Geek Shopping: Fairy Tales

It’s been crazy over here, but I hardly wanted another week to go by without a post. When you’re stressed out like I am, nothing beats a little escape, and my favorite escape is fantasy novels. In honor of that, here’s some reminders of the core of fantasy – fairy tales. Enjoy these fantastical moments from other Etsy artists.

Click on the images to be taken to the artists’ shops. All photos belong to the artists.

Illusions Artwork produced this beautiful interpretation of Beauty and the Beast. I could see this one illustrating a book of fairy tales.

So many of us are doing our reading electronically these days, but we should never forget our books. This book by Canterwick actually hides your charging station.

Isn’t she just precious? This Snow White rag doll will make a great escape companion. She’s made by lassandaliasdeana

I am positively drooling over the wonderful details of this fairy house by Melissa Chaple. The pots and pans, the trinket shelf… it’s a whole tiny world!

I had a doll house when I was little, and my favorite part was all of the miniature things I could put in it. Mine had boring books, though. not lovely stories like these by Lauren Delaney.

What a wonderful quote! There are great lessons in so many stories, and this print by Written and Rusted will make sure we remember that!

This soap is so dreamy and lovely I’d hesitate to use it! Enchanting Soap Favors makes them for fairy tale weddings, but I could use some enchanting in my every day.

For more fairy tale finds at Etsy, visit the related treasury.

In other news, it’s been a busy day!

- I was interviewed for the Etsy Scene blog. Take a read and tell Heather her blog is awesome! Lots of artist profiles to come.

- One of my newest paper bead necklaces was selected for Sara Handmade Wish List. Vote for me on the right side of the page!

Costume Sunday: Red Riding Hood, Werewolf Hunter

It should be no surprise to anyone here that I go all out for Halloween. I am at the front desk for my day job, so I try and wear a costume where if some pieces are removed I can look almost like a normal professional. Not that I had to this year. And this costume will definitely also make an appearance at future conventions – it’s too fun for it not to!

Do you remember my simple capelet tutorial? Well, that’s where this costume started. I made a short red cape last spring, and it ended up looking very “Little Red Riding Hood.” Still, it was wonderfully comfortable, so I wore it on occasion on those in-between weather days anyway. Well, this fall I put it on at the end of one of our vampire LARP session, which led to the inevitable Red Riding Hood jokes about my bad-ass vampire character. A silly idea was born.

I made a simple red circle skirt with lining, and sewed white ribbon I already had on to the lining as a ruffle. I also already had the brown fake fur – I bought it several CostumeCons ago, intending to use it for the hood and sleeve lining on a coat I still have yet to make. The white apron was made last minute (really, it was October 30th) with left over material from the Irulan dress and some simple decorative stitching from my awesome sewing/embroidery machine.

Mark and I took a trip to Spirit Halloween to find a mask that would work for the werewolf head. It wasn’t as ideal a shape as we wanted, but it was the best we could find for where I wanted it on the costume. It took a little detail work to make it look right: I painted the inside of the eye holes with red acrylic paint, sewed on the brown fur, and then sewed on some longer fun fur to make the fur types blend together better. I cut the edges of the large piece of fur slightly to give it a more pelt-like shape, but to preserve most of it for if I ever do get around to making that coat. Scrap bits went to making the clasp/tie, and the rest of the longer fun fur was sewn together to make a tail. It drags behind me when I wear it – it’s great! Later in the day after I took this picture, I realized the elastic strap for wearing the mask, which I had not removed, worked great to fit the head around my upper arm and shoulder, pulling back the cape a bit and better showing all of the costume details.

The final pieces were the huge axe, which I already had – it’s foam, by the way – and the basket, which I picked up cheap at the same time as I bought the red skirt fabric. The red checked fabric was bought at the same time from the remnants bin.

All in all, this was a pretty easy costume, and very little had to be purchased. It won my company’s Halloween costume contest, and amused the hell out of kids who came to our door trick-or-treating!

