Ring a Week - 1, 2 & 3

I started a new project in the New Year, which I am pleased to say I am keeping up with.
I very much admired the Ring a Day project that lots of people undertook last year but it was a bit much for me, so when Ring a Week came along it was perfect!

I am looking to perfect my ring making skills as they sell well in my shops, and I like making something different. So far I have submitted a little daisy ring, some copper stacks and this week a moonstone bezel set ring.

My bezel setting is very amateur (and I used a premade bezel cup) but I love the look of the ring, I have also been able to practise using thicker silver wire which I have had trouble with before. Watch this space for wider silver rings in different finishes.

I will be blogging weekly my Ring a Week submissions, some of them will pop up in my shops too.

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Photographing in Artificial Light

I have always been a very very firm believer in natural light being the best light to photograph jewellery in, always saying never use artificial light. I have been very frustrated with the nights being dark so early so I have only had time to photograph early in the morning before work (which is sometimes dark too, so not always!) or at weekends - which kind of puts a dampner on listing new things in my shop.

I made these copper stacking rings over the weekend and time escaped me and I didn't photograph them. After asking on Twitter (I think it is called crowdsourcing, no?) a lot of people actually took photos using artificial light and making it work by using the white balance. So I popped up my light tent and placed it quite close to one of the wall lights in the living room, standard yellow bulbs. Adjusted the white balance and actually it worked really well!

The light was clean and white like daylight, only a hint of yellow which would be removed in photo editing.
I think you need a light tent here as it diffuses the light so it isn't so sharp, so you don't get harsh shadows or too much yellow.

I'm really pleased with how these came out, I think I will use daylight wherever possible but this technique will definitely see me well in the winter months.

The rings will be available in my shops very soon!

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