Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - Contest details

Well. The Leviathan contest - is almost closed! Enter to win now... :) for the draw for the Steampunk'd book cover I made. The draw is Oct 30th. The contest is open to Canadians - and this is a great prize. Scott has signed the copy of the book that goes with the cover - so if you are a Big Fan this is a fantastic way to WIN! :D

I got to read an Advanced Readers copy of Leviathan... which is really a fabulous Steampunk novel. I suspect it is YA - but as an adult I found it fantastic. Good solid story, interesting concept (mechanical vs a "natural machine"), and well.. I'm going to buy another copy (so i have the new cover). It allowed me to get a feel for the design - and to get the measurements as well so the book cover could be easily removed if the winner wants.

It features a really nice leather and faux-suede cover. I chose to use the faux since it is actually a lot sturdier than real suede and has an awesome feel to it. The "artwork" on it is set on a leather background - a dark near-black chocolate leather.

The main part of the book covering has a pocket watch - Swiss - dated pre-1920. I chose that particular watch face because it is around the date of the book was set. There is a bit of an abstract selection of gears at the very center. Below that a few gears flow down into a large selection of gears taken from a few different pocket watches. The larger gears are winding wheels - the nicest of which has a machined patterning called Damaskeening in it that makes it shine. That particular gear is surrounded by a Date Wheel... that is taken though from a men's wrist watch. I created a "Frame" around the leather with these wonderful brass corners that have been carefully aged to give it the look of green patina as if it were copper. The green was matched to compliment the hue of the suede.

The nicest touch that I'm quite happy with is a Steampunk Bee near the bottom of the design. This silver-plated bee has had some added elements - little bits of gears that were added to the wings, and a few extra details. I plan on making a few steampunk necklaces based around this design that will go up on my ClockworkZero site. I've only though got a very, very few of the bees though so it looks like it will be another limited edition. sigh.

I found it quite interesting the role that bees played in the book - and actually they are one of my favorite elements as well. Bees and Gears and STeampunk jewelry oh my! The illustrations by Keith Thompson are really amazing. The one with the pocketwatch was part of my inspiration. I'm currently working on 2 different bee necklaces.

Its too bad I couldn't give you all a better Heads Up on the contest. Sorry about that! I'm going to advertise the contest now...
but even if you don't win do buy the book!
I know I'll be anxiously waiting for the next one.

Do head over to http://www.leviathanbook.ca/ and enter the contest!

Before and After Photos - taking good photos for Etsy

So I have to admit I did a long stint helping review work for Stock photography - in a now sadly defunct site. It was a real eye opener. After you have seen 300 photos of a bunch of carrots your eyes glaze over... and then some clever bugger comes along and sends a photo of a bunch of carrots and you say, OMFG look at those carrots!!!

That's the secret of a good photo. I'm not even close to achieving that.. but I learned a lot of tricks Even when i take a great and interesting photo - I still get emails from customers saying: Oh is so much better in Real life!

I try not to spend too much time ditzing around with photos. If I spend 4 hours playing with photos - and i still pay myself - my jewelry would be Much More Expensive. And to be honest I feel its not fair. A customer isn't buying a photo. So I try and limit my "ditzing around time" to about 30 min. Less if I can. Usually I have 2 shots I might spend more time with. As well I try and use all 5 photos. Photos help sell the work.

After having sold nearly 140+ pieces - this equals about 700 photos just to etsy. Thats about 350 hours of photo time. If I was working a 40 hour week that would be over 8 wks. 2 months of work. And that won't count all the didn't-make-it photos. The ones with the hairs and dust and omg-is-that-a-fly?? on the shots.

You really want to get as close to a good photo right from the start. As important as it is to take a good photo there are a few BASICS. This little article won't help much for someone who has no idea about photography. You'll have to check some other sites to help with that.

BASIC THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN TAKING YOUR PHOTOS FOR ETSY:

