Product pictures

The majority of the product photographing is done.

Done. Finished. Closed. Thank. Gód...

Over time I had become a bit quite very extremely stressed out about the product pictures. I guess that's what you get for being an impossible perfectionist while at the same time being not that stress-resistant ánd of the avoidant type. Procrastination, self-doubt and stress galore. Really, any longer and I would've gotten some serious wrinkles.

Which is why I shot these pictures with a plain white background. Much easier, faster, and less stress. I will create the "scenic" pictures with props when I have the time and feel like it later.

So the action plan for my next designs is to decide on the product description and product photo setting right after ordering the design and shooting the pictures immediately after receiving the products. Which is, by the way, also the advise that I got from one of the more experienced designers/sellers on Shapeways.

Right now I only have to make the scenic pictures, tweak the product descriptions and markups in my webshop and integrating everything in my personal website. Oh, and not to forget doing the whole social media & marketing thing. After all the stressing out, I'm now in a state of not really caring anymore. Luckily, I know from experience that this is the perfect state of mind to finish tasks like this. Prevents me from over-thinking again: enough is enough!

The 6th of december is the deadline for ordering things at Shapeways (where I have my webshop) for those who want to receive their order before Christmas. For me, that means that until that date I'll continue to market my designs. And at the 6th of December, midnight: radio silence. I'M DONE! Well, then my 2012 jewelry collection will be done at least and I'll give myself a few days off. And after that I'll continue with the next phase of my plans: focusing on product design! Hopefully with a slightly less demanding schedule...

But before I forget: here are the photo's of my 2012 jewelry collection!

Pendant 'April'

Pendant 'Santiago'

Pendant "Blanche A"

Pendant "Blanche B"

Pendant "Twain"

Pendant "Maya A"

Pendant "Maya B"

Ring "Maya"

 

Ring "Robin"

 

Ring ¨Dia"

Ring "Sydney"

I'm very happy they're all done now, and what's even better: now I finally get to wear them! Whoohoo!

...Okay, maybe it's better to wait until the scenic pictures are done as well. Hmm.

Oh, and many thanks to J. for all the help!.

A lesson on why to listen to your elders

"Drawing skills", my coach in university once said, "are the most useful tools a designer could ever have". And he added that during his education, he would have drawing practise for at least one-and-a-half day per week, for several years.

Well, than it stands to reason that my drawing skills are not on par with those of traditionally educated designers. My education was more of the "define you own curriculum" kind and I've always considered function to be highly superior over form. Therefore, spending an eternity on practising how to make 'pretty' drawings was not very high on my list of priorities.

Until now.

It started when, after graduating, I started to use more sketches and doodles during brainstorms. After a while, I noticed that the ones with the better-looking sketches were far more pleasurable to go through again and again, and that browsing through those sketches would give me lots of enthusiasm and motivation to continue working on the concept.

Now, I highly prefer working on paper compared to making digital drawings (or worse: only descriptions with no pictures at all). Even though digital drawings or renderings can be much more precise and beautiful (and not to mention, there is an 'undo' function that paper sadly lacks), when it comes to brainstorming and concept development, drawing on a sheet of paper gives so much more freedom. On paper it is so much easier (at least for me) to put down your train of thoughts, ponder, compare, take it with you, make some minor adaptations etcetera.

There is just something about a drawing that cannot be captured in words. Even though words are often needed to emphasize or explain aspects of the design, a drawing communicates so more about the idea or concept. That is, as long as the drawing is accurate.

And there's the challenge: making drawings that are both accurate, aesthetically pleasing and not to mention drawn quickly. That calls for quite some skill... Maybe the extensive drawing practise was not such a bad idea after all!

During my "Sleek & Futuristic" challenge, originally meant to discover the form language of sleek/futuristic looking items, I rediscovered and tried out new drawing techniques. I learned a lot, although I cannot say I already have a good grasp on how to make something look futuristic or sleek, but my understanding definitely improved and that's what I was aiming for. The rest will come over time, I'm sure.

The first days, I was really lost on how to start, but after studying reference pictures it became easier. I used 3D software (1 and 4), pencil sketch on paper (2) and digital drawing software (3).

