Can You Tell What It Is Yet?

A sneaky preview of my latest project...

I Have Been a Bit Naughty...

I have always struggled somewhat with jewellery photography. Whilst I do have a lightbox, kindly built for me by my former flatmate, it’s not ideal. Nor are my motley collection of spotlights, with their random wattage bulbs, some daylight(ish), some not.

Added to this is the fact that I’ve not a clue what an f-stop is or what it might do, so I usually end up taking around 200 shots to get a couple that are usable after much faffing around with Lightroom.

So, I have been a little bit naughty and invested in one of these lovely jewellery photography setups from Tabletop Studio:

T’was rather expensive, which means that I can’t get my roots done for the next couple of months, but I think I can probably put up with the trashy blonde look in the name of better photographs :)

And better they are! The lights are so very, very bright and the light tent diffuses them perfectly, so there’s no evil shadows.

If you compare this shot, which was the best of about 100 shots taken with my old setup, and looks like this after many hours in Lightroom...

... to this one, taken with my lovely new Tabletop Studio, and having only spent about 5 minutes on it removing some dust specks in Lightroom, the difference is definitely visible, no? The light is just more even, with no pesky shadows or reflections, and the colour of the stones really pops out.

So yes, it was definitely worth the money, and the having to deal with horrible hair for the foreseeable future.

Silver Cloud Jewellery

I have now finished turning the small pile of weather from my earlier post into actual shiny things, hurrah!

We have some tiny cloud earrings:

Tiny clouds with some rather nice sparkly blue topaz raindrops:

The boy says they are too dangly, but I likes my earrings very dangly. Perhaps I shall shorten them to a slightly more manageable length when I sell them though. They are admittedly quite long, but are definitely my new favourite earrings.

We also have a rather lovely two cloud necklace with more dangly raindrops. It's quite chunky, so has a nice weight to it and is lovely to just play with whilst wearing it.

And my favouritest bit of shiny weather, which I have worn every day since I finished it, is the cloud and sunshine. I'm calling it my rain or shine necklace. Tis reversible, see? So, if you're in a good mood, you can wear it with the sunshine obscuring the cloud:

But if you're feeling like a bit of a grouch, you can wear it the other way, so the cloud obsures the sun:And here's another couple of shots of them, as I was playing with my exciting new studio lights, more of which later...

All in all, I was super happy with the way my shiny weather turned out :) I have a proper little collection and everything. I have designed a ring to go with it, but I need to make some silver settings first, as I would want the raindrops to be slightly different. Making settings is very, very dull, so the ring may not make it's little shiny appearance for a while yet though.

Tomato? Or Triffid?

I am a bit rubbish with plants. Tis a fact. Since moving into the flat at the end of January, I've killed three mint plants. Three! Yes, dear readers, I am a mint murderer.

Also, I have watched the depressing demise of two rosemary plants and two basils. To be fair, the second basil was doing really really well, like a smally basily bush, until it was infested by some small and horrid beasties. I really can't be blamed for beasties, can I?

Anyway, it was with some trepidation that I purchased a baby tomato plant, but six inches high. I lovingly repotted it, sat back and waited for it to die. But no! A miracle! It grew! And then grew some more. And kept growing and growing. My mother instructed me to stop it growing by pinching off the top when it got to a certain height, but giddy with excitement that I had finally made a plant happy and could now one day progress to a kitten, I couldn't quite bring myself to squash its ambition.

And now it looks like this...

I have now tried to pinch off the top so it doesn't grow any more, but it is waving rude gestures in my direction and sprouting new bits all over the place.

If you don't hear from me again, the tomato plant has probably eaten us and it shall be known that mum was right...

Flight of the (Marzipan) Bumblebee

Okay, so I haven't quite been chained to my workbench finishing off my shiny weather, as the small matter of the London Rollergirls season championship bout rather got in the way. I miss roller derby terribly, and it was really lovely to see everyone. Such a close and exciting game!

Obviously, being a former rollergirl, it would have been very bad form to show up without cupcakes, so I made some in league colours with my exciting new patterned icing embossy thing.

I have to say, I wasn't expecting it work at all, but I think they look rather good actually.

And look at these:

I found a super-fun icing attachment that makes the icing look like grass! Brilliant! Then I made some bumble bees to go on top of the cupcakes out of marzipan and flower paste. How cute are they?

Sadly, I had some of the little guys left over, bereft of a small cake to perch atop. I couldn't quite bring myself to eat them, due to their smiley little faces, but the boy had no such qualms and I believe has now munched through the lot. Poor little bees.


So, after my small diversion into confectionary , I'm back off to the workshop now.

A Small Pile of Weather

Shiny weather! Well, alright, it's not at all shiny just yet, this is what it comes back from the caster looking like:

Soon, it shall be turned into shiny silver cloud necklaces and earrings and sunshine necklaces too.

I get all excited when I collect castings - the two lovely guys who do my casting think I'm a teeny little bit mental. But I was especially excited to see how the sunshine turned out, as it was an absolute bugger to sprue and mould.

I shall now be chained to my workbench until they're finished.

I Has a Cuckoo Clock...

I love cuckoo clocks. I have been coveting one for quite some time and when I saw this lovely walnut timepiece of awesomeness by Diamantini & Domeniconi I knew it must be mine. It's possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen and therefore perfect!

See? It has antlers and everything! And a swingy pendulum thing at the bottom. And it does match the furniture...

Sadly, I had to admire from afar for a while, as it was very, very expensive, but I finally tracked it down for cheap(er) in a furniture store in Islington. And now it is mine :)

Now the boy usually does a fairly good job of moderating my more bonkers ideas, but in this case all I can say is HA! FAIL!!! He actually quite likes the clock, and has complained that over time I have somewhat skewed his idea of ridiculousness. This can only be a good thing, no...?

I have also sneakily purchased some skull fabric, with which I shall be making a pouffe. Watch out for another of my inexpert experiments in making stuff soon.