New stuff in my shop... and a Friday cat!

Been taking some new photos of stuff for my Etsy shop. I love this cast iron teapot that my sister Nancy gave to me many years ago. However, it is a bit of a drippy pourer, so using it as a prop or background for my jewellery seems to work. What do you think? Still working on the white balance as you can see - same pot, different tone in different pics. Good texture though, don't you think?

Night blossom earrings

Sushi platter necklace and maki earring combo

I'll be listing these Hawai'i earrings shortly...

Square sushi platter necklace

Morning blossoms earrings

And it IS Friday, so I have to blog a little about a cat...

Embarrassingly, I cannot remember this cat's name; I'll have to ask my friend Michio to remind me - she is the sweetest wee little thing and is 16 years old! Isn't she in great shape? Have I ever met a cat I didn't like? (* her name is Minette - how could I forget that?)

I'm really proud to say that I got the cat-loving (and animal-loving) gene from my lovely mom, who would have turned 83 years old today. We went to the cemetary which made me happy and I only cried a little. Happy Birthday Mom!

Get with it, girl!

Having a little trouble settling back into "normal" life after the production of that big taiko show. I've only now gotten around to cleaning up my workshop (all my post-Christmas craft show debris!) and it's still in a rather frightful state. At least I can see the surface of my jewellery table now - part of it anyway.

I have dreams of having a huge workspace studio one day. Where, even if I'm splayed out all over the place, I still have enough surface to work on. My polymer clay work is pretty contained, but I need two tables for both my jewellery and paper creations. I have a small room though, so I just have to try and keep it a little neater. I think some more reorg is in order and I really do have to get rid of some stuff (remember I have the hoarding gene).

Just listed these yesterday:
Will be taking more photos in the coming days!

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...

Steady...

After the white balance revelation yesterday I tried to take some photos of some chiyogami earrings in progress this morning, but they are all hilariously blurry. Using a white balance adjusted camera means having to press down on the shutter longer, and I am a bit of a wiggly photographer. Plus, I cannot seem to stop laughing while taking photos today. So you may have to wait awhile to see the fruits of my "discovery"...

It was my birthday last week and I didn't post any birthday photos, did I? So here I am with my birthday cake at taiko (Japanese drumming) practice last week-end with Arashi Daiko, my second family. If you click on this photo, you'll note youngest member, Calvin, staring intently at the cake.

And... this was my 9th birthday party in 1976. That's me holding Barbie on a bicycle (easier to see if you click on the pic). Roxanne is holding Olympic Ken, whose head, at some point, I stuck in the boiling kettle spout to see what would happen - his hair and eyebrows peeled off , but they were just painted on anyway. And no, I can't remember why I did that. Probably the same reason why I hacked off another Barbie's hair - and just so you know, a pixie cut is a no-no for Barbie since her roots look like hair-plugs.

The only boy I invited was my cousin, Mitsuo, in the white shirt in front, who is also a taiko player in Alberta, with Edmonton's Kita no Taiko. I was the only girl at his party that year too.

Coffee is almost ready and then back to work...

Manual, schmanual!

I hate reading instruction manuals and I admit I don't usually do it. I've gone through my life grudgingly skimming through booklets for the bare essentials on how to set up electrical equipment and luckily for me now my husband is a cover to cover manual reader. I did read the manual for my precious French press (stop laughing) coffee maker, which told me to wash it before use. I can handle that.

We bought a digital camera in 2005 before my first trip to Japan and although I didn't take the majority of photos on that trip, I've been the main camera user since I've been setting up my Etsy shop, taking pics of my jewellery and cards. I've really enjoyed developing my own photo-taking style (so to speak) and experimenting with different backgrounds and layouts.

Some people have even complimented me on my photos. I usually give credit to the camera's macro feature, absolutely essential for taking crisp pics of small objects like jewellery, or details on larger items.

When my computer crashed last month, I discovered when my photos were recovered (phew!), that I had over 6,000 photos of my jewellery and cards alone, and almost 4,000 other photos taken over the past 3 years.

10,000 photos taken and I had never read the instructions on how to properly work the camera.

Now, if you're taking pictures to post in your Etsy shop or online somewhere, you may have heard about the all-important "white balance" so that the colours in your photos are represented acurately. I've been wasting time and energy, manually adjusting the colour of my photos, when all I had to do was set the white balance to correspond with the lighting I'm under - or do a custom setting.

Here are some bracelets I've made over the last couple days, the first shot with no white balance adjustment.

And here's the second with the proper white balance.

Yup, this is the real colour of the background paper and the bracelets. Umm, could someone slap me please? Maybe slap me with the camera instruction manual.

I'm very tempted to go and reshoot so many of my photos of my Etsy shop items. I don't think I will do all that (maybe just some), but my future pictures will be better than they have been.

So all this to say, learn to use your camera's features to bring out the best in your work. Photos are the way that internet customers can get a true feel for your work, without being able to touch it and/or try it on.

It took me a few thousand photos to learn this lesson - please don't wait that long ☺

Photos and a LEAP DAY SALE!

