Thursday, April 10, 2008

Portfolio

Whenever I have a craft show coming up, I think of how great it would be to have a photo album of my work, in case customers would like to see more of what I do. Up until now, I've never gotten around to actually doing it.

And then just awhile ago I read about an idea in the Etsy forums, of making a photo book of your work, a catalogue or portfolio of sorts. I went online right away, to look for a book maker. And here's the finished product:

Cover

Some chiyogami pieces

Other jewellery

Craft shows and my work space
To print my book, I had decided to go with Future Photo, since I wanted to support a Canadian company. Although everything was easy to set up and my book was fun to make, I'm sorry to say I would not recommend ordering from them. You may not be able to tell here, but the photo quality is poor and inconsistent. When I received my book a couple weeks ago, I contacted them to let them know I was not satisfied with their product, and they promptly ordered another one for me. I assumed that since a complaint was made that they would be sending me an improved second version. Not so. I now have two books that aren't so hot, but at least I won't be so stressed at losing them or having someone walk off with them at a craft show.

I am going to try http://www.blurb.com/ for the next one. I've read great things about them, and wish I had found them first! Oh well, live and learn.

My second cup of coffee awaits...

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a great idea that I have been chewing on lately too. I'm sorry for the poor experience you had and hope the next one turns out much better. Will be interested to hear what you think if you do decide to try again.

Good luck with your craft show!

Hey Harriet said...

Great idea to have an album showcasing your work. Very unfortunate about the quality of work from the company you chose (btw, if it's any consolation, the pics look fine on the computer screen...)

& like 't' above me said, do let us know how things go next time. Hope it all works out this time.

Hope you enjoyed that coffee! Yum!

High Desert Diva said...

Well....from a distance it looks good! I like the contrast of the black pages with your metallic crinkle paper backgrounds.

You could also buy a blank (black) page album and attach photos with photo corners. Then you could control the photo quality.

I'm (uber)impressed that you called and told the company you were unhappy with the quality. I have such a hard time doing this...the Pisces in me I suppose...

Michelle Engel Bencsko said...

Great idea, so sorry it didn't turn out well though. It's a nice thing to have - and now you have two! Next time you will get it all perfect.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, this is such a cool idea! I'm going to have to keep this in mind the next time I do a show!!

Lorelei Eurto said...

This is such a cool idea. Regardless of the picture quality, it looks really excellent!!!
I was thinking about having one made through Flickr.

Thanks for sharing!