Podcast Recommendation of the Week - Number 3

I started a new series recommending the podcasts I enjoy listening to while crafting. You can find the growing links list on the right hand sidebar.

*Please note you don't need an iPod to listen to these programs, they are available on the websites I link to and can be listened to through any MP3 player or right on your computer.*

I grew up listening to Car Talk on NPR, it was part of my childhood weekend. Mom prepared lunch, dad tinkered in the basement, and I sat at the kitchen table drawing while we all listened to the goofy Magliozzi brothers laugh at their own terrible jokes and try to answer real questions about car repair.

I lived in Tennessee in my twenties. I was surprised to find a co-worker who thought Tom and Ray were stupid and childish who just laughed at their own stupid jokes. I thought, "Yeah, so what?" That's part of the charm of these intelligent Cambridge guys; their self deprecation, infectious laughter and recurring inside jokes you don't really need to get.

Plus they really do answer questions about cars and car repairs! And relationships strained by disagreement over car issues.

If you already listen, I'm preaching to the choir, but if you haven't tried it yet, I hope you enjoy getting to know this silly, relaxed show. (If, however, you agree with my TN coworker then please, let us never speak of this again.)

Podcast Recommendation of the Week - Number 2

Last week I started a new series recommending the podcasts I enjoy listening to while crafting.

*Please note you don't need an iPod to listen to these programs, they are available on the websites I link to and can be listened to through any MP3 player or right on your computer.*

I'm going in the order in which they appear on my iTunes and 2 short podcasts from The New Yorker are next. Sometimes I don't want or need an hour's worth of distraction so I like having some shorter listening options.

The New Yorker offers a great collection of free podcasts.

I listen to two, the first one is The Political Scene which is usually short, about 15 minutes, and features "A weekly discussion about developments in Washington, hosted by The New Yorker’s executive editor, Dorothy Wickenden, and featuring the magazine’s Washington correspondent, Ryan Lizza, and other contributors."

I'm interested in politics so I like it because of the subject matter, also I'm a progressive liberal and I'm pretty sure these folks are too. It's casual and cogent, the speakers are knowledgeable but not inscrutable.

The second New Yorker podcast I listen to is Out Loud which is a weekly conversation with a writer about a feature in the magazine that week, the topics vary widely but are almost always interesting. I don't have time to read The New Yorker so I listen to this short (about 15 minutes) podcast and if the story they discuss intrigues me I'll go search it out online or in print to learn more about the subject. It always amazes me how in-depth the New Yorker writers get on their subjects. Really refreshing in this day of headlines and soundbites.

See you next week!

Podcast Recommendation of the Week - Number 1

I make things all day long, sometimes into the night. My crafts are labor intensive, also occasionally tiny, painstaking, and always repetitive. I need to listen to something while I'm creating or I'm left alone with my own thoughts and, well, no thank you. Years ago I used to put a TV on while I worked but the temptation to glance up was irresistible and it became distracting. I've always loved radio and since I found podcasts, I don't even watch TV just to relax anymore, I'm hooked on sound! I make my own pictures in my mind.

My default listening experience of choice is live streaming NPR over my computer. I'm a proud NPR junkie and I love knowing what's going on right now. I'm supremely lucky to live within radio range of three excellent NPR stations, but I have at least 6 different stations bookmarked on my computer so I can jump around from town to town along the northeast and listen to my favorite shows at the most convenient times regardless of where they are broadcasting from.

When the shows are not to my taste or they start repeating I listen to the podcasts I've downloaded from the internet and stored on my computer and also transferred to my little orange iPod.

I know a lot of artists listen while they work, some to music, some to audio books, some to TV and movies. Once they burn through all those episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer they have to find something new! I mentioned on Twitter that I have 250 podcasts waiting to be listened to and people wanted to know WHAT IS ON THERE??

And it came up again recently at one of Mimi's crafty meet-ups, what do you listen to while you make?

So I decided to make a list, telling you once a week about a podcast I like and what it's about. Then you can decide if it's something that would entertain you as well. I hope you find some great new listening!

Bob Edwards Weekend
I decided to go alphabetically so I wouldn't get confused. The first entry is Bob Edwards Weekend. Bob Edwards is the smokey-voiced former host of Morning Edition on NPR. It crushed me when they let him go (though I have to admit, I love the new hosts) so I was very excited to find his show available as a podcast. On it he interviews actors, authors, singers and musicians.

Bob Edwards has an excellent way of letting the interviewee get their thoughts out without interruption, and he's obviously listening to their answers because he follows up and laughs and interacts in a very satisfying way. He's one of those interviewers that, like Terry Gross, can make me interested in a subject matter or person I wouldn't have thought I would care about.

The show is presented as two one-hour segments and it always features a classic clip from the This I Believe series started by Edward R. Murrow in the 1950s, including the context of the clip, which is so interesting I think.

I like listening to this podcast on weekend mornings with a cup of hot beverage and a slow-paced project in my lap.