I was up early every day this week and my sister has to come over on my sleep in 'til 8:30 day to pick up a package my aunt dropped off for her and her daughters last week. Sigh. Oh well, coffee will be ready soon and I've got lots to do, so it's no biggie :) And what did I say when I gave her the bag from my aunt? "Don't forget to call Auntie Jeanne this week-end, and thank her." I sound like my mother. Audible sigh.Where's my coffee?

Much of yesterday was spent photographing and then editting photos of new pieces to list. I have a spot in one of the showcases on Etsy, which I haven't done in awhile and I wanted to see if any sales are generated by this advertising.

So I'm having a BOGO 50% off sale in my shop today, until midnight (in Samoa of course, that's 6am tomorrow for ESTers)!!!

I'm pretty happy with my photos from yesterday in general. I'm always amazed at how different lighting totally changes the colour of a backdrop while the actual piece being photographed remains essentially the same. I guess it has to do with how much light is reflected by the colour backdrop being used, or something (can you tell I have no idea what I'm talking about?)... These first two pics are the same piece on the same background, one in regular bright daylight, the other in direct sunlight.

I love those little goldfish! Gotta make myself a pair.

My new pendant design will have to wait since I have to figure out a way to attach a bail onto them. Long story...

Meow: I had to get in a couple of photos of Ebi. Poor Chibi has been all but ignored lately, camera-wise anyway, as I've been snapping pics of Ebi whenever he does something remotely cute.

Although I don't think he's as brilliant as my mom proclaimed him to be, he is funny. He drags his favourite toy around when he wants attention - this long wire with little rolled up paper danglies on one end - doesn't sound too appealing, certainly doesn't look great, but he loves it. You can tell he's coming with that thing in his mouth because the wire drags on the ground. I thought he hated me when he first came to live here in October, but we've warmed up to each other - he's more relaxed and has found his place, and I'm not trying so hard. Having two cats is good.


I'll be going now, will be working on a couple of custom orders today ☺ Have a good day everyone!

Carving out my family...

I carve my own stamps that I use in all my card and bookmark designs. Like with all my crafty and artistic endeavors, this was something I was interested in and just tried. I read books, did internet research and just kind of threw myself into it. Stamp carving is now my favourite class to teach, since people are always so amazed at what they didn't think they could possibly do.

I like to show people how to work from photos and get a good image to potentially carve. You do have to take some artistic license and make some decisions about what to carve away and what to leave intact, but this is something anyone can do with a little patience and practice.

I've been wanting to work with some of my family's old photos for some time now, but have been too scared, intimidated and worried about being disappointed in my results. One of my favourite photos is this one below, of my Dad (tallest) and three of his four siblings, taken at Fujiwara studio in Vancouver, BC, probably in around 1930 or so.

I worked for five and half hours on Saturday evening since once I start I cannot seem to stop. I tell everyone they need patience, something I do not have. Gotta finish, gotta finish... I finally stopped when I knew I was too tired and sore-necked to keep doing a decent job. Finished it yesterday and will likely still tweak and poke at it more. So the actual carving job isn't so pretty, as you can see here:

But I'm pretty happy with the result. My dad actually looks like my nephew, Ryan, and my Auntie Mary ended up looking like me! And I'd like to say it was my tired hands, but it was actually a bad decision that led to one of my Uncle George's (the littlest guy) nostrils being cut off. I now have to add it in separately. Oh well, live and learn, right.

I think it will look neat with some added colour too. I will experiment a little with it, and try working with some other family photos too. So much to do!


Just have to mention this ...
When the Academy Awards roll around every year, we always have the tv on, even though we are usually doing something else and just keep our ears pricked for anything exciting. We do like to watch the opening though, and we could absolutely not miss last night's since Jon Stewart was doing the honours once again. I haven't let out a cackle quite so piercing in a long time as with the "Gaydolf Titler" line; as soon as my laughter subsided, I told JF, "That is going in my blog." En bon québécois, on dit, "Il l'a, l'affaire." In Quebec slang we would say, "He's just got it." Jon Stewart, that is.

New banner

Did you notice my new banner?

I originally started blogging with the idea to talk about new creations, and to throw in the occasional bit about life and my other passions (taiko, cats, food etc.), but it's ended up being kind of half and half - on my creative work and on everyday life.

The old subheading for tatsuko: paper, polymer & ponderings was "jewellery, paper goods and enjoying the process," but since life often takes over and I just write what I want to write about, it's now been revised to "appreciating creative bursts and enjoying the process." A little more general.

Ok, so not a huge change, but it took me a few modifications before deciding on this one. And I added some photos of my work to the banner as well; three very significant pieces for me: my sushi jewellery, which first got me into making and selling jewellery; a photo pendant of my late mom (circa 1946) who still inspires me and keeps me going from the great beyond; and my "Happy Thoughts" greeting card - you can read more about that card here .

Since you can't see the pendant of my mom in the banner too well, here it is. She looks like a movie star.

So I'm pretty happy with the new look.