Two more 3D modeling software renderings (5 and 7), and pencil sketches (6 and 8).

After that, the challenge turned more into a drawing training assignment. I even started to use markers (day 10 to 14), which I hated during my education. And I liked it! I also discovered the awesome effect of drawing on colored pape, using a sharpie (Dutch: fineliner), grey markers and a white chalk pencil (day 10 and 11). Whoa!

As you can see, I still have a LOT to learn and train when it comes to perspective, shading or even just setting straight lines. That's fine. I'll just need to keep on practising and experimenting, and then maybe, maybe after a looong time, I'll even reach the level of a classically educated industrial designer!

For those of you who are interested in using markers for drawing, here is a nice tutorial on how to use them. The website idcreatures.com (I'm a fan) has many more of those, very convenient if you want to learn more about making product drawings.

My next challenge will be drawing people in interaction with objects - talk about challenges!

Photoshooting

I've (finally) decided on my shop colours! Red, black, and wood colours, beige en brown. Warm and strong colours, but not too feminine. The dark grey in the logo en website are not a bad combination with this, but I might change the colour to a warmer dark brown just to be sure. We'll see how it looks when the photo's are integrated in the website.

It is also a good colour scheme for fall, winter and the holiday season, I think. Maybe around spring, I'll change to a grey with lighter blues and greens? Would be nice to do things like that in the future.

But, for now it is dark, warm and red colours. I tend to move to those colours anyway. Dark orange en red hues have always been favourites of mine, and when I walked around in the IKEA for props, those came naturally together. Did I say I'm really happy with it?

So... I'm currently in the process of creating stages for my jewelry and making decent product photo's. It's really difficult because I tend to over-think on the stages while I should just try things out, while at the same time I also want the shop pictures to look cohesive. Demands, demands! Ah well, they'll be done when they're done.

I also went to a make-up make-over/photoshoot: me in full make-up? Whaaat?

Okay, if you don't know me in person this might not have come across as shocking, but for those who do it certainly must have been unexpected. I'm really not adverse to using make-up, I just simply never use more than a teeny bit of eyeliner and maybe some concealer where necessary. Too much of a hassle, and an abundance of make-up usually looks weird on me anyway. But last week I went to do a photoshoot at a drugstore (they had a special event) where a make-up artist did my make-up and a photographer shot some pictures, I certainly liked the result. Wow!

So: now the challenge of learning to recreate that look. And find a hat. I want a hat. Really.

Okay, now from airs and graces back to the mundane: due to consistent design-activities-induced negligence in the household department, our house is currently in a state of Greater Mess (instead of the usual great mess) and some major maintenance would be in place. I tend to lose track on what needs to be done and become overwhelmed by all the chores, so I decided to make things a bit more fun & organized. And with fun, I mean a cross-check list with all the tasks that are not the normal daily/weekly cleaning chores. Not to be crossed but to be stamped or something. With a self-made stamp or something, I don't know yet. Something fun, at least.

Looking fun enough already? Some examples of the chores include:
- slap the big pile of mood board pictures I cut out earlier onto a big sheet of paper (i.e. make a mood board, but don't take too long)
- empty the stairs of 'needs to be taken up/downstairs' stuff
- sew a second curtain
- sew a third curtain and get J. to go to the hardware store for curtain rails (despite all emancipation, he's the in-house technician and I do not wish to be bothered with such tasks. My excuse: he's better at these things than anyone I know, including me)
- make an easy to access drawings & drawing paper filing folder for on my desk (as I'm starting to draw more nowadays, this is becoming a necessity: drawings everywhere!)
- file the big pile of 'finished but to needs to be saved just in case' administration
- collect old shoes to take to the recycling bin (you know, the ones that are completely worn down but still kept 'just in case' and subsequently forgotten for years)
- and of course the many 'empty and deep-clean this tiny little corner of the house, that specific shelf, that box over there, etc etc' tasks

I'm going to try doing one of these tasks every day. It should all take less than an hour, otherwise it'd take up too much of my time and energy, and by having both big and small tasks, I should be able to adapt it to my energy level each day. To make it even more attractive I might have to come up with little rewards, but at the moment I really can't come up with any. We'll just see how it goes!