• 1. Exposure. If your photo is over-exposed there is not a lot you can do to correct it if all the highlights are blown out. For me personally its easier to correct under-exposure. The more over-exposed the photo is the harder it gets to correct.
• 2. Centered - for Etsy and similar sites its really vital that your product is centered. Oh sure it can be artistically placed to one side. It can come at a slant. But if you are cutting off a section of your work or say the really pretty beads aren't show then your customer won't see them. You've got just a few chances to grab their attention - so if part of your photo is missing - chances are good they won't click to find it.
• 3. Large as Possible - You want to fill up at least one of your photos with the product. You might not get in all of it - but get the bulk of whatever it is - in the center and Large!
• 4. Focus. - in focus not blurry. Did you use a tripod?
• 5. Minimal Shadows - yes. sure daylight is great - but direct sunlight causes shadows. Shadows create distortion. In the tiny thumbnails people review the shadows will look like part of your work. Use a bounce. (another photo term for you to look up). A bounce will help minimize the darkness. I have used: pie plates, pot lids, pieces of paper - as well as a store-bought Bounce. The paper works fine.
• 6. WHITE. Anything in your photo that is white should be white. Are your whites white? If your white beads look GRAY or Yellow.. you need to get a photoshop-type program and adjust them. This is critical. If your customer thinks the beads are yellow and gets white beads they won't be pleased. I won't click on any photo of anything where the product looks gray. Brighten it up.
• 7. Straight... this depends on the shot but a good example is the huge number of shots we use to reject because the horizon was crooked. I like things that are straight in the photo - especially if I suspect the person was trying to make it straight.
• 8. Background. I prefer neutral backgrounds. Not too fancy. If i have to spend 40 minutes dicking around with "composing a background" - say one of lace and a pretty book etc. That is 40 minutes I could spend writing, making new jewelry, sleeping. Because these are product shots you want a good, interesting background - but not one that distracts from your work. As well if I create a photo with a book, some lace, pretty flowers - I will make sure I use that in several product shots. But here's the catch - I don't want all my pieces to have the same look. Thats why I will often use layers.

EXAMPLE -- I took this yesterday. To be honest I wasn't in the mood for taking photos, so they are kind of not my best shots. Perfect for this post though...

BEFORE:
1. underexposed. I was being lazy and didn't set up a tripod. Hand-held at 1/30 F2.8 ISO50

2. crooked - I should have spent a bit more time laying it out. sigh.

3. strong shadows. Not terrible - but I didn't use a bounce - see above: lazy. grey.

4. bland background - bland but one of my fav's. it has a lot of black spots but I knew i'd be correcting and adding in a layer.


AFTER: time - 22 min

1. exposure fixed. used - brightness & contrast.

2. straightened (still not perfect but not bad. It is straight and cropped square. My only nitpick would be that the chain is more exposed on the left. shrug).

3. shadows minimized. Cloned out most of the strong ones and dodge out others.

4. background was okay but I added a layer of texture. I did this because I use that textured paper a lot and want something different. Plus - this is a "mechanical" piece. The original background was subtle and organic. I wanted something a bit more textured. In a larger version - clickclick on it - the On-Off switch looks 3d. It does stand a bit forward of the chain so thats okay.

5. cropped - this will be the main photo in when I upload the photo. I look at the photos reduced to 30%. If they look interesting when they are tiny .. thats great. Sites like etsy want squares. Since I was a bit lazy I added some of the background to the right side of the photo. Really I should add a bit more to the bottom so it is centered - but I've hit my 20 min time limit. This will be the main photo in the Etsy upload.

one thing I did that isn't the best is along the left side of the switch it is a wee bit blurry. Thats an editing issue I will correct. later. maybe. but because there will be 4 other photos I won't worry too much. This recycled necklace is made out of different electronic elements. Steampunk jewelry 0r cyberpunk jewelry or maybe just some real geek jewelry. And yeah, the switch does work. :D

Do let me know if you liked this article!

Cheers
Zero

Steampunk book coverings - Works in Progress

Well, went over to my friend's place yesterday to "sew" the book covering for the Simon and Schuster commission for Scott Westerfeld's new book, Leviathan

I've chosen two materials - and likely will go with the first one... Its a nice faux-suede, a bit heavier than the other colour. There's a camel-brown (not really beige - but sorta!) and a green. The green - sort of an olive military green - is quite nice but a bit lighter. I had cut the patterns out - and drawn lines where I needed to sew.... but since i've no machine - I had to go to my friend's place to do it.

Of course going to a friend's place means coffee, lunch and more coffee. We're both photographers so I spent time reviewing her latest work, giving opinions on her jewelry designs (great idea but it will be tricky!) - and talking.

We finally got around to sewing around 4pm. The first, lighter material - was easy. The second one (camel colour) was ................ well. Looks like i need to learn to mark patterns better. After 2 shots we had it done.

I'm a bit nervous. The book covers are pretty exact. Its what they wanted - as far as I can tell. And I detest the idea of them being floppy. So they are snug. How many books will they actually fit? No idea. In my mind they likely won't be used all over the place. Come on, if you won a prize that is covered with silver and gears - how often would you tote it around? Maybe a few times - to show off? How many times would you put in other books? Maybe once or twice.

I think this will look so fantastic that someone will just simply leave it on Leviathan and adore it that way :D

Anyway, the covers got sewn. Now comes the FUN part! For me sewing is Not Fun. but anyway.... i'll be laying out some ideas and sending it to the people at Simon & Shulster Canada and seeing what they think. If it all looks good............. then away I go!