Taking photos

everyone knows that taking good photos is essential, especially if you expose your product online and not in a real live shop.
And so keeping an online shop is a constant process on working with your images, improving the angles, experimenting with backgrounds, waiting for good light, mastering photoshop.

The photoshop part is a bit too much for me. I usually add light and contrast to my images, but ideally I would like to master photoshop so that I could play with the depth of field, designing new backgrounds etc. But well, since I am not a graphical designer, I know just the simplest actions. My plan is to really invest time and effort in it - take books from library, download online workshops.

But let me show you how (in my opinion) the angles of my photos have improved. Let's take the photo of my crocheted earrings.

The first two are "before" pictures. They are not awful, but could be improved.
This one is good because it shoes the exact size of the earrings. But the light is bad!

This image "earrings hanging on the glass" is not a bad idea, but in my case I think it is badly done. The white ballance should be fixed and I find proportions of the mug a bit wrong. Also this matte
This photo on the page of an old book is much much better then the first two. The background is quite, but not plain. The depth of field is shallow, with makes the earrings in the very focus of the image. And the light is neutral - the color of the earrings is exactly like they are in life.

Should earrings be photoed on models? Good question. Those who are against this claim that buyers are turned off by seeing their potential purchase being worn by someone else. But believe me, those who will be turned off are minority, more customers will be attracted to a beautiful model, showing how exactly these earrings will be worn.
But since this issue of taking pictures of earrings on the models is sensitive, make sure that yours is outstanding. So that you definitely can attract more customers than those you will probably turn off. Create a lifestyle in your pictures - the lifestyle that your product represents. In this particular case it is - gentle, innocent, graceful, old-fashioned, beautiful with a touch of fairytale.

And the last tip - if you make several copies of the same item - mention in the description that the item on the model is just for visualization. You customer will receive a completely new and unworn item.

The locks

So many friends, customers and retailers asked me about the locks of my necklaces.
So I decided to make a short post so that later give this link to every one who has questions about the locks.

So here we go - two lobster clasps on each end of my necklaces.


This allows to
- wear the necklace open ended or tie the ends like lariat.

- lock the locks with each other and have several wraps bracelet or necklace. Or belt. Or headband.

- lock each lock on a different part of the string. This is especially useful in wearing my necklaces as tight bracelets. You make one wrap around your hand, lock the first lock in between the beads. Continue wrapping until it sits tight. Then lock the second lock on the part of the string where it reaches. hmm, I hope I have explained it ok!
but I feel that it is about time to start making video tutorial about how to lock my necklaces :))

Basar Under

Another Saturday at Basar Under was lovely - a lot of people, music, homebaked buns and a lot of amazing sellers.

People we looking, touching, playing with my necklaces. Some were buying. I must say this "live2 selling is very exciting!

Here is me (photo by Basar Under)

Adventures in snowy Oslo

couple of weeks ago, while it was still

Couple of weeks ago, while it was still winter here in Scandinavia, we went to Oslo.
And believe me it was one of the best weekends this winter. The entire Saturday we spent going with sledges down the hill. Then we took metro up, and down with the wind again.
I didn't have proper clothes, so I had to use an old and huge skiing jacket

The mountains around Oslo-fjord were sun-washed and full of crispy snow. Truly winter paradise.



Our happy and tired faces.

and the evening highlight was national Norwegian cuisine - Pizza.
Didn't you know that Norwegians think that they invented it?
Well, given that pizza was amazing, we can agree with Norwegians!

Crocheting around beads

Just a bit more about crocheting around beads and upcycling vintage necklaces.
These beads I got from my follower in exchange for one of the necklaces from my shop (she also included a bunch of buttons, and I am so grateful! I will surely find how o use them!)

The best thing about crocheting around beads is that you can use the little leftovers. Amazing way to utilize the destash.

and there can be made so many beautiful jewelry pieces out of those beads.