And lastly, a little creative mini-project. Some time ago, I received a letter from my friend F. (btw, she has a blog as well, in Dutch though: Festina Lente). An actual handwritten letter, not an email! Receiving (and writing) a letter is just so much more fun than emailing. It made my day (thanks F.!). Of course I wrote a letter back, and because I felt like doing a small creative activity, I cut a bookmark to put in the envelope as well. I've made bookmarks before, and I love doing this (I've made a pile of those before). You can make it as simple or complicated as you want, and the end result is always useful!

Time for some serious celebrating!

Guess why?

...My 2012 jewelry collection is done! The designing part of it, at least. Most of the items are already in my possession (and boy, am I wowed by the results), only a few items still need to be produced. If everything goes well, the whole collection is complete and ready to sell (including decent pictures, updated website, web shop and all that stuff) halfway around November. Lots of work to do of which I can't wait to start with.

To celebrate, I bought myself a few 'congratulations!' presents. Okay, I'll admit it was just an excuse to buy some of the new products in the shop where I work, really. The place has been remodelled recently and the collection has expanded with loads of awesome goodies, I just want all of them! Life ain't easy working there, way too much temptation ;).

A tiny baking tin for pies: because everything I bake has to be eaten by only two people and I want to bake quite often, normal pie tins are often too big. Even the best apple pie or cake gets boring after eating it for several days in a row... So this size is perfect!

Le Creuset (you probably know them from their cast iron cookware) has some fantastic (oven-resistant) ceramic mugs. I already have two big mugs and two espresso mugs in my possession, but since a few weeks we also have mid-size mugs in the store. I couldn't resist!

I made some apple sauce, so easy to make and so incredibly tasty!

And I've been walking around again hunting for mushrooms. And I found them...

...even though most had already been destroyed unfortunately.

...except for this humongous fungus! (yes, I just hád to say that).

Okay, recipes!

For the tiny apple pie, I took half of the following (Dutch) apple pie recipe:

- 250 gr flour
- 175 gr butter
- 80 gr sugar
- 2 eggs (1 1/2 for the dough, 1/2 egg for on the pie)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- a pinch of salt might be a good addition

The dough is made by mixing everything by hand (less dish washing to worry about) and letting it chill in the fridge for half an hour while you peel and prepare the apples. Apparently, the cooling is necessary because the butter in the dough needs to be cold when you put it in the oven. The warmer it is, the earlier it will melt during baking, resulting in a less crisp crust. At least, that's what I read and I think it makes sense ;).

For the pie filling, you'll need to mix:

- 1 kg apples, peeled and cut in parts or slices
- 50 gr sugar
- 70 gr raisins (I usually leave those out because J. is not a big fan of them)
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Put the 2/3 of the dough in the baking tin, put the apple mixture in, then use the remaining dough to make small, diagonally crossing stripes on top of the pie. Brush the remaining egg over the stripes, and bake the pie in a preheated oven for about an hour on 170 degrees Celsius. Yum!

For the apple sauce, peel and cut several apples in pieces, put them in a pan with a layer of water (I fill the pan with water up to about halfway the apples, but usually less water is used). Add sugar and cinnamon (for 1 kg of apples: 100 gr sugar, one big teaspoon cinnamon), let the apples boil until they have become soft (usually about 20 minutes). Use a masher (Dutch: pureestamper of stamppotstamper) to make the apple sauce less lumpy -that is, if you want it to be.

Fall food

Yep, it's for sure. Fall has begun. A good excuse to stroll around outside with my camera (you know, daily dose of daylight and such):

It's good that there are a lot less people outside nowadays, because otherwise I no doubt would have gotten many strange looks because of my photographing stances (i.e. almost lying on the street/ground).

Lately, I've tried to ward off my cold-wheather-induced cravings for comfort food by making some healthy lunch meals and snacks

The age-old saying goes: eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Well, this soup would certainly qualify, as after I forgot to prepare my grain porridge ingredients the evening before, I ate the leftovers of this soup for breakfast. And, here in the Netherlands, orange is the colour of the royalty, so there you have it: breakfast like a king!