Craft Business: Jewelry Photography Before and After

One of the things I’m working on this year, as part of my effort to revamp and revitalize my craft business, is new photographs. For one, I have a lot of un-photographed inventory right now. For another, my photography has gotten better. And when selling things online or applying to juried shows, photography is the only way you really have to present your work.

Jewelry is notoriously finicky to photograph. Metal and crystal colors seem to fight every step of the way to not be true to life. You need to get close, sharp, photos to really get the small details in jewelry. But after several iterations of my photographs, I’m actually really happy with how they’re turning out.

Want to see how far I’ve come?

This is the first pair of dice earrings I sold on Etsy. Not a terrible photograph,  but not good product photography. Fortunately, I figured that out fast.

One of the photographs I took this morning. Much better, right?

So, how did I get from the first picture to the one from today? There were lots of steps in the middle, but the core of how I’m taking and posting nice photos now is actually really simple.

• Got rid of the busy hanging prop. I do still take photos both of my earrings hanging and laying down, but for the hanging photos I use a small solid colored bucket (that matches the feel of my shop) and a white earring display fake ear bust. What prop of set up works best for you will depend on your jewelry, but it should never distract from the jewelry.
• Yes, I admit I bought a nice camera. But you don’t have to. As long as you have a macro setting on your camera (looks like a little flower) you can take decent up close pictures. I upgraded to a Nikon SLR because my previous camera’s automatic white balance sucked. But I use very little of the advanced features of my camera when taking jewelry photos. I don’t have the time with the number of pieces I need to photograph.
• I do have a light box. It was actually used in the first picture. It was not used in the second. Here’s what my photography setup was today:

That, folks, is a folded box and some white poster board leaning on a large vase on my kitchen table. The ambient light from a cloudy day outside is perfect. Yes, it does mean I need daylight to take my best photos. So Saturday mornings have become photography days.

The next thing to know is that photos do not come out of my camera ready to post online. Here’s what they look like when I upload them to my computer:

I use Gimp, a free photo editing software, for quick and easy touch ups.

First, the photo needs to be cropped. It should be taken down to as close to the items as possible, while still making sense. In this case, I chose to keep the complete earring card in the photo.

Not bad, but dark. Next, I open up the Levels tool. I slide the right side all the way to where the chart starts, to brighten the grey up to white. On the left side I slide it in just a little bit, to keep the darker tones and a good contrast.

And that’s it! Saved, this photo is ready to go on my website.

Geek Shopping: Steampunk United

So, there’s been a touch of steampunk in several of my posts lately. Costumes. Jewelry. I like the aesthetic. So, here’s a celebration of the diverse and eclectic world of steampunk, handmade by more Etsy artists.

Click on the images to be taken to the artists’ shops. All photos belong to the artists.

I keep wanting to call this little fellow the “bulb bug.” Excellent use of found materials in this brooch by Denise of SpankySpanglerDesign

With this picture, I am convinced all proper French Bulldogs should have monocles. I think Mortecai, by Odder Than Antiquity, would agree.

My steampunk world is now complete. Cedar Moon actually made a steampunk yard flamingo. Have I mentioned I was a flamingo in my very first ballet recital? Yeah, me and flamingos go way back.

How about a little 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in your daily life? That’s what this switch cover by Sooke Sculptures makes me think of.

The detail on this piece is just amazing. I wish I knew someone who collected tea pots! By Richard Symons Art.

Wait, even chocolate comes in steampunk now? My day is made! Thank you TheFrostedPetticoat!

Steampunk working flash drives, people. You know you need one. By ReconstructedWorks.

Steampunk does not always have to be brown. Sometimes, it can be a gorgeous green, like this outfit by Patrician Designs Etc.

There is a lot of steampunk jewelry out there, so it takes something unique to make a piece stand out. The gears on this pendant by GreenTreeJewelry actually move. How’s that for unique?

 

More wonderful steampunk from Etsy can be found in my treasury here. And I’m still open to ideas for future Geek Shopping Fridays!

