As much as I absolutely adore my wonderful Nikon D50 digital SLR camera, I recently came to the inevitable conclusion that I needed to do something to help me get better close up shots.

As someone who largely uses this camera to photograph jewelry and small objects, the standard 18-55mm lens that comes with the camera does a great job compared to other cameras, but still not quite good enough when I want to get in very close. As a result I need to rely on doing a lot of cropping in Photoshop to get in really close, which usually leaves me with a finished image that isn’t as great as I’d like it to be.

I started poking around online looking for a proper macro lens and felt fairly disheartened by the cost.

So instead I decided to compromise and sought out these close up filter-type lenses which could simply be screwed onto the end of my current camera lens. Given that a set of these cost me around ten times less than what I was looking at for a proper macro lens, I was pretty happy!

Having now had a little play with them, I thought I’d share the results.

Note that these images were taken under my desk lamp or with flash so the colours aren’t accurate and they aren’t great shots by any means! However, they do show very well the difference these lenses make. I’ve cropped the original images at exactly the same size, so the degree of close up you can see really is the result of the lens filters and not the result of Photoshop!

The above image was taken with none of the close up filters attached to my camera - this is as close as my existing 18-55mm lens allows me to get.

This image was taken with all four of the close up lens filters attached. You can actually see (if you look very closely!) the marks my hammer has made onto the surface of my favourite handmade chain. And we like that!

And here’s another comparison side by side - the first using my camera with none of the filters attached and the second using the +10 macro lens filter.

I’m looking forward to taking some new photographs of my work using these lenses soon which I’ll share with you in due course. Keep your eyes peeled!

Etsy Labs is a space which has been set up by those hard working people at Etsy in their new premises in Brooklyn, USA. The goal of Etsy Labs is to: “… provide a space where Etsy members can be creative together, learn from each other and share their skills.” And the vision Etsy has is that one day these labs will be found all over the world.

You can learn more about Etsy Labs on their website and you should also visit the Flickr page for the Labs where lots of interesting developments can be seen.

The Labs have been looking for donations of materials and equipment while they’ve been setting up, and a while back I sent them a bundle of fabric and other sewing materials I’ve accrued over the years but have never managed to use (which is hardly surprising given that I can’t sew to save myself!).

Plus I stuck in some very Australian chocolates as a thanks to all at Etsy for their efforts in keeping the place running and trying to keep everyone happy. This photograph is from the Lab’s Flickr photostream.

I also included a selection of fine crochet cottons which belonged to my late grandmother, Peg Lawton, who was an astonishingly good crocheter. She created the most beautiful, fine lace-like work - including once making a very intricate and heavy bedspread for my aunty and uncle which took a very long time to complete.

I’m sure she would have been thrilled to imagine her cottons ending up on the other side of the world with a view to people she’s never met making use of them.

I’ll write more soon about my Nan’s life and also her amazing crochet work. I’m hoping to soon start work on a collection of one off pieces of jewellery and objects to celebrate her life. My plan is to hold an exhibition of these pieces in due course - hopefully in Adelaide, Australia which is where she spent most of her life and was dearly loved by a diverse array of people.

As mentioned in my previous post, my workroom/studio was left at the end of 2006 looking as if a war had been conducted in it. I was so incredibly busy during the final months of the year and it quickly dawned on me that the workroom just wasn’t cutting it in terms of the way it was set up and organised.

There were many issues, including simply not having appropriate places to put things or to undertake certain tasks. I kept losing things, wasting time trying to find things, my work spread out across my entire apartment as I kept looking for more working spaces and generally everything ended up in a mess.

So my very first task for 2007 was to entirely dismantle the room and start again. And I am pleased to report that I have pretty much finished, after many days of very hard work and after spending a rather vast sum of money at Ikea!

My workroom needs to fulfill a lot of needs - it’s my office for work as I work from home, it’s the place where I run my business and, of course, it’s my jewellery studio - so I thought long and hard and came up with a plan to reorganise it, which I’ve pretty much stuck to.

I was going to post ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots here to show you the rather remarkable difference … but I accidentally deleted the ‘before’s! So instead I’ll just share the ‘after’s.

Above is my brand new desk, which replaces a wobbly old one which used to be my rather dodgy jewellery bench - so it was covered in burn marks, dents, scratches and more - not very nice to do general work on. Soon there will be a brand new Mac on my new desk … but for now there’s my trusty old one.

Behind the still to be properly hung curtain is some metal shelving containing relatively big pieces jewellery equipment, materials and more - with lots of chemicals in the boxes at the top. The table in the foreground will be where I keep my pickle for cleaning metal - saving me from running back and forth between rooms with very hot or wet pieces of metal! I will also use it for polishing. In the background are my new bookshelves, all neatly arranged as of today.

One thing I realised I desperately needed in the last few months was simply a place to pack parcels which would also be the place where my packing materials are kept. And finally here it is!

I’ve already put it to good use - and there is another order sitting on it in this photo waiting for me to pack up.

I’m pleased to report that it’s most excellent!

And finally … my lovely jewellery bench, now complete with far better organised storage and lots of surfaces nearby for storing things on.

I’ve moved it to the other end of the room so that the place where I solder is near the window rather than cooped up in a corner - I decided that the fumes were getting to me!

