an apron and a little needed help

 

I received this BEAUTIFUL apron in the mail last night for my birthday from the Dunn family in Tampa Florida.  Thanks guys!  It is perfect and it makes me want to cook AND to make aprons myself (perhaps with Japanese fabric?)  This apron has love birds on it.  I love the style.  It is very vintage and it has two cute but very practical pockets on the front.  Yay!  I wore it all evening, and then this morning, after Mikel took this photo, I almost didn't take it off before going to work.  

"Flower Soup"

The "needed help" which I mention in the title is this:

I have the worst photography skills.  Ok, not the worst, but when I think about what I want my photos to look like,  I can's seem to find a fool-proof way to take images that will look funky, beautiful and detailed all in one.  I am talking, of course, about my jewelry photos.  I want my images to be as inspiring as those in a book I REALLY want (and am looking to buy soon) called Bazaar Style.  I also want them to be consistent without being exactly the same; in other words, I want them to all portray the feeling that I feel when I make and wear my jewelry, and the way that I want other people to want to feel.  I want to inspire creativity, making other people want to wear my jewelry and to make their own art as well.  

How do I do that?  

If anyone has a tip or suggestion for my photos I would really REALLY appreciate it.  How do you want to see my jewelry?  What is most interesting?  Funky?  Informative? Any suggestion would be helpful because I am a little clueless.  Maybe Mikel has some new ideas.....

I have been checking out amazing crafters on ETSY for ideas about photos and everything, really. 

I also found a cool interview of a crafter named Allyson Hill.  I like her work (the image above: a garbage bag for your car), but I like her story of success even more because she is a full-time crafter and single mother of a 7-year-old in Upstate NY.  Cool photos and cool life, I think.