I spent all of last weekend working, working behind my sewing machine and then behind the camera to try and prepare my Etsy shop for a little boost. The hardest part of it all is finding the time to edit the photographs and then uploading them to create the new listings. Seriously time consuming… I imagine it’ll get faster once I have a set list of tags and stop experimenting so much with those, and once I get my descriptions perfect first time. That would save 20 minutes for each listing that goes into getting the wording just right!
My house is always a disaster when I’m photographing! The Belgian is very good about it and doesn’t even comment one little bit about the mess in the workshop and the dining room and the kitchen and… everywhere! But you can’t make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, right?! Something I have been wondering for a while is how to bring a human touch to the photographs. I try to make them look as appealing as possible in my little set up at home, but there’s no comparison to being able to touch something, especially textiles, when you are thinking of buying. So, this Sunday, in an effort to bring a little more warmth to the listings and to show how wonderful the welcome baby boxes are, I spent an afternoon with the most glorious little model you can imagine. How adorable is she?! She adored the sets and rewarded our efforts with so many generous smiles!
I’m constantly talking about time, and the lack of it, which is why I’m writing this blog post at ten o’clock at night! But it’s a serious issue. I have so many ideas of what I want to do with these photos. I took about 400 with our sweet model, of which I have about 8 brilliant ones that I can definitely use, but the time to sit down and properly think about where and when to use them is just not there. I have all these great resources – a light filled workshop, a great sewing machine, a good camera, WIFI at home, models who are happy and willing to participate, and ideas, ideas, ideas… I just need time dammit! Phew, so frustrating…
Rant over. Sorry about that.
Here are a few photos from the weekend’s shoot, and I sincerely hope you drop by the Bazaar Collective Etsy boutique to check them out! These little soft rabbit doudou’s are my favourite. There are no parts that come off in a small baby’s mouth, and they’re filled with polyester stuffing, but not too much so they’re super floppy!
I used to look after two small boy, twins aged 3. We were often stuck indoors on rainy days and playing with them I had the idea to try soft toy balls that we could throw around inside. I made them each one with scrap fabrics that I had at home, and they were instant winners! The boys adored them and we spent ages kicking and throwing them around, without breaking one single thing in the house! I think these three balls that are a part of the Welcome Baby Box are exactly the right size and weight to make fun for babies through to toddlers to small kids. These are in the orange and linen set up on Etsy now.
And bunting. There has to be bunting. This set is up on the shop now and I’m happy with how that looks! There are also sets with much stronger colours, for people who have are looking for something a little more defined. This blue and red set is made with vintage fabrics so it’s a limited edition!
This guy was hanging around me all day while I was shooting. Watching. Waiting for me to leave the table unattended so he could push things onto the floor. He’s shedding a LOT at the moment so I had to keep a rolly sticky brush handy to keep the table and area clean of stray hairs! I’m not sure what he’s staring at in the photo. Possibly a piece of fluff that could turn into a creepy crawly for him to chase if he just keeps on staring at it…..
I also shot my recent finished oversized vintage scarf cushion. I was really unhappy with the resulting photos and I realise that the set up all wrong for photographing these. I need a clean living room with not much furniture, and all white furniture if at all possible. Which is definitely not our house! We have lots of things and things and things… And mostly dark/black furniture. So I have a few of these up on Etsy already but I’m going to try to find a better setting to photograph the new ones which will really show them off.
One last thought – this video from the Guardian made me really happy today. People taking care of each other. We need to take better care of each other…
a x
