Starving Artists: Starving Artists -> Jennifer Kramer's Blog

I had lots of time to torch this weekend...I ended up getting a little time on Friday and Saturday then spent the whole day Sunday making beads, now that's a good weekend!! :woohoo: Lots of these are one holed beads I made for Laurel and her Fab Hair Thingys. I hope she likes them. :lookaround:






...just one little yellow guy.



...and my first set of beads.




^ and that green glass is my new favorite, it is a Moretti color called Kiwi and I am going to need lots more of it for sure!! :yes:

Have a great week!!

P.S. I really need to update my Blog more often...busy, busy.

...so it's that age old problem of perfecting our photographs. After literally thousands of pictures taken on a white background I decided it was time to try something else. Sometimes I could literally take a hundred pictures and still not get one good one. I have a lightbox and the room was lit up like an airport runway...still that perfect white background was elusive. Sure a photo editor could get the background white in most cases but often it was difficult to do so without adjusting the brightness to the point of washing out the jewelry pieces.

Here are some before and after pictures I have taken recently...this pic is really terrible:



The new pics which were taken against an oil painting of the ocean and leaning up against a very large shell from a collection of shells that belonged to my great grandfather...the shells have been boxed up for years, I had forgotten I had them until I started thinking about possible props I could use in my photos.





So washed out I had to add a border around it just to add some interest...



New pic



A couple of other new pictures. For the backgrounds I bought fabric and taped it to record jackets so that it won't wrinkle and will always be ready to go.



This one was taken on a frosted decorative bottle.



This one was taken on top of a decorative metal star with a fabric backdrop.



With the colored backgrounds I've found that I don't need a light box or a lot of extra lighting, I use a single lamp...it uses a total of 5 fluorescent lightbulbs though. If it's sunny enough outside I don't necessarily even need the lamp. I've found that I can take just a few pictures rather than a hundred or more to get a decent picture. So I give up, no more white backgrounds ever!! :wall:

I'll tell you what it means to me....

On another forum more than a year ago, one of the members made a post that irritated me so much that I decided that it had to be possible to start a community of friendly, supportive artists. I think about that post often, for me it was a culmination of the attitudes there. They posted about how disappointed they were with the quality of work they found on the site "even by more experienced" jewelry makers...per their interpretation anyway. Some members were as horrified as I was and others jumped in to defend his/her post.

As the forum grows, I realize that many more of you must feel as I do. I feel sorry for that person that for him/her the beauty of a piece lies only within the finished product. Can we all like everything we see? No, of course not. No more than we like every purse in a store or every car we see. It is pretty rare that I see something handmade that I don't love though. This quote sums up my feelings well. "...whether we are holding a masterpiece or a crude first attempt, the value lies less in the object than in the fact that we made it!" ~Tim McCreight

If a piece of art were only about the finished piece then wouldn't we all be happy working on an assembly line? Couldn't we be happy re-creating the same painting a 100 times if that were the case? The excitement in any finished piece comes from within. Artists have a gazillion ideas swimming around in their heads at any given moment, that creativity is a gift. My Husband doesn't know what that would feel like as he doesn't have a creative bone in his body. I can't imagine how empty I would feel if I ever lost that part of me, it's just who I am, those ideas and the rush of excitement I feel when I realize I have to see that idea come to life can be so powerful. Those thoughts invade my sleep, they interrupt my conversations, they might distract me from my driving...I can't control when they come, they are like an old friend, one I couldn't function without. I often wish that my Husband could feel what that feels like just once. What could be better than that?

...well I have the answer to that too, even better is seeing those ideas come to life!! The exhileration you feel when you have a paintbrush in your hand, you are sawing or drilling a piece of metal, molding a piece of clay, stringing a bead, weaving a bit of yarn...knowing that you are creating something beautiful and uniquely yours out of an item that all by itself could be considered someone else's trash. Does it matter if that piece is perfect? No, art can be as wonderfully flawed as human beings, everyone means something to someone and so does every handmade item you see.

See beauty in the creative process, see beauty in the finished piece, see beauty in the eyes of its creator, see beauty in the emotions that went into a piece, or perhaps the skill an artist has obtained or is eagerly working towards, see beauty in the excitement he or she felt as they were making it. Whatever you do, see beauty...it is there all around us if you choose to see it.

