What I Sent

So I was approached, along with myriad other talented artists, to submit jewelry items for a book to be published in 2008. I was given the option of either sending the actual items or my own photos. The very kind woman who was soliciting entries picked 14 items from my Etsy shop she liked best. If I sent the items it would be several months before they were returned. So naturally I decided to take my own pictures.

I was fifteen minutes into chasing the sun around the room with my makeshift lightbox when the dread descended. I realized that it was quite possible that I could be eliminated from the project because of lousy photos! But I couldn't spare the originals. What would I do? I decided to copy all the items and send the doubles!

This proved much harder than I anticipated. She had picked many one-of-a-kind items for which I had to make new polymer clay or felt components. I had no idea how hard it would be to copy myself! I custom mix most of my polymer clay and I don't keep records of how I achieve each color. I made most of the elements more than once with a lot of close but no cigar results. I worked daily for two weeks until I had a selection I felt was worthy of a book. I shipped them off and now there's nothing to do but cross fingers!