Finally, I’m happy to say Laura is the winner of my very first giveaway! Let me know which piece of recycled book jewelry you would like (pendant, earrings, or cuff links) and how you would like me to get them to you.

Costume Sunday: Princess Irulan

Every costumer I know has a list of dream costumes: ones that we saw once, and went “I can’t make that one yet, but I want to!”

When the Sci-Fi channel created the Dune miniseries in 2000, mine was Princess Irulan’s “butterfly dress.” Sure, she wasn’t in this scene in the book. And the dress is a little ridiculous. But I loved it, and I wanted to make it. Last year, I finally reached the point in my sewing skills and sewing machine mastery that I felt like I could actually give it a try.

Doesn’t everyone travel across the galaxy in a dress with real butterflies?

I put a lot of thought into this costume. The first thing was picking out fabric. I studied the screenshots for hours to decide what the best fabrics were to use. One of the first decisions was the colors. While the pleated shoulders and cape are clearly white, in other shots I decided the main dress was ice blue. The front center panel was harder. While I could figure out what the fabric was, I could not find it anywhere, so I had to find something that was the closest I could to its shimmer and sparkle.

Completed underdress. Made by combining two patterns, one for a full skirt and one for the bodice of an elegant dress.

Added tighter overskirt. The underdress ended up a little too long. I’ll need to update this before I wear it again.

Added stiff collar and shoulder pads for the structure of the over cape. And my very first pleats.

And then here is where I learned to hate pleats. Doing the many many diagonal folds for the cape. I got lazy near the end, so I’m going to have to repress these. Grr.

The cape, attached to the shoulders and collar.

The details are what really made this costume. I went online to find photos of butterflies as close as I could to the butterflies on the original costume. Using photo paper I made fake ones, and added velcro so the could be removed from the dress for transport. Four detailed seed bead jewelry pieces were also made – two pins for the shoulders, one pin for the front of the skirt, and a necklace.

The hat was an adventure to figure out. How could I get the shape, and get something that I could transport all the way to DragonCon? Mark came through with the idea. First, we found a souvenir plastic batting helmet. He cut off the brim and shaped it to the front point. I added four long bolts. Then I bought a set of acordian blinds. I cut them to the size I wanted, and slipped the cells over the bolts. Folds up for travel, huge when unfolded. Perfect!

Complete! Needs a little adjusting for next time: shorter bottom skirt and cape, tighter bodice that needs boning added.

The reaction to this costume was great! Getting through the crowds was an adventure with the width of the hat. But is was worth it. Best one had to be the running reaction I got crossing the street getting to this park for a photo. I will definitely be wearing this costume again. Too much work went into it not to!

 

Geek Shopping: All We Need is BRAAAAAINS!

In my Valentine’s Heart roundup a couple of weeks ago, I shared an adorable pixellated zombie. Today, zombies get their own love! Here’s a bunch of the lurching, walking dead found around Etsy this week.

Click on the images to be taken to the artists’ shops. All photos belong to the artists.

Who wins the fight of sumo versus zombie? Tiny zombie diorama by Michelle Merrywidow of ZombieHoedown

I know who’s rescuing me when the zombie apocalypse comes. Do you? Aluminum rings by Jessica of TesoroJewelry.

At least this zombie for your cupcake is more hygienic than most! Acrylic cupcake decoration by John Carney of ThroughThickandThin

The zombies agree – they need love too! Lasercut wood brooch by Amanda Whitelaw of HungryDesigns.

Make sure your lips don’t look like the undead during the zombie apocalypse with Zombie Love lip balm from Angela Lippincott and LippincotSoapCo

“I love you more than zombies love brains.” Awww, how sweet! Ceramic plate by foldedpigs.

Want to see what you’d look like as a zombie? Allison Kolarik of ComicBookAfterlife does these awesome portraits custom.

When everything gets really bad, and the zombie apocalypse is here, we’ll need a hot drink to keep going. This mug by Devin Hendrick of DevinsEmporium will be a good reminder.

For more awesome zombie highlights, take a look at this treasury with even more great finds. Have suggestions for the next Geek Shopping Friday? Send them my way!

And don’t forget: comment on my latest new work for a chance to win one of my prototypes!

New Jewelry Designs: Recycled Book Jewelry

As I mentioned in my review of this year’s Farpoint convention, I’ve recently been experimenting with a new line of jewelry. Since I have been having fun using old, beaten up comics in my work for a couple of years, it was a fun theme to expand upon. See, when I make my comic book pendants, I always end up with large portions of pages that won’t work for a small scale image, and it’s a shame to throw these parts out. So, I started experimenting with making paper beads. With these, I can use the whole comic book and create unique, one of a kind pieces of jewelry. What do you think?

The paper beads in this necklace were made from the letters page in the back of the comic book. I thought they looked lovely in copper, and then after that… well, steampunk felt natural. For sale in my online store.

The paper beads also work really well for earrings, being so lightweight. I have three pairs of these made thus far, but only this pair photographed.

These paper beads were made from an advertisement for commemorative Superman coins. It’s almost delicate on silver with the little crystals. I really love the way this necklace feels to wear.

There is one other geeky paper product all over my house other than comics – tons and tons of books. Mark and I are both avid readers. Sometimes, we’ll read a book so often it’ll just start falling apart. The last time this happened, when I bought a replacement I thought “hey, I don’t need to throw this out. I could use this!” These are the experiments using a fantasy novel as a jewelry component.

One thing I tried was focusing on a single interesting word in a silver setting. For this one, it was the word “Love.” This pendant sold at Farpoint, but my experiment included three more pendants like it.

How about some cuff links? I’m not completely happy with the settings for these, so I’ll be looking for other options, but they still came out neat.

Every story has to begin somewhere. Map fragments from a fantasy novel remind us of where it all started. Can you figure out what book these are from? I paired the map with tigers eye and green and amber colored crystals. I really like how this turned out, though I will also find another setting for future attempts.

I’m thinking these new products might work particularly well showcased at the mainstream craft shows I hope to do in the fall.

As part of sharing my new work, I’m also going to do my first ever giveaway. Comment on the jewelry in the comments, and I’ll pick a random person to send a piece of my new jewelry prototypes to. You’ll get to pick a pair of comic paper bead earrings, a fantasy word pendant, or cuff links.  I’ll choose a winner in one week.

Event Review: Farpoint 2013

Event: Farpoint

Dates: February 15th-17th, 3013

Where: Crown Plaza, Timonium, MD

Type of Event: Science Fiction/Media Convention

When I was a kid growing up in the DC region, I went to quite a few conventions with my mom. Some of those conventions no longer exist. Farpoint, however, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.

It’s gone through a few changes over the years. The biggest was its move from the Hunt Valley Inn to the Crown Plaza. Doing so, it seemed to embrace being a smaller convention. As a result, it has a wonderful, fun, relaxed atmosphere. Well, so long as we dodge terrible weather. Which we did this year, for the most part.

I didn’t spend much time this year just enjoying the convention, as this was my first time back as a dealer in a couple of years. I’m making a big push in my jewelry business this year, so I used Farpoint to debut my new displays and some new styles of jewelry (which I will highlight in an upcoming post). I traveled to Farpoint by commuter train, so it was an even bigger test for my new displays. They worked great. I was able to pack my entire display and inventory into a small handcart and a large suitcase.

My complete dealer table set up. New blue table clothes and jewelry hang tags, plus my new easily transportable displays.

I was also able to display more than I had in the past. The game piece pendants were very well received. Even though they had been at this convention with me before, they got a lot more attention and sales than in shows past. That would also be partially be because my technique and content has improved, I have to admit. But as an artist, I would hope for that to be the case, and I hope my work will continue to improve in the future.

I did get to enjoy the convention a bit by going to the Saturday night masquerade. I love a good costume contest, and this was definitely a good one. The one that had us all talking was a young woman who made an excellent set of Iron Man armor. What had the audience floored was that it was her first costume. She looked surprised at every award she received, and she deserved each one. Our vendor room friends at Commissioned Credentials also won awards at the masquerade. I didn’t get my packing act together in time to bring a costume to compete with myself. Oh well – maybe next time!

