The Artists Community

Last Updated on Monday, 1 March 2010 04:04 Written by dreamriverdesigns Monday, 1 March 2010 04:03

The Handmade Artist Forum as a community

Community defined,

 a unified body of individuals:  b : the people with common interests 

 Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of Community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location.

Handmade artist forum http://handmadeartistsforum.com/forum/index.php is an ever growing community of individuals getting together to support, inspire, teach and learn from other handmade artist.  The community has grown and spread to include: an etsy team, facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/HAFteam/411011475367?ref=ts, artfire guild, this blog, the handmade artist shop www.handmadeartistshop.com and a few others.

The forum is a community to exchange hints,links, helps and also features a weekly chat for real time communications.  Members come from all over the world to join together in this community.  The group is open to anyone that creates handcrafted works or those that appreciate handcrafted.  Many different types of work are represented in a multitude of mediums from; textiles, glass, metal, crystals the list goes on. 

I believe Sheran Simo sums it up well,

http://www.facebook.com/smsimo#/pages/Indianapolis-IN/Sheran-M-Simo-Co/86434976361? 

“I am so impressed with the way Handmade Artists Forum members support and encourage each other! Over and over I see people going the extra step to explain something they’ve done, and encourage the use of their ideas! I often see artists trying something new, just because the person doing the original work is so willing to present it in a way that is easy to understand, or photographed in a way that it’s easy to determine how it was done, and then willing for others to “copy” it. I can say, that up to this point there seems to be an equal balance of those posting and those learning and I cannot see evidence that the forum is being abused. What a wonderful environment to be a part of!!! ”

Defining handcrafted

Last Updated on Saturday, 23 January 2010 09:54 Written by dreamriverdesigns Thursday, 21 January 2010 09:37

What is handcrafted?

Handcrafted as defined by wictionary: English[edit] Adjective handcrafted (not comparable)
Made by hand or using the hands, as opposed to by mass production or using machinery. Why is that important? It’s important to realize the time, skill and effort that goes into handcrafted items. No two are ever alike even when they may look similar. The artist’s mindset always plays a role in the final piece as does the reaction of the medium they are working with at the time. What is Art? Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities. It is the deliberate arrangment that makes a handcrafted item Art. An artist goal is to appeal to the senses and create emotions and memories with a piece.

One other note, I have noticed that many sites are advertising items as handmade, please read the details carefully as I have found that many items are actuallly mass produced or using mass produced items and are being sold as handcrafted. I find it helpful to read the artist bio/profile as it may give details to the originality and origin of the piece.  The Handmade Artist Shop screens sellers to insure that all pieces are indeed handcrafted, created by the artisan seller and are truly “one of a kind’ (OOAK)

History of Knitting

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 September 2009 02:24 Written by Manic Butterfly Monday, 28 September 2009 09:00

Submitted by CalcedoniaDesign.

Knitting is not my specialty-my mom can knit up a storm-I would rather crochet. Knitting patterns were a little difficult to read and no matter how hard I tried (sigh) the item always came out wider, then long enough. So it was always rip and redo. When my son was born (many moons ago) I decided to knit him a sweater. I think about it now and still I laugh my head off-you’d have to see this picture in your mind to understand. When my son was young I always had to buy him Sears ‘super super slim’  shirts and pants. The sweater I knitted him turned out to be a midriff, which could have fit a baby elephant. Now I leave the knitted items to my mom who has just turned 86.

Here are some interesting links about how knitting originated, taken from Wikipedia:

• 1 Early origins of knitting
• 2 Early European Knitting
• 3 Importance in Scottish history
• 4 Industrial revolution
• 5 1920s: the Russian Civil Wars and China
• 6 1939-1945: Knitting for Victory
• 7 1950s and 60s: Haute Couture
• 8 1980s: A Decline
• 9 Early 21st Century Revival
• 10 References
• 11 Notes
• 12 See also
• 13 External links

gOTT LITE?

Last Updated on Monday, 3 August 2009 05:31 Written by lisianblue Tuesday, 4 August 2009 06:00

Have you ever sat down with your collection of beads, sorted through them, picked out the ones you thought were just right to go with those pretty blue ones you just bought?  If you are a beader, I’m sure you have.   Or for those of you who quilt or make other items out of material, you pull out a stack of material and pick out the ones that you think will go together, spend hours cutting and sewing making everything just right.