After making a rose in sterling silver I thought I would experiment with making some other types of flowers too. This pendant was a bear to photograph but I was finally able to get a few decent pictures. I added a patina just to the center of each of the flowers, the colors in the patina turned out really pretty but it doesn't show up well in the pictures.



Now I wait for my silver order to get here so I can play with some more flowers...I am having a lot of fun experimenting! :woohoo:

It's been a really busy month, between my sister's wedding in Las Vegas, Christmas and a myriad of winter illnesses sweeping through our house this month I haven't had a chance to update my blog. I thought I would post some pictures of some of the stuff I've made this month.

First my favorite piece and some things I've made out of it. I had been trying to figure out how to do something like this for a while and it finally all came together the other day. I've posted a tutorial for this in the Photo Tutorials board also.



A ring for me...



Christmas gifts...



I told you it had been a while :giggle: ...I think I've made more jewelry in December than I did the entire year, is that possible? There's more but this post is getting really long. I was finally able to fire up my torch, It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to play. I can't wait for the holidays to be over so I can get back to it! Here are a few of the beads I made.

I'm soooooo ready to get started lampworking! I've been trying to do that for about a year now. I was using a Hothead torch and was so frustrated with it. I'm now convinced that my torch was defective, it just wouldn't melt anything. Rather than buy a new Hothead I bought a Mini CC and now I'm working on buying everything I need to get started. I added it all up the other night ...then nervously told my Husband how much I was going to need...luckily he didn't fall out of his chair!! I might have if he had told me that he needed that much money for a hobby! :giggle: At least when we buy beads and silver it's spread out, we don't HAVE to spend that much all at once...as much as we might like to! :yes:

I was having a hard time figuring out where I could put my set up so I talked to my Husband and he agreed to give up his pool table so I could have my own room!! He said he could wait until after we moved to set it up and that he would rather I had a place to make beads. Isn't he sweet?!

This is my new studio...







I'm going to be moving all of my jewelry making stuff in there so it will all be together, right now it is all over the house which really makes things difficult. I have some in my bedroom, some in the laundry room and in the kitchen, some in what is supposed to be the coat closet but is now a jewelry closet. :darn: I end up running all over the house when I'm trying to make something! :wahoo:

I can't wait to get started melting glass!! There's a lot to consider when setting up a lampworking studio though and it will be a little while before I can get it all figured out. Better safe than sorry...there seem to be just too many ways you can blow up the house if you're not careful!! I started reading about safety the other night and it scared me half to death...I decided that even as impatient as I am I will be taking my time to make sure everything is set up right!! Over the next few weeks I will be researching and buying what I need and hopefully I will be ready to play soon. :pray: I can't wait!!

Now that we've added a Wiki to the site I thought it would be a good idea to tell you why writing articles is good for your business. Writing articles is just plain and simple good SEO. Yes, it's one of the many things you can do to help bring traffic to your site, but submitting articles may just be tops on the list of to do's in terms of SEO marketing.

Google is no longer giving much weight to reciprocal links when deciding which sites will go to the top of the search engine rankings. For more information about that see this article that I wrote titled Reciprocal Links in the Wiki.

So, if reciprocal links are no longer valid what can you do? The search engines are constantly telling you to accumulate one way inbound links on sites with relevant content. We often assume that means that those sites have to want to link to you and there's nothing you can do to make that happen. That's not necessarily true. By writing and submitting articles, you have created an entire page of relevant content on which your link is placed.

By writing an article and submitting it to an articles directory, you have accomplished several things. You have created a valuable document on a website that is updated frequently and therefore may be given more weight by search engines. You have added an inbound link on a page with relevant content. You have increased your chances of being found by search engines. Even if your website doesn't place in the top spots in the search results, your article may thus leading more people to your website. If you write enough good articles you may start to gain some recognition as an expert in your field. Others are more likely to direct traffic to your article by sharing your link on their blogs or posting it in forums etc. Combine all of those benefits and you can't argue that's just good marketing!

If you have noticed the changes in the way the search results come up as of late you may have noticed that sites that are frequently updated end up on top of the search results over standard websites. Likely your searches are more and more often taking you to forums, blogs, article based sites like Wikipedia etc. A standard website just can't compete with those sites when it comes to fresh content. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! ...now that doesn't mean you shouldn't post your articles on your site, you absolutely should! The more places the search engines might find your information the better!

Write about what you know, don't try to force it. Each of you has areas in which you may have some expertise if you think about it. When you write about what you know, the words seem to come easily. Many experts seem to agree that writing well written thorough articles may just be the best thing you can do for your business!

