New Experiences: Learning how to shoot photos with a friend as a model.

I'm not really a photographer. I am thankful that the world of digital cameras hit me while I was in Art School, this way I could take a million pictures of one piece and decipher which looked the best on my computer before I had it made into a slide. There would otherwise be a million useless and very expensive slides in my posession to this day.

So when I started to take a look at etsy and other artist's online galleries I realized that I am lacking in pictures of people wearing my artwork! This is art-to-wear and functional for the everyday! Why are my poor bracelets sitting on stands? The answer: It is very very very hard to photograph yourself wearing your work. And I always end up doing my photos on a whim, or on a deadline the night before.

So out of my many fashion-forward friends I picked the one that is most camera-shy, but also dabbles in photography. It was a little awkward at first, but then we started to have a slo of fun! Here's and sample of what we came up with.

Thanks so much Katherine! I can't wait to get the next ones going!

Bike Bracelet Sample and a new finished Piece!

Following up from my last post, I finally finished the sample for my bicycle bracelet. I'm wavering on it. I think this is one of those designs that will grow on me once I wear the finished bracelet a few times. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Moving on.....

I did finish a new bracelet that I am in LOVE with. The colors are smooth and don't quite pop as drastically as normal, so I am having a hard time getting a good picture. It's called "Forefathers." I designed it on a flight home from D.C. almost two years ago and it then sat for a while. Although the design itself does not scream early American architecture, I began drawing it out with the idea of tabbaco leaves being a constant design element in the ornament of many of the buildings including the Capital. It's another larger cuff and has a different curl to it than some of my other ones. I will eventually get a better piture, but check it out:

Sometimes doing a sample works out for me.....

I rarely do samples, but I am rarely trying to make something look detailed and exact. I am the type of artist that make some weavers cringe because rather than doing a sample, I draw up my piece, warp my loom, and enjoy whatever my fingers produce.

Yesterday I began my bicycle bracelet design, and graphing a bike out into the style bracelet that I design became far more difficult than I would have expected.

I had this idea that I would make a black background and use only one color for the bicycle...and the little bikes trekking across this bracelet would be neon. This way I could represent the importance of wearing bright colors when you bike so that cars can see you.

This is what my creation was looking like on paper:

But alas, paper and beads look quite different. You loose all of the sketch lines that made it actually look like a bike frame. I decided that this was one of those pieces that I had to do a sample for. Otherwise I'd have about 1600 beads put together (not quite the whole bracelet), and realize that it looked terrible.

Thankfully, I did my sample and it turned out looking like this:

These blue hexagons are failing to convince me that they are bike wheels. Especially in the blue!

I love to have detail, but I also did not want to make this a humongous cuff bracelet that you could tell whether or not this bike was a sweet streamline single speed or a beat up 18 speed mountain bike. Believe me, I considered this. I don't think it would be cost-effective in the end.

So I conceded and admitted that I have to make this bike with black wheels, some shine in the spokes and keep just the frame brightly colored.

My next problem is: what is my background color to be? Black is my back-up, it always looks good behind things. White, well, I don't really like white, and I like my bracelets to be functional. White gets messy looking, even with glass seed beads.

Here's what I came up with, and I am now VERY excited!

Now I know this is only the bottom, but the wheels looks like wheels, and I promise I will finish this little sample before I head into the full-blown bracelet. Besides, the sample is only about 395 beads....