Featured Crafters – Simply Handmade

 

Today’s featured crafter is Rachel Humphries of Simply Handmade. Rachel makes beautiful beaded jewellery which she sells through Etsy and several retail outlets.

What first made you want to become a Craftsperson?

I starting working full time as a teacher and became a daycare provider once my children were born. I was so busy with children and cleaning, my husband insisted I get a hobby.

Around that time my sister made three beautiful Swarovski necklaces for my three girls. She decided jewellery making wasn't something she had the patience to do and handed me her tools and what beads she had left. That was almost four years ago.

How did you get started in your handmade business?

During the first year and a half I began handing out samples of my jewellery to find out what worked and what didn't. I learned from my mistakes.

Soon after that my husband pushed me to begin having jewellery parties and enter local businesses to inquire about selling my jewellery. I now have my jewellery in seven locations in two States.

 

 

How did you come up with your shop name?

My husband is a huge part of how I started my small business and he is the one who named it for me!

How long have you been creating art / crafts and how long have you been selling online?

I began selling on Etsy in January of 2011 but just recently started to try to gain a following and be diligent about posting my jewellery. It wasn't until then that I really understood how both Etsy and the Teams worked.

Apart from crafts what do you like to do in your spare time?
I don't have any spare time as I take care of children during the day. I make sure my own as well as others get to and from school each day.

I spend the evenings preparing for the following day and doing my housework before I can sit down to begin my creations. I am continuing to take classes to keep my Education Degree as well as spend quite a bit of my evenings on Etsy. I get to do this while sitting with my family. My children and husband stay involved in my hobby.

What are the three tools in your workspace that you could not live without?
While creating jewellery, I could not do without my long nose pliers, wire cutters, and my white paper plates. That might sound silly but I have tried various trays to hold my beads and I just need a white paper plate. I can see everything I am working with and nothing gets lost.

When I teach a jewellery making class, this is the first thing I hand out!

Any other handmade shops you’d like to recommend?
I have many shops in my favourites section. I enjoy looking at various creations. My all time favourite bracelet that I stare at quite often was created by whimsydaisydesigns (www.whimsydaisydesigns.etsy.com). I admire the work that went into it as well as the colour combinations.

I also admire the shops who create the beads and supply me with items to fulfil my passion!

To see more of Rachel’s work visit

 www.beadhobby.etsy.com

Featured Crafters - Macramaking

I have decided to spend some time featuring fellow Crafters who use Handmade Beads in their creations.

 

    First off is Ellen from Macramaking.

 

 

Ellen makes some amazing hand tied Macrame Plant Hangers using a variety of beads in her designs.

 

 Tell us a bit about yourself

I live in the foothills of North Carolina about halfway between Asheville & Charlotte. I have three fabulous kids. Almost grown. Ashley is an art student and works; Laura is an engineering/ zoology student, and Doyle is a sophomore in high school.
My boyfriend is from Italy and amazing. We get together about four times a year (so far) and travel around the NC Mountains, all around Italy, and we all love cooking, arts, music, nature, and travel.

What first made you want to become a Craftsperson?
I have always been creative. My father worked for Belding Lily way back in the 70's and our family was always into all the crafts. Sewing, quilting,cross-stitch, painting, , etc, etc. but for me especially macrame.

My Mom had a little closet in the dining room they used to hang coats in. One day while she was at work, I cleaned it out & made it my macrame closet. I used to draw patterns on the interior walls of it & had hooks for hanging the ring to make my plant hangers. (She was not very happy about the change.)

How did you get started in your handmade business?
I asked myself, what is something I really enjoy doing that I am good at that I could do in my spare time and maybe make a little extra money. Macrame is it!

How long have you been creating art / crafts and how long have you been selling online?
I learned to macrame when I was about 11. I think I was in the 6th grade. My Physical education teacher and his fiance had opened a local craft shop. I remember he used to let me do macrame during class instead of running & exercising sometimes. I enjoyed the few classes I was in and was always happy to make owls for classmates, family, interior decorators. I always found it very relaxing.

How many different places do you sell from?
Just Etsy for now. I have a Wordpress blog, Flickr, & sometimes get emails from people who saw my photos and ask about one.

How did you come up with your shop name?
I was talking to my boyfriend one day. He was busy working. We were listening to music. I was about to start tying knots, and he said okay, happy macramaking! So Macramaking stuck!
He has such a way with words...!

Do you have another job? What is it?
I work full time as Office Manager, Customer Service Manager, Shipping and all around Assistant to all aspects of the job for a major commercial seasonal decor company. Now we are beginning "rush season" so I won't have as much time for macrame in the next few months as I did in the last few months. Christmas is coming!