Granny Square Pillow Cover

I have been so eager to make pillows! I have had this excitement for years now. I've bought pillow-making books, read tutorial after tutorial and finally took the plunge with this cotton granny square I had crocheted last year. I made the front about 12 inches across.


I matched the stitch count for the back and crocheted two panels which overlapped about 3 or 4 rows. On the second-to-last row of the top panel, I used double crochet stitch to act as button holes, then finished with a row of single crochet.


I had originally crocheted the front piece to the back pieces with right sides facing and then turned it right side out. But I didn't love it so I took it apart and re-crocheted it with wrong sides together, when I did that the crochet edge appeared like piping. Now I love it! Plus it was easier to see where I needed to catch loops at the places where I had to stitch through 3 layers.

I sorted through my vintage button collection and picked out coordinating but all different-patterned white plastic buttons. I sewed them on about 2-3 crochet stitches apart along the back seam.


I went to the fabric shop to buy a 12" square pillow insert but all they had was 14" so I bought it. I made sure to pick one with a nice fabric shell because it is visible through the front granny square of the pillow cover. The pillow insert turned out to be just the right size! The cover stretched over it nicely.


*happy sigh*


Will be making many more of this kind of pillow and others too! I knew I would love it and now that I've started, I cannot be stopped :)

Editing Product Photos

Disclaimer:

Hello, my name is Liz Smith and I am an amateur photo editor. I have taken tips and tricks from many sources over many years to put together the method of photo editing that works best for me. I make no claims that this is the best way, the only way, or even the right way. But it's my way and it's my hope that maybe something I mention will help you get the effect you want in your own product shots.

OK here's my version of photo editing:

An online shop is only as effective as its photographs. Good product photography will always be your best marketing tool. I don't have a fancy camera, I use an older model Kodak Easyshare, so I try to make my photos shine with Photoshop. I'm using an older version of PS, CS3. This information will be most helpful to you if you have at least a little experience using Photoshop.

I have a shelf near a window where I put down some white paper and capture the natural light on my subject, which today is a little felted wool pincushion. I set up an object to be in the background and give the photo some depth, in this case a stack of folded linen fabric.


(UPDATE: I'm sure you already know to set your point and shoot to the tulip setting which is Macro for taking close-up shots.) I take a bunch of shots from slightly different angles keeping in mind my final composition will be square. I try not to take 30 shots because I don't want to have to sort through 30 pictures later, I will probably take 5-10. Here's the one I'll edit today:


I open the picture in Photoshop and use the crop tool to make my favorite size for Etsy listings, 8 inches x 8 inches at 125 DPI. This makes it so when my customer clicks on the picture it will become larger and give them a chance to take a good, close look while the picture remains within Etsy's size parameters.


I make a copy of this layer so I can work on the copy without ruining the original picture. When I use layers, if I don't like how the adjustments I've made look and it's too much to undo undo undo, I can discard the whole layer, make a new one and start again.


Sometimes I mix it up, but usually the next thing I do is adjust the color. I like my images to look a little golden so I boost the red and yellow.



After each successful adjustment I make, I flatten the layers and make another copy.


My photos always seem to come out of the camera with a grayish cast so another adjustment I make is brightness and contrast.




Sometimes I will raise the brightness while reducing the contrast so details are not lost, then flatten, make a new layer and heighten the contrast as a separate step.

If I over brighten, the details can get blown out. Sometimes I will brighten an image and then use the eraser tool on the blown out highlights so the darker version from below shows through. You can adjust the strength of the eraser tool to slightly erase portions of the top layer or full strength to fully erase.

I also use this erase-parts-of-the-top-layer thing to create the illusion of depth of field. If I had a single lens reflex camera with which I could manually adjust the focus, I could make my object clear while letting the background blur out. I love that look. I fake it using layers, Gaussian blur and erasing.

I make a layer copy and apply Gaussian blur, adjusted to the level that works best for this photo, concentrating on how the background looks.



Then I start erasing the object I want to remain clear on the top layer. I'm terrible at using selection tools so I just carefully erase using the eraser tool.


I sometimes hide the bottom layer for a minute and see where I'm erasing.


I enlarge the image (Ctrl +) and adjust the eraser size (right click) to work on the small details


I used to go to Levels first thing when I edited an image, and sometimes I still do. But I found I prefer to use color balance and Brightness/Contrast first which to me, feel like more nuanced adjustments. Levels is a great tool to add a sharp bit of brightness and contrast so if the picture still lacks that eye-catching zing I like to see, I'll touch up the levels a bit.



I didn't illustrate its use here, but another tool I love is the Clone Stamp. You can clone out little bits of lint and dirt, or use it at a reduced opacity to clone out weird blown-out highlights and such. I also use it to clean up and straighten the horizon line in the background.

Here is the final picture I will use in my Etsy listing:


That's my quirky little version of photo editing for product shots. Thanks to all the kind and generous people who have shown me the different things I can do with Photoshop which have become invaluable in running my online business.

