Reader Appreciation Offer - Art Bead Scene January Challenge....better 4 days too late than never!

As one of Art Bead Scene's contributors (I've been part of this fab team for over a year now, can you believe?), I wanted to try to create a piece for each one of the monthly challenges this year. I don't think I managed any of them officially last year - very poor show! The art work selected is always so inspiring, it's not that I don't have the inspiration or even that I don't have the inclination, it just seemed that last year, every month ran away with me and before I knew it, the deadline had passed and I had nothing to show for it. Not so this year, I told myself when January 2013 dawned. So when Heather Humblebead's gorgeous peacock pendant popped through my letterbox a little over a week ago, I got to straight away and made this necklace quite quickly! 

I recently bought a few of Amanda Davie's gorgeous glass and copper clasps, and this one seemed to tone perfectly, along with some vivid yet rustic ceramic beads from SlateStudiosSupply. I even customised the clasp, wrapping tiny seed beads onto the hook; a very pretty effect and one of my favourites. 'Well done Rebecca' I thought (foolishly) to myself, 'quite a few days in advance too. You're well on your well to starting off the year on a good foot!'. Ahem. Famous last words (thoughts!). Of course, I wanted to get some really good pictures. So I kept putting off photographing as I was never free to go outside on a morning when it wasn't raining, and then of course, the deadline came and went....with no Songbead entry to the competition. Epic fail on my part....

However, tonight I absolutely had to take some shots of another piece that had a strict deadline. My only choice was to get out my lightbox and photography lights and snap away. So I pulled out the peacock necklace and decided to snap away.

Now, I can get some fairly decent results in this way. I have a nice old chipped door that I shove in there, with the end sticking out and balancing on my knee. I can also get some really duff results, and I cannot figure out why. Now, I know that not every photo is going to be great, and there will be some variation. But I cannot figure out why sometimes the backdrop looks positively yellow (it's not) and sometimes very close to white. It's definitely a slightly creamy white in reality, but still - I'd describe it as off-white rather than cream. Sometimes I'll take a few pics, load them onto the computer, and then when I come back to the set up minutes later, the next batch will be yellow, and sometimes even a little fuzzy! Despite everything seemingly being in exactly the same place, lighting conditions being the same etc....I must be doing something different - I realise that - but what; I'm not sure.

Anyway, I won't bore you too much with my photography woes! I seem to be doing that rather a lot lately. I am glad to share this piece with you, despite it's lateness. The photos for this particular necklace turned out nicely I think.

 It will be available in my Etsy shop on Monday, but I am offering it at a discounted price for you my blog readers, if you snaffle it up before it hits the virtual shelves of Etsy. It should be £60, but I have knocked 20% off until Monday, so grab it for £48 with flat-rate shipping of £3.50 through the weekend. My reader appreciation offer to you!

Sold, with thanks.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you might be spending it :-)