Choosing a camera for product shots

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! My new camera finally arrived yesterday. I say finally, as it has taken a very long time... I can't blame this on the supplier, as they were very quick to deliver, rather it took me a very long time to choose. I finally decided on the canon ixus 100is, because it came out well in tests on its macro, colour faithfulness and performance in low light. I read lots and lots of reviews, and decided I wanted a point and shoot, because I really don't often use the manual settings on my old camera. I also wanted a tiny one that would fit into a small bag or pocket. The other consideration was that it had excellent automatic focus. I drove myself insane with reviews, which guides etc, until finally I headed over to flickr.com
There are groups for pretty much every type of camera there, so it was helpful to see what other people had taken using my shortlisted cameras. Anyway, the Ixus (or powershot as it is known in the states) won, and arrived today.
Today it was finally warm enough to step outside without a big coat on, so I decided to explore the garden and take a couple of shots as it was a reasonably bright afternoon.
My favourite was this one of a ladybird...

Considering how tiny it was, and what a breezy day it was too, I think the shot came out pretty well. I liked that I could even see the pollen in the centre of this flower on the next photograph...



After that I took a couple indoors, to see how it did with colour faithfulness. It is really important to me that this is right. I had a camera a while ago that was frankly a nightmare for that. I had to edit every single photo because the colours were so different on the photos. As you can imagine, that was a very time consuming process. Here's a shot of some children's fake flower garlands, taken in the same conditions that I take my product shots...


The colours are nice and bright, but also they are very very close to the actual objects. So far, so good! Fingers crossed it will do a good job of my product shots. After a lovely hour experimenting with my new tool (or playing with my new toy, depending on how you look at it) I had shelves to put up and a kiln to unload... The shelves are necessary as I will need more drying space to make the required work for my upcoming exhibition at the end of this month... Well they are up, and looking very long and empty. I'd better go and fill them or there will be no exhibition! Watch this space for more details and wish me luck :)

What an honour!

A big thank you to a very lovely lady for sharing this image of the bowls I made for her and her husband to use to carry their wedding rings on their wedding day. It really was a pleasure to make something specially for them, and an honour to make something of such importance to two lovely people. I wish them both every happiness in their lives together.


This photo is just wonderful. The colours make it feel so earthy and natural. It is a rare treat for me to see the items I sell in use!
Anyway, the lady herself is an etsy seller, and so I found myself having a look around her shop, The Bride Gene... She has some great items, and I particularly love these...

These are great big hanging pompoms, and are a snip at a teeny weeny $10 for a pack of three! They'd make magical decorations at a wedding, or would be dreamy in a little girl's bedroom. She makes them in a pretty choice of other colours too.
Last but not least this week - today is the first day of Spring! It is official, winter is over, summer's on its way, and very soon it will be flip flop weather - yay! I have made a new variation of my Spring chicken bowls to celebrate :)
These are available in my etsy ($) and folksy (£) shops. Readers of my blog will get a little free gift with any purchase until Easter. All you have to do to get yours is send me a message with your order mentioning my blog :)
Happy Spring!

The road less traveled

Two muffins sat on a plate and I -
I took the biggest one
And it made absolutely no difference.
I am blessed with a fast metabolism and I'll eat the other one later.

Yes, this is the Elizabeth Prince plate version of Robert Frost's poem. It's not deep, it's a plate. It has to be shallow.
Besides, if he could only travel one, how did he know it made all the difference? Always kind of bugged me...
OK I may be in serious danger from the poetry mafia here, back to the pots, quick...

After a couple of months playing around with ideas, my first bird footprint pots are out.

No poetic title as yet for this one... This whole thing started with our snow. For those of you reading this from overseas, we had more snow this winter than anyone can remember. I kept noticing little bird footprints everywhere, and I loved them, so this is where it came from.

I love...

these...I found these on the beach in Brazil - half an ocean-weathered coconut shell and a few sea urchin shells. I love the intricacy and simplicity of the forms. I keep them on a windowsill and hadn't looked at them for ages until the other day when I found myself transfixed.
The other thing I find interesting about the sea urchin shells is that before they lost their spines they would have been anything but tactile, but these skeletons really invite me to hold them somehow.
Anyway, there it is - the thing that inspired me most today.

Whooop, yay - I'm in the Guardian online Valentine's gift guide!!!

Wow! A little before Christmas, my Christmas decorations were featured in their Christmas decoration guide, but I wasn't credited or named, and they didn't know who the maker was, because they picked my product from an online retailer who stocks my work.
So what a huge thing for a mini business like me to have my work picked again, this time directly and credited to my online shops! Yay!
Here's the link if you want to check out the full guide - there are some really nice things in there, all handmade by various makers. A big thank you to Perri Lewis from the Guardian online for choosing my bowl and saying such lovely things about it :)

Group photos...

The photographs of my new porcelain wall flower sculptures are here, and I have uploaded some of them to my etsy shop. Here are a few of them...


Grace...
Three Graces....

And after my initial reservations about the grey background, I have embraced it :)

Wall flowers...

The journey to making my poppy bowls in porcelain has been a long one. I mean really long!! It just doesn't like the way I work!!! Or at least it didn't until I got my hands on a new type last year that seems more suited to my methods. So I have been experimenting for a while, and considering where I was going with this. I did make a couple of poppy bowls, largely to prove to myself that it were possible, and then I developed the idea into something slightly different. Wall flowers. Here is the first one out of the kiln...



I made a batch of these, and the rest of them came out this evening... They look great as a group - as soon as there is good light I will take some shots of them.
They are pinch pots, and I have always been a little obsessive about making my pinch pots as thin as possible. I was told a long time ago that thin pinch pots wouldn't work... that was like a red rag to a bull - I have made hundreds that worked fine since I was told that! Making pinch pots this thin from porcelain has been a challenge I have to say, but I got there in the end... I won't tell you how many casualties there were along the way. The effect of making them so thin out of porcelain, and firing it pretty hot is that it vitrifies, and becomes translucent. The next image shows what happens when you hold it up to the light.

This was daylight from inside through a north facing window on a bright-ish day. I think it is amazing, the way you can see through the thinner parts more. It reminds me of real petals! You can even see in the centre the indent in the back where I created a recess for a pin in the wall to hold it up.
The only drawback has been how to present them. I experimented with a few different backdrops, and have had to deviate from my rule. Up until now everything I put on my shop had to be photographed with a white background. The trouble with these was that it was like looking for a polar bear in a snowstorm - you just couldn't make out clearly where the flower ended and the backdrop began. I tried pink...

And whilst I liked it in a way, I didn't think it really emphasized their subtlety. But then maybe it shows their versatility. I just can't help but think of these as whisperers not shouters! So I have chosen grey - I think it works a lot better. The only downside is that I can feel the OCD part of me twitching in panic about the fact that now not every single piece in my shop has a white background...
Opinions on the colour, and anything else of course, are as always appreciated!