Hope that helps to give you some ideas!

Hi everyone!

We have added an Articles Knowledge Base to the forum....better known as a Wiki. We are using the same software as the well known site Wikipedia. I have added a link in the upper left hand corner of the forum to make it easy to get there, to return to the forums you just need to click on the "Community forums" link inside of the Wiki.

We will be adding more articles to the Wiki and would love it if you would add your own! An article doesn't necessarily have to be long or complicated, here's an article I wrote for my blog about Peridot. Heather added some simple informational posts from her website, like this article about Copper, just to give you some ideas. Other users will be able to add comments, additional information, or edit posted articles. (you must have at least 50 forum posts to edit articles). Editing an article is typically used to add additional information but it can also be used to correct misinformation. Before making a correction you should discuss the proposed change with the article originator if possible.

The BBC Code that you are already familiar with on the forum will also work in the Wiki, so images, links, smileys etc can be added to your posts in the same way you would add them here.

You will now notice a new forum called Knowledge Base Discussions. Topics are added to that board by clicking on the "Discussions" tab at the top of any article. That will create an ongoing forum discussion about that article.

Be sure to check the help files for information about how to use the Wiki. I will be adding more information to the help files as we go.

Feel free to start using the Wiki and let us know if you have any questions! Wiki link

Jen

*Note: You do not need to register separately for the Wiki. Your current log in name and password will also log you into the Wiki. New members may register from within the forum or the Wiki to gain access to both.

This necklace is made using Rhyolite and faceted Chocolate Quartz. The Rhyolite in the earrings is accented with dyed pearls. I really loved this set...apparently so did my sister in law :giggle: She came over last night to drop off her kids and snatched this set! lol She said "Ok I have to have this, tell me how much you want for it and I'll write you a check". I have more of the large Rhyolite focal beads but I don't know where in the world to find the Chocolate Quartz beads. I bought those last year at the InterGem show in Chicago and I haven't seen them anywhere else. I'm going to have to go searching for them because I really want one of these for myself...


After my SIL ran off with my new jewelry I figured I better make something else for me so I sat down and made this Citrine set. I just love Citrine! It's funny, yellow has to be my least favorite color but Citrine is my favorite gemstone. :dunno:

100...pictures later...I knew the Citrine in this piece would be hard to photograph. I definitely should have waited until the sun was out to do this, the light box just works better during the day This was the best these pictures were going to be tonight anyway. I think I will try to take better pictures of the full necklace tomorrow. I tried several different backgrounds and played with the lighting etc for over an hour and it's still a terrible picture.

I used faceted Citrine and Citrine nuggets in the necklace and accented the clasp with one of Lisa's gorgeous lampwork beads! I can't tell you how many times I have taken her beads out and wondered when the perfect piece would come along to use them in Lisa's website is www.touchofglass.com Without Lisa's bead this piece would be nothing special. I wore this necklace to a baby shower today and several people commented on Lisa's bead...they wanted to know where I got such a beautiful bead! (Thank you Lisa!) I love the way this piece makes her bead the focal point. The clasp is made to be worn on the side or in the back.

Hi everyone!

If you've been wondering why I've been so quiet the past few days it's because I have been working on setting up a new site!! This site is very similar to MySpace but we have much stricter rules as to what is and is not allowed and they will be enforced. We liked the idea of MySpace but wanted to create a safer version. Clicking around on MySpace can be scary! I suspect some of you have not set up MySpace pages for that very reason.

This is NOT limited to jewelry makers or crafters, so you can invite all of your family members and friends to come hang out with you there. We initially considered making it for jewelry makers and crafters only but then it wouldn't be great for networking!

This site is very similar to MySpace but has a much nicer look and some cool features that MySpace doesn't have.

• Fully customizable profiles
  
• Great templates
  
• Your own unique URL
  
• Blogs
  
• Photo Galleries
  
• Video uploads
  
• Music uploads
  
• Forum
  
• Groups
  
• Post pictures to your profile by emailing them from your email account or your cell phone
  
• Integrated with Flikr so you can easily post pictures from your Flikr account
  
• Private Messages
  
• Import contacts from your email program
  
• and more...

Go check it out at www.hob-nobbin.net. Feel free to register and start a profile!! Networking can be a great thing for your business if you put some time and energy into it.

Hope you like it, and let us know if you have any questions! :yay: Don't forget to tell everyone you know!