Deferring the Dream

I live under a vow of poverty, so I can not just open up my Etsy shop whenever I please. My plan was to open up shop on February First, but I have decided to wait until March First. I am bitterly disappointed. All I can tell you is that the inventory looks really good. Unfortunately, YOU can't tell it looks really good.

You can't tell that the inventory looks good because the photos look very bad. My Parkinson's Disease means my hands shake and my pictures are blurry. I can not compete in a market like Etsy with blurry photographs.

So. I took my stipend, the sum of money we are given by Four Quarters for our monthly expenses, and ordered a mini tripod and a light box. (Okay, and I spent the rest on beads, you know I did!) I hope this gear will improve the pictures significantly.

I am also gathering small objects to display the jewelry with or on. I am learning to think of the beadwork in new ways. I am used to thinking of it solely in terms of how it will rest and balance on a body in motion. Now I must view it as the subject of a still life, as art for art's own self. That's good, it is art.

I have to remember that it is not a race. I have to remember that it is about putting my best work in front of people, and people being able to see that the work is good and beautiful. I'm not sure a good photograph will ever capture the Spiritual nature of the pieces, but I am dead certain that a poor photograph never will.

Photography is its own art form, a subtle interplay of light and shadow, art and technology. I never hope to master it. But it is the common tongue of internet sales, and I need to become more fluent.

So, sadly, this is not the glorious launch post I had planned. There are no links to my shiny new Etsy shops with buttons for you to buy, buy, buy! There are only more YouTube videos and Wiki-how pages, and the plodding pace of progress, not perfection.

Next month, my pretties.