Beginning of Christmas Season

http://www.etsy.com/listing/86480428/snowflakes-and-candycane-hearts

So a  lot of people on Etsy have long ago already started selling Christmas stuff, so I figured I should try to make some Christmas-themed stuff too!  AND because I really love Christmas and has been looking forward to it since June!

I totally wish I could wear the Christmas jewelry but I can't start sporting Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving!  I still have lots of glass candy cane and some pewter Christmasy charms that i have yet to work with, so there will be lots of Christmasy stuff coming out in the next few weeks.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/86479220/christmas-hempclay-bracelet?ref=v1_other_2

This blue snowflake bracelet however... 

I really do like this bracelet, but I can't seem to get a good picture of it.  I took so many pictures but this is the only one that came out all clear.  Something about the textures of the beads and how light bounties off of them is just not agreeing with me or something.  Until I can get a better I cannot post this item up because I just feel goofy posting pictures even I think are bad up on Etsy!

Package in the Mail

Got a big package at the door step while I was at work today!!!  I love coming home after a long day and getting a mailed present from me to me:  jewelry making supplies (and yes I made sure they included my miniature screw driver!)!

There will be lots of fun to be had in the next few weeks!

First Impressions

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85578050/cherries-and-christmas

The above pictures are taken of the same bracelet.  The photos are taken with the bracelet on different backgrounds.  It wasn't until I have viewed my own items on Etsy amongst other Etsy listings did I know how horrible my photos were.   There are billions of listings on the website, and when I saw my own listing in the midst of the 20 other listing on the 10th page of items I thought "Oh my goodness, my stuff looks invisible even while in plain sight."

I guess until I started online selling, I didn't know how difficult it to was grab a buyer's attention because I buy so much stuff online so easily... Turns out there are billions of people trying to selling similar products online!  So to be viewed, that mug shot of your product better be  ATTRACTIVE or its beyond ignored.

I am sure I still don't have this photo taking science down because I am not getting many views on my items.  (Kinda a bummer!)  But within 2 days of starting to post stuff on Etsy I realized one of my hugest mistakes was to not zoom in enough on the product.

Most people are use to taking pictures to capture occasions and experiences.  So lets say you are traveling to Greece: You'd want a picture taken with a lot of the background visible to capture what you experienced during your trip, right?

Thats something you quickly have to realize to stop doing when you are trying to sell stuff online:  No one cares about the backdrop!  Kind of obvious why right - that you need to grab people's attention with the visualization of the actual item for sale?  Well, I didn't think of it until I glossed over my own items while online shopping.

So, my lesson number one was to ZOOM IN and FOCUS.  (Because we online shoppers are all too A.D.D. to do it on our own?!)

And then the second thing I learned about this type of photography is lighting.  Many websites I read have said that to get a great picture you must have lots of natural lighting.  But I somewhat disagree.

The above and below picture are the exact same picture: I took the picture of the bracelet indoors beside a well-lit window against a white cloth.  The above is the original photograph and below I increased the exposure and cropped it to zoom in more.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85810444/wiry-braided-bracelet

Now, below is a picture I took of the same bracelet outside that same windows.  I found that it was too bright when I took the picture outside the same window - it casted too much shadow and actually took away the appeal of the bracelet.

I even tried playing with the exposure of the outside picture for a while but that turned out okay... 

In my opinion, the most attention-capturing picture of the purple bracelet was the second picture - when I took the picture indoors and increased the exposure to brighten it up.  I did this with several items and found that I still liked the picture the most when I took it indoors and just increased the exposure.  I think the pictures taken outside on a sunny day just features too large of a shadow making the picture "pop" less (for lack of better words).

My next experiment will be to try taking the picture outside on a cloudy day - maybe this will have a great effect too.

Dear Pets

I had to go to work today (7am-7pm)...  The ability of cats to jump to high places and get into small places has allowed my kitty cat to get into my jewelry supplies box.  Of all the things in the box, the only thing he chose to do was to unravel and chew up two big spools of hemp.  I guess the cat-loving-yarn thing isn't just something the Garfield guy made up!

Note to self: Do not leave spools of anything lying around.

Playing with Wires

So I just spent several days compiling a big shopping list, loading my virtual shopping cart and finally checked it all out yesterday.  Now all I have to do is wait for my big box to arrive before having more things to experiment with.  Meanwhile, I still have that little box of limited start-up jeweling supplies that I bought a couple weeks ago.  Thus, the topic of today will be wires!

I am really liking wires.  They are colorful, doesn't fray, shiny and makes the jewelry pop!  And I imagine it takes a lot for the wire to fade so your jewelry will keep its color and luster.  I lucked out when I chose this one-tool-does-all thing when I bought this pliers/round-nose/wire-cutter/loop-closer tool when I haphazardly selected what I should include in my start-up stuff.

