I Got My Etsy Back

I little while ago I was moaning about losing my Etsy widget from my blog, which I must have removed in a fit of madness when I was making beads again but not listing anything.  That empty spot did seem to mock me.  I started listing again, but lo and behold, I couldn't figure out how to find it again.  I searched high and low on Blogger and on Etsy, but nada.

There it was, on Etsy the whole time.  I clicked on my account, and under promote was the Etsy mini widget.  No more roaming through widgets that for me were meaningless.  Gone were the (for me) too challenging bits of HTML and words like source code.  Five minutes and no pain.  Now if I do something insane and lose it again I'm set.

To recognize this momentous occasion, here's a picture of a vessel I played with a lot before I got it down, a blown glass mini flask that holds almost a tablespoon.  When the sunlight hits it, the CiM sangre is the most gorgeous, transparent red!

Key Beads

 NEWS FLASH!!!  I tend to obsess.  Seriously, I'll get stuck on something and nothing will do but for whatever obsession it is to run its course and then I can move on.  For me, right now, it's keys and vessels.

 I don't know whether it's the secret hoarder in me or whatever, but the possessiveness of keys and vessels drives me.  I suppose a good therapist could fix me but first I'd have to want to be fixed.  (Getting a little agricultural here)

At any rate, the blue Pandora's key and the marbled ivory key are available in my Etsy shop but the black and white key is a wee bit wobbly for sale.  Don't forget to type in bonus1 for a discount.

Expect the Unexpected Part 2

 I make beads because they make me happy.

 I love to learn new things, and every time I sit down at the torch, I do.

 Sometimes it's learning to look at something a new way...

...and sometimes it's a reflection.

I'm running a coupon in my Etsy shop for my blog readers, 10% off.  Just enter the coupon code "bonus1"

Expect the Unexpected

 It's not always easy working with glass and I've had a few stellar burns, but this is to be expected.  It's the hidden challenges that make life interesting.  Like settling down for a spot of picture taking in a sunny window and accidentally picking the one the cat wanted.

 My window!

 Yes, I'm still here.  By the way, that is only one cat.  She's wrapped herself entirely around the dish and got her body going in two directions at once.  Only a cat can do this.

 Maybe outside will work out better.  Oh, I forgot.  It's milkweed season.  It's almost as bad as cat hair for finding its way into shots.

Glass works its way into every aspect of my day.  Sometimes very unexpectedly.  I was sidelined yesterday with an exacerbation of my leg problem but finally found my way off the couch into the kitchen.  I stepped on a short piece of stringer that had imbedded itself into the rug.  It drove itself almost all the way in and I did the one-footed dance of pain until I could work up the nerve to pull it out.  I did not take a picture of the glass or my foot.  It wasn't pretty.  Joe helped mop up the blood.

Decent Pictures?

 I'll be the first to admit that I am photographically challenged.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is that my camera and setup are miserable and the second is that I am working on my attitude towards taking pictures of my work.  I've always had a casual attitude about pictures in general, something like "I know what it is."  This doesn't work for trying to sell things.  I am working on improving both my attitude and my ability.  Above is a picture of a pair of earrings I recently listed on Etsy.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Below is a picture of the best I would have been able to do before I figured out how to use that part of my editing software.  It's a decent picture, but in the one above, these earrings really shine.

Same with these beads.  This one's with software, and below is without, and I am very happy with how the software works.

 Of course, there are still things I don't know how to do, and one of them is to make things show up well on black.  My pictures are either washed out of blurry, or both.

Here are the watermelon beads I just listed, and I am happy with the picture above both because it spotlights the beads and because it is a slightly different composition than the ones I've used before.

Taking on the Learning Curve

 I'm trying out new stuff again and this means making a few mistakes.  Case in point:  Blown vessels.  I've been making some good ones by coiling glass on the mandrel but they come out a bit solid.  These are nice and lightweight but ugly and holy.  The one that looks whole is cracked.  It cooled off too much before being annealed.  It's also fugly.

 This guy's cute even if he is a little twisted.

 My hands do get truly filthy cleaning beads.

 I seem to have a lot of room to improve on this.

The biggest problem:  Gravity works.  Need to set the hole a little higher on the bead if I want him to fly right side up.

Warning: Excessive Photo Content

This is why I hate taking pictures.  I take about a million pictures of something I have made and they all turn out to be not quite what I see. 

This is a nice vessel.  It's hollow.  It's a pretty color.  I like to think that it is saying what I want it to say.  But these pictures don't convey the size and weight of it, nor the volume of what it holds, nor the way the light really hits it.

 This picture is ok.  It shows at least how big it is, and a little of the way the light looks when it goes through it.

 This shows the color and all, but I'm not exactly thrilled.

 We're not getting better.  Quit while I'm ahead.

This is a cool necklace.  I had a lot of fun making it and am really happy with the way the beads turned out.  So can I take a decent picture of it?  Not a chance, but not for want of trying.  Thirteen pictures were worth fooling around with, and none of them show what it looks like in my hand.

This one's pretty, at least.

Got some nice sparkle from the light on this.  I made that clasp myself.

Here's that close up.  Note the natural sunlight.

Yep, it's a pile of beads.

 What was I going for here?  Don't know.  It's a good picture, but of what?

Not doing it for me, sorry.  Good picture--everything in focus, pretty good detail, It's got nice color and composition, but it's not happening.

This does show what it would look like on the wearer, if the wearer is made of black velveteen.

There you go.  If in doubt, bring in the frog.  It may not show the necklace to its best advantage and I'm sure there's lots wrong with it as a composition or whatever else, but I like my frog, and he's making me happy.