Saturday, August 27, 2011

Burgard Bail Pendant Works Great With My Beads!

This is a new bead I made with DH Clio and I am in total love!  This puppy is mine!!!  It's that magical combination of Transparent Orange with DH Clio formula that I have been reading about and working on each time I sit down at the torch.  Just can't keep from making a few of these each time because I am so happy when I open the kiln the next morning and see the beautiful glowing pink beads.

I am showing all the bead in this post on the Sterling Silver Interchangeable Bail Pendant P15 from Burgard Studio.  They work great with lampwork beads and they have other products that I think other lampworkers would enjoy checking out.  https://burgardstudio.com

I sold 4 of these Pendants with my beads this weekend!  Here is what comes with one set:
Comes with a set of 3 rods 1 1/4", 1 3/4",2 1/4" fits 3/32 hole.
Just add your bead and maybe a few finishing beads and bead caps for decoration (in other photos).

Put the little c clasp on to make sure it doesn't slide off then put it on your favorite chain.
Here are a few more of my beads on this pendant system:













It's fun to mix and match the lampwork beads and finishing beads and you always have something to go with whatever you are wearing.

Absolutely beautiful weather here so I am not going to be at the torch today - going for a scooter ride I think.  Hope you all area having a great weekend!  Thanks for reading my blog!!!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

It's Amazing What The Custom White Balance on My Camera Can Do!

I'm happy happy happy!!!  I figured out the Custom White Balance on my camera and now I have good photos to share!
Well this is an improvement for sure!  I think one more round at the camera with my lighting and backgrounds and I'll be even happier with my photos.   A little more tweaking and I think my backgrounds will be brighter/whiter and there will be fewer/less harsh shadows.  These were a pleasure to crop and edit tonight.  This bead you have seen before in prior posts but I just had to show it now that it's pretty!

I had a nice phone visit with an long time family friend a few days ago and she is the inspiration behind these beads.  Dorothy used to do needlework and always signed her work, "Turquoise Lady."  I have a beautiful handmade embroidered rug that my mother started and the Turquoise Lady finished after my mom's passing.  Turquoise Lady made a lot of things using these two colors so these beads are made with fond memories of her!

I tried out the new press that I got at the Gathering.  I've always wanted this particular press.  You can see I got a better feel for the amount of glass needed to fill the press with each bead I made.  First one is obviously on the left. 
Staxx Brand now has a pendant that works just like the rings and my disc beads work with it!!!
 So I made some matching Staxx discs to go with the blue and green bead set. 
Aren't these photos nice?  The colors are very true - spot on really!  I'm just so thrilled so you'll have to put up with my comments.  I know I still have shadows but I am not going to get into the photo shop layers thing and do all that because I get too frustrated with that program.  I even took a class and I still can't get comfortable using the program.  My iPhoto on my mac does what I need for my purposes I think.  I may add another light or reflectors - we'll see.

 I made some silvered glass "messy beads" as these are always a customer favorite. 
I believe these were all DH Triton over assorted transparents.  If it was not Triton it was Psyche.

Here are some more of those fabulous Clio beads - Love them!
 These both have a white core, before the process using striking Orange and Clio with the Clear appropriately layered in between and on top.
This one glows to no end!

And another silvered "messy bead" which I think is already sold.
Okay now for these last pictures, you have seen them all before in prior posts but now that they are photographed using the custom white balance I wanted to show them again for a more true rendering of the bead colors.  If you don't want to look at them, I'll stop with my comments here and thank you for reading my blog.  I sent a thank you out to my friends, family and customers via my facebook fan page tonight because I am so grateful for all their excitement, encouragement and support of me and my beads and jewelry.  I also want to express that to all of my blog followers too - so thank, you thank you, thank you!  Hope you all are having a wonderful end to your summer!!!
















Saturday, August 20, 2011

Photo Frustrations & Program Manipulation - Hmmmm....

Okay I am going to figure this new equipment (Light Cube) out!  I would prefer to get my initial exposure settings figured out but until I do that, I am going to manipulate the images I do have with my iPhoto program.
Photo I posted yesterday - Very Gray background and poor color on bead.

This one has only an exposure compensation to whiten the background.
This one is the prior photo but with shadow and highlight reduction and slight color manipulation.  Can see the colors in the bead now but still not exactly the same as if you hold it in your hand.
Posted on my last blog entry - gray background and poor bead color.
Exposure compensation.
This is the same photo as the one above but with the shadow and highlight slider bars manipulated.  What a difference!
One more example then I'll just post the better photos of the other beads.
One posted yesterday - yuck!
Exposure only manipulated.
Exposure, highlight and shadow manipulation.  A nice change for sure!














I went back to some of those silvered glass beads and tried the same manipulations on them.  It did help a bit on those too.  These are not looking like I want them to but it's an improvement for sure!













I need to check my camera metering and a few other things to see if I can get a more true original so I won't need to do all this manipulation afterwards.  I never liked commercial lighting back in my days of photography and it still seems to be my least favorite part of a hobby/career I used to love - probably why I don't love it any more huh?  That and family always handing me a camera at holidays, etc. saying "here you take the photos, you're the photographer."  I always was tempted to remind them that I didn't really want to "work" on my days off any more than they did but that's another story....

Well I'm going to see what is in the kiln from yesterday and then I'll try experimenting with my photo exposure on those beads.  I may be requesting some help from my brother in law - who has a talent for commercial lighting - Oh Derek are you busy this weekend?!!?!?!?  And no, photography is not his full time job so I'm not violating my own comment about working on off days in my last paragraph.

Happy weekend to you all!