This is my first wire bracelet:  I think it looks pretty cool even though the lack of views on my Etsy account fails to support my opinion!  And its neat because the wire will let you bend and readjust the bracelet size with a 2cm leeway yet the pattern and overall shape of the bracelet will stay intact.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85810444/wirey-friendship-bracelet

Perhaps there are other tools out there that I still need, or maybe some metal gloves because as awesome as that tool works, my finger tips are still a little bit sore after making several bracelets

So now I am just waiting for my half-hard wire to arrive so that I can start making shapes, letters, and names with wire!  Keep checking back because things will get more exciting when my big box arrives!

Trials, Errors, and Creativity

Since I am only weeks into jewelry making, I am doing a lot of experimentations with different textures and products to find what would allow me to produce jewelry I could try to attempt to sell on my newly opened Etsy.com account.  I have only put on 5 of the 50 things I have made because .... *sigh*.... not everything is a winner!  My account is HandMadeByEle (are you shocked) if you are interested in taking a peek.

So today, I began to play with stainless steel wires.  The picture on the left looks blurry right?  Well, its not blurred: the wire comes wrapped up in plastic such that I had to carefully glide a pair of scissors through its entire length of 5 feet of wire to get to the stainless steel.  I don't understand the purpose of the packaging... if someone knows, please indulge me, thanks.

I had chosen these tiny little clasps to go on the ends of my wire for the bracelet I was making.  That is my 5 pound kitty's paw beside the clasp, and below is a picture of the clasp.  You see that little circle in the right num-chuck (not sure that is the correct terminology)?  Well, thats the tiny little screw that you have to screw and unscrew in order to tighten your wire to the clasp!
Crazy small screws! I got out the screw driver kit my dad gave me when I moved out, and they had some pretty small screw drivers in there that are less than 1mm wide, but thats way too big still.  I was not intending to go to the craft store and pick up another screw driver before starting my project so I searched the house, and luckily found scalpels!  So I used the thin end of the scalpel to unscrew the screw!  SUCCESS!  Right?

I quickly put in the wire and now its time to rescrew the miniature screw.  So I grab the miniature screw and it took 10 suspenseful seconds to place the screw in its hole.  I reach for the scalpel and gently jab the screw with the scalpel, and OH MY GOODNESS I GUESS I JABBED TOO HARD because the tiny screw rolled off the table and being smaller than a grain of dandruff that thing is gone into the abyss.  There goes a 2 dollar clasp!  Thank goodness the package was 4 dollars for two because I am really not heading back to the store on a note of defeat.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85740864/glistening-compass-bracelet?ref=v1_other_2

So I completed my bracelet with the second clasp in the package.  Then I went to shop and found that the company that makes these clasps has also manufactured little tiny screw drivers to prevent the beading world from haphazardly playing with scalpels.  And guess what?  The screw driver comes in a package with 6 spare miniature screws!  What a day!

The Artsy Bone

I was not born with an artistic or creative bone, but over the past couple of years I have developed an itch to do artsy things because of unexpected run-ins while shopping.  I have somehow ended up where I am now: often having the inkling to bead or sew something.  And thus this blog is created because I now wish I get new ideas and share my ideas for projects.


I think this all started when I moved into my current duplex where I needed an extremely small curtain that I could not find but instead had to make on my own.  My aunt brought me to a fabric store where I found my love for looking and feeling the different patterns and textures of fabrics.  I needed up buying some cheap burlap and used a hot glue gun to put together my little curtain: no sewing needed!


But then my aunt built on my interest of fabrics by bringing me to more fabric shopping and lunch dates, and very soon I was hooked.  I started with making a simple pillow that required sewing one long straight line, flipping it over, and then just tying the ends off with ribbons.  Then I moved to sewing matching curtains which required sewing 4 long straight lines.  And then it got more complex as I experimented with ruffles, trimmings, and et cetera.  I still have long ways to go.


That started a year ago.  Beading only came to me two weeks ago.  I was at dinner with my friend's parents who came into town, and her mom had just gone to a jewelry show.  My friend's mom said a few things about the jewelry show at dinner so my friend and I decided to go the next day.  We went to the jewelry show expecting to come out with some necklaces and bracelets, but instead - maybe we started at the wrong end of the show room - we were not able to find any pre-made necklaces and bracelets, instead I found myself spending over 300 dollars on just beads.  Why?  Because I do love shopping and buying pretty things even if I would not know what to do with them.  So the 300 dollar worth of beads sat in my cupboard for a couple days until my guilt of spending money on irrelevant things got to me and I got up and bought more art supplies and started making necklaces and bracelets.  I was immediately hooked!  There are so many different clasps and threads and beads and colors and textures.   Extremely exciting stuff!


So here I am!  I'm ready for you beading world!  I will try to post what I have been doing and PLEASE if anyone is reading my blog, PLEASE SEND ME comments and ideas of where to explore in the beading and sewing world!  ARTSY PEOPLE OF THE WORLD PLEASE INVITE ME TO BE ARTSY TOO!