treasury time: tutorials

Want to learn something new? Check out these awesome kits, tutorials, patterns!

Etsy photography tips

For Etsy sellers, good photography is essential. I've spent a lot of time reading others' advice on the subject, and a lot of time trying to improve my photos. Comparing my current photos with my earliest, I think I've improved quite a bit. Today I'd like to share some of the things I've learned. 1) Know your camera, and what all the various functions and settings do. Get at least a basic understanding of white balance, exposure, ISO, and all those other photography things mean. You don't need to be an expert or know all the technical details, but you should at least have some idea of what you're doing when you adjust your exposure value. 2) It's ok to have wasted space in your raw photo. I don't know if every camera does this, but mine at least has trouble focusing properly if I zoom in to fill the entire picture with my subject! I've found it's much better to get a better photo and have to crop it than to fill the picture and get a blurry photo. 3) If you're photographing something small like jewelry, invest in a small tripod! I don't know how much it matters for larger items like clothing, but I know that my photos come out much clearer when I use my tripod than when I photograph by hand. 4) Natural lighting is generally best, but if that's really not a viable option for you, get or borrow something like an OttLite. These lights are very bright though, so to soften it and cut down on glare, cover the lamp with some tissue paper.

treasury time: hermit crabs

So I'm getting some new family members soon! I'm getting ready to get a pair of adorable little hermit crabs. As such, this week I'd like to share some wonderful hermit crab finds!

Treasury Time: Mythology

Hey, my first treasury feature!

Mythology has always been fascinating to me, and inspired a lot of my early artwork. I still love to study it and revisit it from time to time in my personal artwork. So for this treasury, I'd like to feature some fantastic mythological themed items.

dremel

If you're a polymer clay artist and you sand your work for finishing, get a dremel. I can't believe I was sanding by hand all these years! It's absolutely amazing, it's fast, looks much better than it ever did than when I sanded by hand, and you don't even need to use the fancy sanding attachments made for it. You can just use a circle of regular sandpaper!

What About Intermediate Artists?

I’ve been creating for many years now, and tried many different media. Though there were many I decided to abandon, there have also been several I liked and wanted to improve. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a troubling pattern: in every art form I took up, once I reached the intermediate level, I found myself without any guidance at all. It seems educational resources, be they project tutorials or guides on tools, techniques, or theory, are all written for either experts or absolute beginners. Why are the intermediate artists neglected? This bothered me for quite a while before I realized just what being “intermediate” means. When you’ve reached the intermediate level, you no longer need help with the very basics of your art; if you’re a wire artist, you know how to hold your pliers, understand gauge and hardness, and can shape wire into more complex forms than a simple loop or coil. Now you’re learning more detailed things about your art. How much force do you apply and where to make that particular shape? Can you keep track of and properly work with multiple wires at once? You’re getting more familiar with your medium. There aren’t really a lot of things you can say to help someone at that stage. I know some more advanced things about working with wire, but I can’t really put them into words. If you really want to help an intermediate artist learn, the best thing you can do to help isn’t talking about the medium, it’s giving them something to practice. Let them watch what you do and try to duplicate it, or give them a step-by-step project tutorial. Intermediate level tutorials are still sadly lacking for most media, but that is a much easier problem to fix than trying to start a detailed theoretical dialogue with students.