New Home

Tut Suite has a new home!

Please check out http://www.hahakitty.com/wordpress for the newer, cleaner blog.

Thanks!

Pepper

How to Revamp Your Blog

• Step One. Clean your room, so you have somewhere to blog without going crazy.

• Step Two. Cancel your World of Warcraft subscription.

• Step Three. Get WordPress instead of blogger.com.

• Step Four. Customize the appearance of your new blog.

• Step Five. Make a DIY lightbox for cheap for photographing items and tutorial steps.

• Step Six. Go back through the tutorials you’ve already written, and redo them, with professional-looking photographs.

• Step Seven. Decide which posts from your old blog(s) to keep, and rewrite or repost them to your new blog.

• Step Eight. Set aside time every week, if not every day, to work on tutorials, blog posts, and staying updated.

• Step Nine. Keep it up until it becomes habit.

Et voila! In theory, you (or in this case, I) now have an awesome blog. I hope everything goes this smoothly.

The Problem with Feathers

Feathers are awesome. They add instant flair and personality to any accessory. I love them.

However.

The biggest problem I can see with feathers is that once you make something with them, it's so fabulous that you really need a model to photograph it. People have to see it looking amazing and think, "If she can pull that off, then I can, too!"

Of course, this means that not only do you have to find a model, you have to find a model that can pull it off. So they have to be photogenic and confident in front of a camera.

Also, lighting is an issue. Most of what I photograph is small enough that I can put it on a piece of scrapbook paper and zoom in with natural light from my window and it looks great. People are way harder to light. They don't stay still, so the exposure needs to be shorter, which means the light needs to be brighter. On the other hand, harsh lighting (such as flash or a spotlight) will create deep dark shadows and they'll look creepy.

Maybe if I was still a tech in my high school theatre I could commandeer the stage lights and a dancer, and I could get it done. But I'm not anymore, and as it is, I have neither the training nor the resources to make it work.

So after - or as - I put up the tutorials I have planned - another on feather earrings and then at least two on fascinators - I will scour the interwebs for solutions to the problems I mentioned above and come up with a tried and tested how-to on how to fix them.

Has anyone who's reading this come up against these same problems, or have a solution to a few? Comment and let me know!

How To Make Feather Earrings

Feather earrings are the newest trend. I'm starting to see them everywhere - and why not? They're a great way to add some flair.

And the best part? They're easy to make, and feathers are cheap, cheap, cheap!

You will need:

A special kind of crimp (see above) - the kind used on the ends of cotton cord. I'll update with a link to a site where you can buy these.

Feathers

Earring wires or clips

Needlenose pliers

Scissors

Step One: Put together the feathers

Find a combination of feathers you like, and make sure you have enough similar feathers to make a double of it.

Step Two: Crimp It

Holding the feathers firmly, place the open crimp at the top of the feathers. Make sure that all the stems are in the crimp, and that none stick out the end. If you need to trim the ends with scissors to achieve this, do so.

Making sure that the feathers don't shift away from where you want them, fold one side of the crimp in and over the stems with needle-nosed pliers, pressing firmly. Then fold the other side of the crimp over as well.

Step Three: Repeat.

Do the same thing all over again to create the second earring.

Step Four: Attach ear wires.

This is pretty basic... just remember to twist open the earring loops and you should be fine. Make sure the front of the feathers is facing the right direction.

Et Voila!

Obviously, I didn't follow my own advice about making sure you have enough of the same type of feathers.

Enjoy!

This is the easy & quick way to make these earrings. There's another way that looks better but requires more work. I'll be posting a tutorial with that method soon.

Great White Balance Tutorial

Just a quick post to share something really useful...

I found this awesome tutorial on finding the correct white balance in camera every time - essential for taking good product photos. Thanks to COLOURLovers for turning me on to it!

http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-get-white-balance-correct-in-camera-every-time/

Great advice, simple to implement. Hope you find it useful!

New Year's Resolutions

It has been months since I've updated this blog. All my good intentions and grand schemes seem to have flown out the window. I am ashamed and shocked at myself for not even having blogged about the stuff I received in the Shop Swap & Blog. I am a horrible person.

So, first thing after new years, I am not only going to be blogging about the fantastical things that were sent to me (I shudder to think of how long ago), I am also going to do features of my two fabulous, patient, understanding swap partners' amazing etsy shops.

Also on the New Year's Resolution list, next to the traditional "exercise more" and "eat healthier": one tutorial per week. Lately I've been fascinated with fascinators. I made my first ever just a few days ago, and soon I'm going to show you all how to make them too.

I met a very nice local sculptor who is carving pendants and wanted to sell them to raise interest in his sculptures, so naturally enough, I am now managing his etsy site for him, taking product photos, listing items, and handling shipping. And the pendants - and I would say this even if I wasn't getting a commission for selling them - are gorgeous. The shop started at the beginning of December. We had 6 sales within 5 days.

I'm also designing and managing his new website for him, which is really working out nicely. Not only have I figured out a trick that can get him 50% off web hosting costs with my web host, which genuinely gives him the most and best services for his money, I get $60 for referring him. I kind of want to do a tutorial on this, but I get the feeling that could just be really tacky.

If you're interested, the sculptor guy's website (made by yours truly) is www.naulaq.com. He's truly a very talented artist.

How To: Trade Your Sanity for a Novel in One Month

Well, I haven't been posting as much as I should lately, what with rehearsals and Halloween costume-making and procrastination and such. I haven't even made the things I want to send out to my partners for the shop blog and swap yet, which is horrible! It's proving a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I WILL get them sent out by the end of the month, never fear!

Another thing that's taking up a bunch of my time is preparing for November, which, as some of you may know, is National Novel Writing Month. If you are a writer, but have never been a WriMo, you might want to try it out. It's a month-long writing marathon... goal: 50,000 words. You can't start until midnight, the morning of Nov. 1st, and you must stop at the end of the 30th. It's based on the idea that if you really want to get something done, you need a goal and a deadline. It's crazy, sleepless, productive fun!

For more information, check out the website... http://www.nanowrimo.org