I love to eat bulghur for lunch. It's healthy, warming and not to mention very tasty.

I tend to forget to eat the fruit in our fruit basket. Trowing it in the blender is a perfect solution for that. This smoothie from just one banana, one mango and some water is simple, healthy and perfect for sweet cravings.

In all my 'health-food' plannings, the ones below can be considered absolute failures, but ah well... I suppose I'll just have to forgive myself ;).

Chocolate truffles, always a treat.

I never made chocolate mousse before: reason enough to try it out! I don't like the idea of raw egg in my food, so I went for a recipe with just chocolate, whipped cream and chocolate mints. Without the chocolate mints, because I don't really like chocolate mints, actually. Thus, a most basic version of chocolate mouse, which tasted rather good actually!

Okay, recipe time!

I always buy organic pumpkins, so I won't have to worry about pesticides when I throw in the peel as well. Which is easier, faster and it even tastes better!
For the soup, I wash the pumpkin, remove the seeds, cut the pumpkin in parts, together with an union and some garlic, bake then for five minutes, then add water, laurel leaves and cumin (maybe ginger or a bouillon tablet as well). Let it boil for 30 minutes, take out the laurel leaves and use a hand blender (Dutch: staafmixer) to turn it into a smooth soup. Add some salt & pepper (and perhaps even some shoyu/soy sauce) and you've got a delicious soup.

For a lunch meal, I take about 60 grams of bulghur, wash it in a strainer (Dutch: zeef), then let it simmer in a pan with water (bulghur to water volume is 1:2) on low heat with the lid on top for about 15-20 minutes. I usually throw in some vegetables, this time green beans (Dutch: sperziebonen) and a tomato. Spicing everything up with turmeric (Dutch: kurkuma/geelwortel), salt and cayenne pepper, it becomes a delicious warming lunch meal. I often combine bulghur with turmeric and shoyu/soy sauce, it's one of my favorite combinations, but the shoyu didn't really match with the vegetables this time.

For the truffles, boil 175 ml of unwhipped cream, take it off the fire, add 400 g of dark chocolate (in small pieces or chopped) and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add 75 gr butter until melted and 3 tablespoons of Cointreau. Put the mixture in the fridge for several hours, then roll small balls of the mixture and roll them through pure cocoa powder.

The original recipe (4 portions) asks for 200 grams of dark chocolate, 300 ml whipped cream (in its not-yet-whipped phase, if you know what I mean) and 8 after-dinner chocolate mints. I used a third: 75 grams of dark chocolate and 100 ml (un)whipped cream for 3 portions, because even I have to think about my waistline now and then, and the dessert is heavy enough already.

Melt the chocolate au bain marie, whip the cream and stir it together (it might take a while before you get a solid brown colour). Scoop the mousse in cups and put it in the fridge for an hour. Voila, easy peasy.

Photography and obligatory slacking off

I've been doing some more photographing lately, this time while using -oh horror- external flashlights (external, so not the one attached to your camera, that one makes it almost impossible to create good photographs). Using external flashlights allows me to make good pictures even when there is not enough daylight. Since the skies seem grey for almost the whole day nowadays, it was starting to become a necessity so I finally conquered my fears and asked J. (the photography wizard) to explain me how to use them. And, providing the flashlight's batteries are full, it is quite simple really.

I really need to step up my game and practise, because if everything turns out well, I'll receive my designs (pendants this time) from the third batch at the end of next week. That means I've got a lot of product photographing to do then, and the more I practise now, the easier it'll be to make good photo's then. I hope.

(Nope, I didn't bake this, this was a ciambella (Italian type of cake, apparently) that my Dad and his girlfriend brought from their trip trough Italy. Mmm...)

I had been feeling a bit 'stressy' and overworked lately because I still have so much to do in so little time, and I suddenly noticed that I for a while I hadn't been feeling like doing any of the things I normally love to do, like baking or drawing or tinkering around. Actually, I didn't like anything to do, even brainstorming for my designs. Hmm, wait, that's a red flag!

