Experiments
Remember the cloisonne hummingbirds I showed before? I’ve made a charm-style dangle stick with them. They were VERY difficult to photograph, as you cannot set them down to do so, and the colours are so exotic that exact accuracy is needed…and can’t quite be achieved. I did the best I could, but it is MUCH prettier in person. I wouldn’t make these in pairs, as that would, in my opinion, be overkill. What do you think?
AND I have pictures of the earrings I made recently, which are another item that was very difficult to photograph because they must be shown hanging…you can’t set them down or they roll out of shape and don’t look anything like they do when worn. I can’t quite decide what I think of them…my mother and sister love them, and I actually like them when I wear them, but something about them seems odd when I’m looking at them in the pictures. I’m not sure if it is the oddness of unfamiliarity, or if they really are just ODD.
I love the colour for sure, though. I’m going to try a different type in a similar style and see what I think then.
6 people have left comments
Elle commented on January 29, 2008, 12:10 am:
It really it depends on the person. I tend to like simpler things, so while I think one bird would be cool, two could work as well.
In all honesty, I’d sell the sticks as individual sticks because you would be able to get away with that, for say $25 (just using a random number to make sense for what I’m saying, I have no idea of what to place as a price) for one, but if you had two, perhaps you could get $30… I don’t think that you would be able to double the price by selling the sticks in a pair, but if someone was that determined to buy one stick for $25, and liked it so much that they wanted two, then they’d pay $50 for a second one to stick in their hair. That’s what I’d do personally…
As for the earrings… LOVE THEM… so unique… in the first pic, I like them better as with the darker photo they look like chandeliers *though I’m sure that’s not what they mean by “chandelier earrings”… in the second, they remind me strongly of a princess playhouse for Barbie… I’d buy them based on the first photo, but not the second… hope that helps!!
Love Elle
Krista commented on January 29, 2008, 5:24 am:
As stated in the entry, I will only be selling them as individual sticks. These are a LOT of trouble to make and unlike other sticks, making two at once isn’t any faster, so I’d have to charge full price for a set, there would be no reduction for taking two instead of one.
Do you know anything about cloisonne? If not…here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia on the cloisonne process:
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* First, the artist forms metal (such as copper, bronze, or silver) into the shape of the finished object.
* Cloisonné wire, which is pure silver wire usually about .010 x .040 inches in cross section, is bent into shapes that define the colored areas. The bends are all done at right angles, so that wire does not curve up. This done with small pliers, tweezers, and custom made jigs. The cloisonné wire pattern may consist of several intricately constructed wire patterns that fit together into a larger design. Solder can be used to join the wires, but it causes the enamel to discolor and form bubbles later on. Instead the base metal is fired with a thin layer of clear enamel. The cloisonné wire is glued to the enamel surface with gum Tragacanth. When the gum Tragacanth has dried the piece is fired again to fuse the cloisonné wire to the clear enamel. The gum Tragacanth burns off leaving no residue.
* Frit (glass crushed to a powder) in a water-based paste is painted into the partitions using an annotated pattern similar to the “paint by numbers” craft technique. After the frit has dried, firing in an oven melts it onto the metal. Several repetitions of the process may ensue to build up the coatings to the height of the partitions. Various colors and transparencies may be used in combination within a single partition to obtain the desired artistic effect.
* The glass and a portion of the cloisons are ground and polished to form an even and smooth surface.
* The exposed metal is electroplated with a thin film of gold to prevent corrosion and to give a pleasing appearance.
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So they’re expensive. That’s another reason why I wouldn’t sell them in pairs. They’ll sell for $35 and I’m not into charging $70 for a set, so if someone WANTS a set they always have the option of buying or ordering a second item.
Plus it would take an advanced hairstick-user to be comfortable wearing two of these, I think. The hummingbirds are not tiny…3.5 to 4 inches from wingtip to wingtip…and they’re hung charm-style so they do swing easily, which some people like but does take some getting used to if you’re not accustomed to having movable items around your head.
The black background as opposed to the white naturally makes the earrings look darker in one and lighter in the other, by contrast. But the white one takes out some of the details that can be better seen by a photo that doesn’t have to be adjusted quite so much as one with a white background does, so both photos are really necessary. 
V commented on January 30, 2008, 11:12 am:
Ooooh.. pretty
I like that hairstick - the colours are perfect
Krista commented on January 31, 2008, 10:15 am:
Oh, a sister.
V, you know…if you don’ t leave an email address when you leave a comment, I don’t seem to get a notification of it, which means I don’t know you left one and it’ll take me longer to reply.
I have other hummingbirds in different colours, but this stick was SO much work that I don’t know if I’ll make more or not.
Aimee commented on February 24, 2008, 8:19 pm:
V is right! The color scheme on the hummingbird stick is perfect. I’ve always loved cloisonne — it’s so intricate without looking patterned/mechanical.
Krista commented on February 24, 2008, 9:06 pm:
V is my sister. (Therefore she is never right, except when agreeing with me…)
I probably won’t ever be listing any hummingbird sticks in the shop, as I’d have to make a special shipping category just for them, since they can’t be sent in my normal packaging. Each one would require a trip to the post office rather than me just being able to mail them, since they can’t be sent light packet.
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