Taking some better shots of the mini embroidery hoop necklaces/ brooches… All about the lighting!
Category: Photography
Japanese Seed Bead Wrap Necklaces and Packaging
Full disclosure: I’m not a jewelry person. I haven’t worn earrings since a New Years party… Nearly a year ago (side note, damn this year has gone fast). Necklaces for me are tiny neck prisons that always threaten to snag on an unseen nail somewhere and strangle me to death.
I felt this up until I started my recent purging and Ebaying of the majority of my crap in an effort to de-clutter. While cleaning out those IKEA drawers to get them ready for painting, I found an old necklace I made YEARS back.

It was my first attempt at making jewelry that didn’t involve embroidery floss and knitting. I thought it was pretty cool and I remember wearing it a few times! It was delicate enough to where it didn’t annoy me, was green, and asymmetrical (I’m not a fan of symmetry). Not blowing smoke up my butt, but I thought it was pretty cool 🙂
I became inspired to make the same style necklace, but also be able to have variable lengths depending on what mood you happened to be in. Long flapper style, doubled up, or 3 layers of a choker style. They can also be wrapped around your wrist/ ankle as a layering bracelet!
So, while messed up from my recent orthodontic adventures (re: not going outside because I look like a TMNT villain) I made one and became addicted. I ordered a fat stack of very nice seed beads and other bits from Fire Mountain Gems ($15 flat rate shipping to Oz, whoop whoop!) and went into production…
More photos of them later, when I can model (aka I’m not a hot mess from spending the day in the sun doing chores and crap) and show them off. But for now, here’s the packaging that I came up with!

Keeping with the “wrap” theme I modeled them off of embroidery floss bobbins. When I get the stamps I’ll put the logo and art on them.



The shadows are pretty awful since its so late in the day, but, oh em gee that orange…
Saturday Project: IKEA Moppe (or Fira / Mackis) Chest of Drawers Makeover
I think anyone who lives within a fifty mile radius of IKEA has one of these:
The classic IKEA wee chest of drawers that’s had a few names over the years. I think I bought mine when they were called a Fira, but they were also sold under the guise of a Moppe or Mackis. At any rate, I’m sure you have one banging around your house somewhere, most likely filled with random tatt as mine once were.
Continue reading Saturday Project: IKEA Moppe (or Fira / Mackis) Chest of Drawers Makeover
Adventures in smartphone photography, v1.1
(Points to large new header) Nice, ey? 🙂
I have a slight cold (sniff sniff) so I’ve spent the day wandering around the house in my pajamas, in some sort of vague consciousness. I really haven’t done a lot but sit and type and fanny around. I managed to sketch up a rough idea of the logo (can’t summon up the motivation to do a proper one in P’Shop just yet) and add it to the header (changing the theme again as well, as you do).
I also wanted to try to do some promo shots, to see how good my HTC One would be trying to take pro-looking photos (I can hear all the Nikon DSLR photo snobs gasping in shock). I don’t think it’s a good idea at the moment to drop $1,000 on a camera that I don’t really know how to use.
(Sidestep: Anyone in Newcastle want to lean me their precious expensive camera? Anyone? Anyone?…)
So, anyways, below are some of the shots I took today using my HTC One (the version with the known and dreaded “purple haze” in low light conditions) and some quazi-professional set-up. As in, I had some white paper and a drink tray I used to reflect some light.