Apart from crafts what do you like to do in your spare time?
I love growing plants. I probably have over 100 houseplants right now. I have no idea where I am going to put them all when the weather gets too cold.

I love gardening. In the spring I planted tomatoes, basil, squash, zucchini, all kinds of lettuces, etc, all over my yard. I don't yet have one big garden so I pick & choose spots I can plant.
Right now I am growing fennel, spinach, endive, mustard, onions, more basil & tomatoes, gourds, pumpkins, peas, and.. boh... all from seeds so we have to wait & see what actually amounts to dinner :)

I love to cook, especially baking, trying new Italian recipes and healthy meals on a budget.

I have always enjoyed photography.

 

What are the three tools in your workspace that you could not live without?
Music, scissors, & a hook in the wall above my head.

Any other handmade shops you’d like to recommend?
I have bought from quite a few on Etsy. I will list a few, but really, type anything in search on Etsy and I bet you will come up with more than you even imagined!
www.etsy.com/people/EnchantingBeads
www.etsy.com/shop/Retrorezurection
www.etsy.com/shop/emilydeweesjewelry
www.etsy.com/shop/DornickDesigns

To see more of Ellen’s work visit www.etsy.com/shop/Macramaking

Making Glass Beads (1)

People often ask how I make my beads. So today I thought I’d share a few photos of some of the steps I take when Making Glass Lampwork Beads.

First I dip the mandrels in bead release…

 

This ensures that the glass doesn’t stick to the mandrel and makes it easy to take the bead off once it has been annealed.

 

Then On goes the Kiln, which needs to heat to over 500 degrees C.

 

 

 

Whilst the bead release is drying and the kiln warming up I choose my glass for the day. Today I was inspired by autumnal colours.

 

 

I also set out any tools that I might need to use.

 

 

One day I will ask some kind person to take shots of me making the beads – this is the limit of my multitasking abilities. I draw the line at trying to hold a camera whilst winding molten glass around a mandrel next to an extremely hot flame…

As soon as each bead is made it goes straight into the kiln where it is annealed over many hours (usually over night).

 

First thing the next morning I head straight to the kiln to see how my creations look.

 

 

They are then carefully taken off the mandrels. At this point they look something like this… 

As you can see there’s lots of bead release in the bead hole which has to be meticulously cleaned by hand using my trusty diamond bead reamer.

 

Finally the beads are ready to use.

 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Hilary

Product Photography

I am at last getting back into things after moving Down Under.

As I have been spending a lot of time recently researching and learning about the art of Taking Good Photos of my Glass Beads and Jewellery I thought it only fair to share the resources and tips I have found so far. 

There are many valuable Resources for product photography on www.etsy.com.

 

In particular take a look at www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/etsy-success-sydney/ where you will find a recording dedicated to Product Styling and Photography.

 

I also love www.beadphotography.com which gives great tips for shooting glass beads.

Things that have worked for me so far

Marco mode (the flower on your camera) – before I discovered this I couldn’t even take a photo of my jewellery!

Light – This seems to be the most important (and difficult thing to get right).

I have found that making sure the main light source is behind the item I am trying to shoot does help.

Use Natural Light – either early morning or late afternoon. This must be Diffused with something like tissue paper to keep the lighting soft and reduce harsh shadows.

Backgrounds – I have tried to use interesting backgrounds that compliment / contrast my work.

My conclusion is that as soon as I upload them to Etsy or similar, however interesting they might seem, they are merely an unnecessary distraction.

 

White seems to generally work best.

I have tried using a Book to help to give the viewer an idea of size. This does seem to be effective – I just have to watch what words are in the picture!

Partial Product Shots – you know the ones in the thumbnails on Etsy that only show you a part of the product …… but oh how they entice you to click on the picture to see more.

 

 Focus – Maybe this is just me, but I love those photos which show part of the product or the background out of focus. This gives a sense of interest and depth.

 

Using a Larger Aperture (such as f stop 2.0) and considering where the camera is focussed seems to be helping me with this one.

Use a Tripod (the cheapest I could find) and the Self Timer on my camera. This has helped to reduce camera shake and hence unwanted fuzzy pictures.

Photo Editing – another art that I have yet to fully master. GIMP (free to download at http://www.gimp.org/) has probably all the features I am ever going to need.

I always Crop my photos to ensure the viewer can focus on the product and not have to hunt for it with lots of unnecessary background.

I also tend to Adjust the Brightness, contrast and Colours to ensure the picture is as clear and accurate as possible and will stand out from the crowd in a page of thumbnail search results.

The final and most important question is however much you love your photos ask yourself the question….

Yes, but Would You Buy It?….

Thank you for reading. I would love to know what works for you.