Without realizing it, I had slipped into a 'sacrificing everything for work' mode, denying myself time and space for hobbies (or for just loitering around), obsessing over to do lists and the subsequent lack of inspiration and progress. While at the same time my work hours in the shop had almost doubled due to a remodeling of the shop, ánd I was having a cold so I was not feeling optimal as well. Whoops, no wonder things didn't go well.

After realizing this, I decided on some daily obligatory slacking off time. Which was happily spent the same day at a local super-cheap store (for Dutchies: the Action, of course) looking for photography props. I found two items, a small wooden treasure chest and a purple candle plateau (and presto, afterwards I suddenly felt like photographing again!). I'm still looking for some nice natural looking cloth or placemat to serve as underground or background. Maybe I'll just use that as an excuse to visit IKEA as another slacking-off-activity (and hey, it takes 30 minutes of cycling to get there so it even fulfils my daily 'moving' and 'fresh air' quota ;) ).

(The new candle plateau)

(The wooden treasure chest)

Since fall has really started now, I also decided to try starting the day with porridge from freshly milled grains, instead of the usual cereal with yoghurt. Nice and warm and uber-healthy to boot. The grains will have to soak for a night, so tomorrow will be the first tryout.

And from the uber-healthy stuff we move to a 'guilty pleasure', well my guilty pleasure at least: hot cocoa with marshmallows, yum...

If I would have to give this picture a title, it would be "You and me", because I picture these cups belonging to a pair, sitting closely against each other in a romantic setting. However, since my significant other would run far, far away if you put hot cocoa with marshmallows under his nose, naming this "You and me" would be a case of blatant artistic freedom. Rather unfortunate, since that means no romantic tête-a-têtes with hot cocoa for me, but at the same time fortunate, because that means I get both cups for myself, making a title like "All mine! Mwuhahaha!" a lot more appropriate...

Happy cakes

One of my favourite 'recovery' activities, activities I have when I feel I need to take it slow for a day, would be baking. And since I really needed to take it slow after the 'Noche de Tuna' this weekend, I started baking some mini chocolate cakes. With extra chocolate on top. And sprinkles. I love sprinkles. They make me happy.

The recipe:
Mix 100 g butter
with 100 g sugar.
Add 2 eggs and mix everything.
Mix 100 g of flower
and 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder through, don't mix for too long.

Pour into muffin tins or papers, bake in an oven at 170 degrees Celsius until done (you can check this with a knitting needle or something like that: when it comes out clean, the cake is done). When they had cooled off, I dipped the cakes in molten chocolate and then in chocolate sprinkles. And voila!

Oh yeah, and as promised: pics of my second batch of designs and my business cards!

This item is called 'Day & Night'. An egg cup at day and a candlestick at night if you turn it upside down. Not yet for sale, because I managed to send in the wrong file for my second batch, which was a version that wasn't exactly round.

Whoops... I sent the right file with the third batch, so hopefully that one will turn out right. And the 'wrong' egg cup/candlestick can still be used in the product pictures, to show both functions (egg cup and candlestick) in the same picture without having to resort to Photoshop.

This ring is called Sydney. I make it a habit of giving my jewelry designs names that are personal names, and at the same time have a connection (sometimes somewhat cryptic) about how the design looks or what it is based on. Can you guess the link between this design and it's name? I ordered it in stainless steel for my third batch, but since it doesn't meet the design requirements 100% I just hope it'll turn out all right!
I also made a little ceramic cake-mold of my logo. It's not for sale and I'm not going to use it just yet, but I plan to make some cakes with it later on this year, just for fun.

And here, they are, my business cards. Whaddayathink?

And the last pictures of this week: the tomato soup I ate for lunch. I don't like store-bought tomato soup, it tastes too artificial. But making it yourself is actually pretty easy. It can be much healthier as well, since you can add plenty of veggies. I played around a bit with Photoshop (well, the open source alternative GIMP) to create the absolutely white background. A bit difficult because some settings also made the bowl dissappear, since it was almost white as well. I ended up altering some parts manually. These are the results: