New pendant: Sterling and vinyl lotus

Here's the new custom piece I just finished last week! I riveted hand pierced sterling silver sheets to vintage vinyl. There was a lot of precision cutting to do on this piece and I was skeptical that I would be able to recrate the vision I had for the design. I usually don't try to pierce areas that are too small for my file to fit into, but this particular design demanded it. I utilized my saw blade as a make-shift file and it worked really well to clean up those small areas. In the end, it turned out a lot nicer than I imagined it would. I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do!

Craft-Boom: A blog dedicated to small business

Lisa of U-Handbag (and U-Handblog) has been working on a fairly new blog called Craft-Boom that is devoted to helping people start and promote a small business. I was reading it today and stumbled upon a very informative tutorial on how to take professional looking photographs of your projects.

Taking great pictures is essential, and something I feel everyone can accomplish with a little practice. Of course, not everyone has the ability to artistically express themselves through photography but that isn't always necessary. What is necessary is clear photos where the background doesn't compete with the subject. White backgrounds tend to drown out silver so I prefer to use dark backgrounds when photographing my jewelry. I do use white backgrounds for photographing my handbags. I use a similar technique to Lisa's for my white background photos but i do see a few differences in her technique that might help speed up the process for me. I found an amendment to steps 2 and 3 in the comments section that explains, in greater detail, how to whiten the background of your photo.

Lisa blogs on everything from how to sew a clutch to effectively marketing your business.