So … what next? Well, I won’t bore you further with descriptions of my newly reorganised kitchen, nice new fridge and speccy new vacuum cleaner … or the rather chunky amount of sorting out that still needs to happen in my bedroom.

But I will share my in tray with you. Yes, it’s a nightmare. And it needs attending to very soon! There’s also another pile of random paper hidden in a drawer that needs sorting too.

Once I feel a bit more on top of those things I shall be back at my bench making new stuff. Can’t wait!

Apologies for how long it’s taken me to update Make Me, but it’s an indication of just how incredibly busy I’ve been for such a long time - literally working from waking up to going to sleep every single day for months.

I’m now spending a couple of weeks with my family for Christmas and am trying to do as much relaxing and recovering as possible after what has been by far the busiest festive season for my jewellery making to date.

In fact I think it’s fair to say that the whole of 2006 seems like it’s been the busiest year of my life in general - and I’m hardly someone who takes things easily! My health is a total disaster, my apartment looks like there’s been a spot of trench warfare going on and I am the (un)proud owner of a Towering In Tray of Doom.

As far as making goes, in the last week or so pretty much the only thing I’ve made has been these Christmas tree biscuits - with the help of my little niece Matilda (she mostly helped ‘clean up’ the icing and decorative chocolatey bits!).

And given that I’m a long way from home for the next little while I can’t see that I’ll have anything new to show you too soon. However, once I return - and once I pull my life into some semblance of order - I plan to get back into lots of jewellery making.

Also keep your eyes peeled for a very rare Etsy Metal sale in mid-January, in which I’ll be participating. More details to come soon.

Oh - and to those I owe emails (and … ahem … a JMGA-NSW newsletter), I do solemnly swear to do my best to get on top of things … soon.

Have a lovely Christmas (or whatever else you might be celebrating) and new year! And thanks to all of those who helped to make 2006 what it has been for me.

I was recently rather chuffed to discover that Di Overton had featured some of my handmade jewellery along with some lovely feedback on her great design blog, Designers’ Block.

Di is the former owner of wheredidyoubuythat.com and is also a guest blogger on the wonderful ThisNext.com, which is also highly recommended if you’ve not been there yet.

I came across a link on another blog (That’s Hot) for this very nifty little online website graph generator … which completely fails to work in my browser (Safari) but looked interesting enough for me to go to the effort of opening up Firefox so I could get this pretty graph for you to look at. See how nice I am?!

What does it all mean? Well, who knows! But I enjoyed watching it grow and gather that it must be a map of all of the sites which are somehow connected to Make Me up to a certain point. So, yes, fairly pointless, but very pretty!

In other news, I’m still exhausted and busy. And I received this in an email last night after complaining of being kept awake by a nasty headache:

i’m sure that at least some of your discomfort could be alleviated by NOT WORKING SO HARD. SO LATE (and) SO LONG.

I did accuse its sender of telling me off and even of shouting at me, but he informed me that he wasn’t doing either - he was simply making a suggestion in uppercase!! Ha!

Given the wild enthusiasm of Little Miss Meshell (who has an Etsy shop with gorgeous things, as well as a Flickr account and - for reasons we are both yet to fathom - a Myspace account) and others for the idea of making pure silver Christmas pudding tokens, I am going to do it!

Today I’ve been fiddling with the artwork I want to use (changing one or two of the images used for etching the set featured above) and have also been figuring out packaging for them. I think because they’ll be something special to keep and pass on that it would be good to package them up as nicely as I can - and particularly to make them look like a lovely little gift.

So I’ve been to my jewellery supply shop and purchased some teensy black plastic cases with clear lids and some padding inside to put the tokens in. I picked up some nice paper for printing recipes and instructions onto and some card to put the paperwork in. Plus I’ve ordered some lovely Christmas fabrics for wrapping everything up and picked up some ribbons to tie it all together.

As for the other details, my artwork fiddling today has resulted in there being probably seven tokens per set. And I’ve come up with a very vague sort of a price taking into account the fairly large amount of silver and the labour - roughly US$68 plus postage - don’t quote me on it, but do let me know what you think!

Thanks for the encouragement, Meshell (or is that obsession!?)!

I’m seeking opinions from all over about these, so feel free to weigh in!

It’s an old English/British tradition to have a home cooked Christmas pudding which has silver coins or tokens mixed into it - this is something my family has always done. If you find a coin it will bring you luck for the year.

The tradition started dying out as silver coins were replaced by base metals, which people felt (correctly, I’m sure!) weren’t a good idea to cook with. However, my Nan always had a stash of threepences which she would exchange with us for ‘real’ money if we found them in our piece of pudding. Over the years lots of the coins went missing and when she sadly passed away a few years ago the coins were inherited by my aunty.

My Mum kept nagging me to make a set of special silver tokens for her to use in her own puddings to keep the tradition alive. And so finally last year I managed it and made her a set out of pure silver with vintage Christmas illustrations etched onto them. And they were a hit!

And here is a little set of them as made this year.

So this year I’m thinking about making sets and packaging them to sell to people who would like to keep this tradition going - along with my family’s old recipes for pudding and brandy sauce. They’d be an heirloom that could be passed on, of course.

But will anyone outside of my family actually want something like this?

I now know that Christmas puddings simply don’t feature in the US and I’m not sure how many people in the rest of the Anglo world would make their own puddings (although the tokens can simply be slotted in even after cooking) or would know about this tradition.

Let me know what you think!