Featured Artist – Theresa Mink Designs

Last Updated on Sunday, 25 October 2009 01:36 Written by Manic Butterfly Monday, 26 October 2009 06:00

After graduating with a B.A. in Art and Psychology in Houston, Texas, I taught art for 3 years. Having a desire to own my own business, I moved to Austin where for 18 years I owned and operated a high-end furniture store. Since retiring in 2004, I have traveled the world in search of awe-inspiring ideas and unique components for my jewelry design business.

My art and design background inspires me to create unusual pieces composed of faceted gemstones in a stunning mixture of colors and shapes. My creations are designed for customers who appreciate high-quality pieces that transcend time.

 My original handcrafted jewelry is composed of faceted precious and semi precious gems that have been purchased from all over the world. Most items are one of a kind because of the limited resources of some of the gems. My work has been featured in Tammy Powley’s latest book titled “Mixed Media Jewelry”, as well as Sandra Salamony’s book titled “1000 Jewelry Inspirations”. 

Buy jewelry at Classic Designs or Theresa Mink Designs.
Find jewelry supplies at Bling Things.
Check out Theresa Mink Fine Art & Photography.

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.

Ideas For Inexpensive Light Boxes

Last Updated on Monday, 1 June 2009 08:43 Written by Jeanne Monday, 1 June 2009 08:41

Why buy an expensive light box, when contructing one is easy. Below are two ideas for lighting set-ups that won’t break the bank.

Jeanine from MyGrandpasPen has this unique idea:

“One of the areas that seems to cause huge issues for new Etsy and online sellers in general is pictures. I wanted to show you my very simple lighting setup. In the top picture there are 4 pieces of white cardboard – 3 of them taped together to form the backing and one forming the floor. It’s sitting on a chair in my bedroom and I move the chair around depending on how strong the outside light is.

Light Box

I then use the macro setting on my camera (Digital Canon Rebel XT) – it looks like a little flower, and the general use lens that came with my camera. I also take every picture in a portrait orientation (up and down) and use the smallest picture setting. That way I don’t have to crop any of the pictures – it’s the proper size for Etsy. I use Vista to auto fix the colors and then upload.

Picture from light box

Hope this helps someone!”

Jeanne found this second method for constructing her own light box, shown on this link, which is from a photography school site.

(more info coming later from Manic Butterfly)