Then you take that beautiful necklace or the wonderful pieced quilt outside and take a few pictures, and then you start muttering a few unmentionable words under your breath all because those blue beads aren’t blue, they’re more green, and that perfect match of material turns out to be less than perfect, and you think, How did that happen?

There are a variety of reasons, besides being color blind that is.  We all know that as we age, we may not see as well, but even our younger eyes can get tired from looking at a computer all day or working under fluoresent lights.  And, another reason – that “white” compact fluorescent or incandescent bulb isn’t so white after all!

Now, I don’t normally go around promoting just one brand, or company, and there may be other companies out there that do make something just like these, but I have to tell you these Ott Lites are amazing!

I treated myself to two of them in the past couple of days.   I have been trying so hard to take pictures of my ornaments to look as good as they really are, and after much trial and tribulation, I thought, I’m going to try these.  (They happen to be on sale for 50% off at JoAnns)

This is a picture from the Ott Lite website

Ott Lite Picture

but then I thought, it might be fun to test this myself

With Compact Fluorescent

ABOVE: This is a white piece of material – I took the picture directly under the compact fluorescent bulb – I haven’t done anything to the picture except auto correct the exposure.

With Ott Lite

ABOVE taken with a 9wt Ott Lite – untouched photo except auto exposure correction.

With Compact Fluorescent

With Ott Lite

HUGE difference wouldn’t you say?

I was absolutely amazed at the difference when I first turned on this light.   They also sell light bulbs that you can screw into a normal light fixture – Joann’s does carry a 20wt one, along with some of their lamps and Lowes also carries the Ott Lite brand.   What each store carries, may be different.

However, you can also order from Ott Lite – and they are having a sale right now.

So, if you find yourself mixing beads or material that don’t really match, or getting tired of doing all those color corrections on your photos that you’ve taken inside with your regular lights – you might want to consider one of these lights.

Have a beautiful and bright day.

Cutting Down On The Glare – Or My Very Cheap Light Box

Last Updated on Friday, 23 October 2009 08:20 Written by lisianblue Thursday, 30 July 2009 06:00

First off, I’m not claiming to be a pro at taking pictures, far from it!  We all know that getting good pictures of our items is very important when it comes to selling our creations on line.   I’ve had my digital SLR camera for just about a year now and I feel like I’m just beginning to really make better use of it.

However, the extremely hard part for me is getting good pictures of my glass items (which is pretty much everything I do) without a lot of glare.  I have several ornaments that I finished almost a year ago, but haven’t listed until just recently because I was unable to get pictures of them without a lot of glare on them.

Until now.

This is my very make shift “light box” – now, you have to understand, I don’t have any lights to use with it, so I’m at the mercy of the sun.  Which is a bit ironic, because I usually get some of my better pictures on cloudy days.  But, we don’t have very many cloudy days here, so I had to come up with a better solution.  After reading about another light box and some other solutions, on the HAF blog, I finally came up with this idea.

Using 3 pieces of foam core,  I cut a rectangle out of each one,  leaving about a 2 inch border all around.  Then, I took white tissue paper and taped it to 2 of the pieces and the top of one side. Then I laid out the foam core side by side and ran tape down the edges, connecting the 3 pieces together.  Originally,   I left the side that was facing away from the sun open so I would get more light.  I eventually put tissue paper on this side too, as I was getting some dark reflections from my maroon door.  The paper that covers the top, is taped to the top of the front and the top of one side, which means every time I use it , I have to tape it to the top of the other side.  I did it this way, because it makes it easier to fold up.  Before you tape the paper on top, test out how easily and which way it folds best.

On the front, I overlapped two sheets so I would have room to get my camera lens inside this opening, and have enough to completely close up the front.   Since I will often take at least 5 pictures of my ornaments, I needed to have fairly easy access to the inside.   So far, it’s working pretty well – it’s not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it did fit within the budget.  I want to try it with some white lining material so I don’t end up with rips like I have in the paper, even that little hole I currently have on one side is enough to put some glare on my ornaments.

So, I offer my somewhat hasty attempt, but very inexpensive “light box” as a jumping off point for anyone who needs to come up with something  to reduce the glare on their beautiful creations.

If you have any questions about how I constructed this,   I’ll be happy to do my best to answer them.