.

5 comments:

RED said...

Wow! Gorgeous!

Unknown said...

Hi Nancy,
I am wanting to get started in wire jewelry but cannot get past the very expensive silver wire. Is there any less expensive ways to get good results but not cost an arm and a leg to make one piece. I am on a tight budget and really cannot afford the silver wire but want to make a great item for my daughter. I appreciate your openness and I do admire your work.

Nancy F said...

Ayame, you should use copper wire to practice with. I have some info that will help you here:
http://www.keystonejewelry.com/make-jewelry.htm

Sorry for the LATE reply!

Nancy F

test said...

Such a nice written on handmade jewelry.

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