Here’s some more highlights from the convention:

Older Amy Pond from the Doctor Who episode “The Girl Who Waited.” Jen and I were happy to have spotted and recognized this costume.

An excellent Morpheus! He had a wonderful costume and had the attitude down.

I’ve been watching a lot of orginal Star Trek lately. This Gorn is here… to sell you GEICO insurance?

Minecraft style! The highlight of the kids costumes. The kid as box-Psy could act even through the box costume. It was hysterical.

I’m definitely happy we came back to Farpoint this year. Plus, there were some additional new opportunities from this event. I learned of a couple of new conventions to look into selling at. Plus, I was interviewed for a small convention documentary. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of that.

All in all, made a small profit on the weekend, had a good response to my new products, went home with several new amusing comics to work from, and had fun. I’d call that a good weekend!

Costume Sunday: Steampunk

Me and Reggie at the Georgia Aquarium. Clearly, Reggie loves the fish.

Like many people these days, I enjoy the Steampunk aesthetic. A couple of Dragon*Cons ago, I decided to put together a costume for a steampunk monster hunter. There were all sorts of details of this costume. I bought the vest from a leather worker at a convention I was working at. It inspired the rest of the costume. Since the character in my head was very active, I chose split riding skirts instead of the bustle skirts you see in many steampunk costumes.

I made a wrist sensor doodad that did not hold up nearly as well as I hoped. I also painted my goggles and did a Nerf gun repaint. Then there were all sorts of fun little additional bits and pieces I picked up. I took a belt and painted it with various “mystical” symbols. I added various wooden knives made by a friend for part of her monster hunting arsenal.

And then came Reggie. The costume got turned up a notch as a result of something as simple as stopping at a rest stop on the long road trip down to Atlanta for Dragon*Con. We wandered around a store to stretch our legs, and found a large collection of detailed puppets. I found this aviator puppet and just had to add him to my costume.

I named him Reggie, and Mark gave him a pair of goggles he had with him. When I got to Dragon*Con I found a vendor who had a small repainted squirtgun. It was perfect for his little hands.

Then I took Reggie with me when I dressed in my steampunk costume and went to Dragon*Con night at the Georgia Aquarium. We drew lots of attention. I’m not very good at puppeteering, but with this puppet I’m trying to get better at it. It’s sort of funny when wearing a costume to essentially be the backdrop for what gets the attention, but it was still a lot of fun.

Geek Shopping: Where No One Has Gone Before

Today, I am at my first convention of the year, Farpoint. I’ve gone to conventions from the time I was pretty young, back when they were pretty much all Star Trek conventions. They may have grown along with the far broader world of science fiction media, but I still have fond memories of those conventions. So, in honor of my convention beginings, here are a series of Star Trek inspired items from Etsy.

Click on the images to be taken to the artists’ shops. All photos belong to the artists.

Valerie of VaLaJewellery has made Star Trek into something truly elegant with this saphire ring.

This bleach stenciled shirt looks like the Enterprise on a field of stars. By Justin of CustomBleachTees

Any Star Trek fan will immediatly recognize these as the Enterprise and a Klingon Bird of Prey. Classy pair by Jason Christman.

Who doesn’t love Data? With this adorable pillow from Morondanga, you can cuddle an android of your very own.

For those who’d rather craft something of their own, how about this adorable cross stich pattern from weelittlestiches?

When Star Trek: The Next Generation first aired, I complained to my mom “It’s just not the same without Mr. Spock.” Carry his words with you on this keychain by Sarah McGee of ShoptheCopperFox

For those who want to eat their Star Trek too, look at these gorgeous sugar cookies by AllThingsExquisite

Wesley may be gone, but his sweaters have stayed in our memories forever. This homage in hat form by Caitlin of Dingos8MyTardis is adorably geeky and comfy looking.

 

Have an idea for a Geeky Shopping Friday theme? Requests are welcome!