UPDATE: Here's a link to Julie's response tutorial on using masks and layers!

What I've been working on

These things:

Crafting outside my comfort zone

So I am old enough at this point, and I know myself well enough, not to take custom orders for items I am not already making. Please know, I love to customize the colors or size of an existing product to suit a buyer's request, no problem! But after years of regretting taking on projects outside my purview or skill set or even interest level, I have perfected the polite refusal. Except once in a while something slips past my carefully guarded perimeter and I find myself in over my head, avoiding a sure pay-day in the form of a custom request I have no idea if I can complete. This project was one of those clever monsters.

Years ago I had an idea to full old wool sweaters, cut them into squares and needle felt them together at the joins to form a scarf. No sewing! I made exactly two of these scarves before I realized that the labor involved in the needle felting alone was going to make a finished piece so costly, the market wouldn't bear it (still mortified at how much I had to charge a friend who requested one).


While I was still deciding this, I had the prototype scarf on display in my studio. A local guy saw it and loved it, especially the piece I showed him on the scarf that was cashmere, mmm, soft. He volunteered that he had some old cashmere sweaters that he would love to give me for crafty pursuits. Hell yes I said!


Probably a year passed before the gentleman showed up at October Open Studios with two gorgeous but stained or punctured cashmere sweaters. Somehow, I'm not sure what happened, by the time he left I was consigned to making him a scarf with them. Oops.

Not only had I discovered by then that I didn't think the needle felting project was a good idea, I also learned that while cashmere turns soft and lovely once washed and dried in machines, it does not full or felt. I realized I would be sewing this scarf together and my sewing knowledge is only basic to be sure. We hadn't discussed design, price, anything. A custom order specifics FAIL.

It was almost the holiday show season and I had to put the project aside to concentrate on getting ready for shows. Come January though, the project was still waiting for me so I started thinking about it again.

Fortuitously, soon after I started designing the scarf in my head, I found myself at a crafty meet-up with the brilliant human-wiki-of-wool-sewing, Mimi Kirchner. I asked her a few questions about sewing cashmere into scarves and she generously showed me (on the handmade cashmere sweater scrap scarf she happened to be wearing!!) how she made the seams and edged the finished scarf. I knew I had my information and there was no more putting off the task.

Here's a drawing I made of the seam Mimi described to me:

I laid out the sweaters and, heart pounding, cut them apart with a rotary trimmer and a straight edge.




Until I had a nice stack of pieces.


I figured out the tension needed on my machine to make the stitches work and started piecing squares together.


After I sewed the flat seams I trimmed the excess, the cut edge side would be the front.


I figured I would do a test run with smaller scraps, but the block turned out so well I decided to use it as the beginning piece.


I sewed all the seams as Mimi had shown me, and the piece started to come together. It was looking really sharp and I started to think I might be pulling this stunt off.


However, when it came time to edge the scarf I ran into big problems. My Singer loved sewing two and three thicknesses of cashmere together but doing a binding seam on the single layer at the edge was not working out. The tension was wrong and no matter what I tried the edge looked terrible. I found out later from a helpful sewer that my difficulty was probably from using a dull needle in the machine. But while still muddling along I tried at least three different edging methods, eventually tearing them all out.


Sitting with a pile of ragged threads and an almost finished scarf in my lap, I decided to hand sew a blanket stitch along the edge. At this point, I knew the labor I had put into it was well beyond what the finished product would be worth, I was working for free now. I just wanted to give my customer a finished piece he would love and that I could be proud of. I started the blanket stitch by hand but I didn't like the irregularity of it. It had a folksy quality I didn't think went with the sleek, DIY hipster vibe the scarf had going for it so far.

That's when I had my light bulb moment. I ran over to Lush Beads across the hall and bought the tiniest crochet hook Liz had which is normally used for bead crochet. The hook was so small and pointy I could easily push it through the cashmere. I tried it and it worked so I ended up crocheting the entire edge of the scarf!


Yes it took forever, but man I love crocheting and I enjoyed the work. Because I crochet much more than I hand sew, I was able to make the stitches very uniform and neat, also loose enough so the edge didn't ruffle and remained manly.


I finished the scarf and fondled it triumphantly. I was proud of it, I was pretty sure he was going to love it, and after weeks of agony, I had solved a puzzle that threatened to defeat me. At the same time I discovered that I love crocheting into cashmere or wool, a technique I am incorporating into new products right now.


It was February when I emailed my customer who showed up at the very next Open Studios. Months after dropping off his cashmere, he was worried too! He told me later he had decided that if he didn't like what I had come up with he was going to tell me no harm, no foul, keep the scarf and the sweater scraps and it was worth a try, no hard feelings.


But he LOVED it! And it looked great on him. Success! I would end this story with a vow of never again, but I have to go finish a drawing I promised someone. Even though I don't normally do custom portraits. Yeah, I know.