I am a very lucky girl. I have the best bead storage system ever. I have been dreaming of something like this for years and now with the new studio, it has come a reality. J helped me build a couple months ago.

This bad boy is seven feet high, four feet wide, and 6 inches deep. It is perfect for my little bead containers.

It's not finished. I still have to add trim (it's currently next to the shelves), but I'm so happy with it so far.

The shelves are completely adjustable, so if I would like to keep something on the shelves that is a bit larger, I can. Squeee, I'm so happy with it. Now I don't have to hunt for beads every time I need them for a project. They are all in one place and they are organized by color. I'm in love.

Now if only I could get the rest of my new studio organized. I have (as you can see) crap piled on the floor and on counter tops. On step on a time.

I have been sharing a number of photographs from my classes with you as of late, but today, I have some beadwork. I have a few new cuffs.

The first one is a custom order for one of my clients. This pattern is based on a Mayan pattern and is done in 24 kt gold beads. It is then sewn onto two pieces of 5 oz black leather, making it a very heavy bracelet. It's then finished with long cotton ties, they are about 3-4 feet long, very dramatic.

I have done a number cuff in this pattern for my client. I have to say it's one of my favorite patterns I've done for him. I do love Mayan culture and I just love how this looks and I'm pretty sure my client does as well. :-)

The second one was designed for the same client, but he decided that it wasn't what he wanted. That means It's up in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

It's a large size. Two and a half inches wide and 9 inches long. A nice size for any men that are looking for a cuff to wear.

Just like all of my cuffs, it's made using Japanese seed beads in Peyote (or gourd) stitch. It's finished with two matte black buttons for a closure. And if you like to bead yourself, the pattern will be up in my Etsy shop by the end of this weekend.

I have a few other cuffs to share, but I will wait until next week to do that. I don't want to overwhelm. I also am working on a blog just for my photography, so I'll probably be sharing a lot less here. I'll let everyone know as soon as that goes live.

Have a good weekend and stay creative.

Okay, so I'm sure you're getting sick of my photography crap, I mean, where are the bead photos. You have them don't you? I do, but today I have a funny photo to share. After practicing in photoshop with the black and white photos with one pop of color, J suggested (as a joke) that I do one of our pug.

Now if you own a pug or know someone that does, you know that their tongues are out of their mouths about 90% of the day. Sometimes it's just a sliver of tongue, sometimes it's almost the whole thing. Our little pug even falls a sleep with her little tongue out.

I thought this idea was funny and it was good practice for me. Now I think I went too far with sharpening the photo, but over all I like it. I think this one might go up on the wall. :-)

As well as working on my photography skills, I've also been working on my Photoshop skills. I've actually been doing this for a long time. Slowly but surely making myself more and more comfortable with Photoshop. I'm no expert, but I don't think I'm too bad at it either.

I have a lot to learn still, I know that. But I'll keep plugging away at it until I get better. That's really all I can do.

Here is a photo of Toonces I took the other day. She was hanging out under a chair on the porch and I thought she looked so cute. So I snapped a photo. Since I've been practicing black and white photography, I thought this might work well as a black and white. But after I change it, I thought it needed something. And since this week I learned about changing just a small part of your image back to color (ie the eyes), I thought I'd give it a try. I like the way it looks. Toonces' eyes are almost he same color as her fur, so they definitely look much more striking in this photo then they would in a color photo. 

I'm happy with it. Like I said, I have a lot more work to go, but I'll get there some day. I'll be a pro someday.

I've always loved photography. I love to look at it. I love to take photos. I've always been the one with a camera taking 100s of photos. Then I started Three Fates and I needed to up my game. No longer just any photo would do. I needed good product photos. I didn't have the money to have someone else to do it for me, so that meant I had to figure it out myself.

I got my first DSLR about 10 or 11 years ago. Well, to tell the truth, it wasn't mine. I bought it for my hubby as a Christmas gift. He always wanted one, so I decided to go all out and surprise him with one. I had my first "real" job out of college and had a little bit of money to buy one. He was so excited. He used it for a few days and then that was it. It went back in the box and sat in a closet for years.

When I first started my online business, I would beg him to get it out and help me with my photos. He would normally oblige me and take a couple product photos for me. Well then I got impatient and decided I could do it too. All he did was set it on automatic and take a couple pictures. I could do that.

I mean how hard could it be? It was. It was very hard. Even on automatic, I wasn't getting the shots I wanted. So I had to learn more. I read the manual cover to cover a few times. That got me on my way. It was wonderful having so much control. I loved it. I loved learning about that camera and I loved learning about taking photos.

I've been constantly working on my product photography skills. I've liked to think that I'm pretty good at it. Not only can I take the photo, I know my way around Photoshop pretty well. J has taught me a lot about Photoshop, but most of the things I've learned where from YouTube videos.

A few years ago I decided I wanted more. So I started taking Photoshop classes. I am now finishing up my advanced class and I'm pretty proud of myself.

I also decided that I wanted to improve my camera skills as well as my photography. I wanted to be able to take stunning photos of my friends and family. So I started taking photography classes as well. It's just so interesting to me.

Once I learned a lot of technical things, I decided I wanted to make my photos better. So I shot a lot. A LOT of photos. And I am currently taking a composition class. I want to learn what makes a beautiful photo and how I can achieve that. So you will be seeing from time to time some photos I've taken. Okay, all the photos on this website are mine, but less product photos and more artistic photos.

I would love any feedback. Let me know if you like it. Let me know what I can change. I've only been at this for a short while, so feedback is really important to me.

Well, if you've made it through all of that, I know, it was a lot, you should get some photos to look at as well. So here you are, some of my first photos from my composition class.

How about a few photos of some new cuffs. I've been going through all my old patterns and I'm finding a bunch of things that I've never beaded up. So my goal for the summer is to work up as many patterns as I can and get both the cuffs and the patterns up in my etsy shop.

So the first one is a butterfly cuff.  Obviously.

I had a client a few years back that wanted a butterfly bracelet, so we worked on a few different ideas. This was one of the rejected ides, but I still really liked it. So I worked it up and now it's up in the shop.

The second one, I really like.

This simple plaid pattern was made for a client that wanted just a little bit of plaid (about an inch on each side) on the edges of a bookmark. I liked the plain so much, I extended the pattern and made it into a full cuff and put it up in the shop. And look at that great button I pulled out of my button collection, perfect match. I'm in love with this and I think I might make myself one. I also think it would look great is other colors.

So that's what I've been up to. The patterns for both of these cuffs will (okay, should) be up by next week. And I'm hoping the share the photos of my awesome bead storage system with everyone by next week. Yay!