FOLIAGE: the lookbook.

When I was thinking about what I wanted for the lookbook of the FOLIAGE collection, there was one thing I was sure of: I wanted to use pink. This was a very curious thought for me because, well, I don't usually like pink, but the idea was in my head and other ideas couldn't overthrown it.

I think the main reason of me wanting a pink-based lookbook is because I'm obsessed with Noemiah's Emma dress from her latest collection and as I intended to use it on the photoshoot, there wasn't any other way-out to include pink. And you know? I love how it came up!

The beautiful images are the work of a photographer I got to know recently and whose work I completely fell in love with: Naomie Tremblay. Not only she's one of the most professional persons I had had the honour to work with, but her unique take on fashion photography is amazing. She uses 35mm to shoot and a very artistic, poetic vision.

The team was fantastic, too: so professional, energetic, helpful. I only have great things to say from them, so, a huge thanks to Léonie Levesque (makeup), Lily Beauregard (model), Noémiah (wardrobe) and of course, Naomie for the wonderful photography! 

The photos:

For more details about each piece, please click on the images or visit my on-line shop, The Angry Weather!

Thank you for visiting,

Iveth

Instagram for creatives (part 2): Three basic techniques for great phone photography.

Welcome to the second part of my Instagram for creatives series! Last time, I took you on a little starters trip about Instagram and how to set up your account neat, nice and ready to present yourself to the IG world. This time, I'll let you know about my techniques for great phone photography, which are the very foundation for a great IG feed. Pay attention because this is the stuff that comes before all those fancy editing tools!

Truth is, no fancy filter can transform a bad photo into a nice one. Period. That's why this post is very important, as you'll learn to take a great photo to begin with, a photo that it's worth editing and post it to Instagram. Your smartphone is an amazing, easy to use, and always available tool and regardless what most people might think, you ABSOLUTELY CAN take amazing photographs with it.

People often ask me if the photos on my IG feed are taken with a regular camera, and the answer is that 99% of my photos are taken/edited using only my iphone (the occasional 1% is lookbook shots from my jewellery, taken with a regular camera by professional photographers). How do I do it? I just make sure to always apply these 3 super simple techniques:

1.- A clean lens.
This is such common mistake that I see happening all the time and it's truly a shame because is so easy to avoid! The thing is, you can be showing a gorgeous landscape, a lovely portrait or a beautiful piece of jewellery but if your lens was dirty when you took the photo, it’s going to be difficult to overlook the smudge and truly appreciate the image behind it. So, step number 1: make sure your lens is clean.

I use alcohol swabs to clean and tissue paper to dry when my lens is very dirty (having a messy 7 year-old grabbing my phone with food on her hands makes the affair a pretty common one!). For less messy situations I use a micro fabric and gently remove the smudge. Somewhere I read that using any sort of liquid to clean the lens is not the best way as it can damage it but so far, alcohol swabs have always worked fine for me. If you want to stay on the safe side, use only a microfibre tissue and steer off of any liquids near your lens. At the end, no matter how you do it, the important thing is to make sure you keep it clean and ready!

Let me show you a quick example of how things look when your lens is dirty vs what it looks like with a clean lens:

As you can see, the difference a dirty/clean lens make is HUGE. A clean lens will let you capture even the smallest details and create a neat, more interesting image, while the smudgy one, well, is just embarrassing.

2.- Focus. 
Unless it's one of those dreamy #BlurryOnPurpose pics (LOL!), you want to steer completely away form posting a blurry image. Blurry photos come up mostly due to movement or lack of use of the focus feature in your camera. Taking a clear, neat shot it's basic for making the image reflect the beauty of the object/moment you are shooting. But don't get me wrong, I do love a bit of movement in my pics, it adds deepness and life to them, but I always make sure I can control that movement by making it happen just in the part of the image I want to, by using my focus target. 

Take a second to steady your hand before taking that photo. If you are doing a product shot with your phone, I recommend to place your arm, elbow, hand or your phone to the table, wall or whatever you have close to help you keep as steady as possible, lightly tap your finger on the screen on the spot you want to focus, wait a sec for it to adjust and then shoot. This will make the image very clear and your be amazed at the quality you can get with your phone!

Let me show you some examples of a few of my photos where I used the focus target to get deepness, movement and even the smallest details of my subjects. 

Foreground and background. I wanted to show the details and the colours I got after soldering this piece and although I wanted my hand to show, didn't want to put any attention on it. The focus target helped me get the deepness I wanted by tapping on the jewellery piece and steady my hand for it to adjust properly before taking the pic. 

The light shone beautifully on the cedar leaves and I wanted to get the most of that backlighting glow. I used the focus feature for deepness and to get all the little details on the leaves by focusing on the illuminated branch while taking the photo. The leaves in the foreground became blurry and gave a cave effect on the photo, which I love.

This image is just so alive to me. Photographing Lune (my little pet bird) is always very difficult because she won't stop moving of course! But the fun thing is that I got to get her shaking her tail and wings, but her head was steady so I focused on it and got this lovely image of her feathers "trembling". So as you see, by using the focus feature you can capture movement.

3.- Mind the light. 

I will never be able to stress how important this subject is. No matter if you prefer clear and bright images or dark and moody ones, you should follow one simple rule: always use natural light! Natural light will make the absolute best of your photos, whether they are landscapes, vignettes, studio/home photos, portraits or product photography.  

If you want to take a photo in a rather dark space or if it’s a cloudy day, get a little help from your focus target by placing it on the darkest part of your image, that’d make the camera automatically adjust the brightness a bit. If the image on your screen becomes over exposed, just move the focus target on different parts on the screen until you like the brightness. Your photo might still be a bit dark but then you can fix it by playing with exposure or brightness when editing it. Here I must mention that I always use the app VSCOcam to take my photos and that these features may not be the same on other apps or the regular smartphone camera. For the regular iphone camera, you can adjust manually the brightness by dragging up or down the little sun icon that comes up when you tap your finger on the camera screen.

But what about when you can’t possibly use natural light (because it’s night or you are doing bench work for example)? What I often do when shooting work on the bench (artificial light) or at night is to fix the image with editing tools or filters. Use a black and white filter or lower the colour saturation on the image to reduce the colours that artificial light gives to the photo. What you want is to keep away from yellow-ish or blue-ish images. 

Let me show you an example of how I try to get the best of natural light when taking photos, even on a cloudy day!

This is the shot I got in my studio on a rather dark day. The light from the window overpowers the light inside and makes all even darker, plus there's much going on outside which I'm not interested at all in showing as what I truly want is to focus on my bench. So the photo doesn't give me much to work with. 

But then look what happens by simply placing my focus target on the darkest part of my scene, which is the bench: the light automatically adjust and compensates giving me a much more workable photo. I don't regret loosing the trees and branches outside (which are the sad remains of my tomato plants that stayed there the whole winter!), on the contrary! 

This is the same last photo but here, I used editing tools to make it more compelling. I used a filter that amp up contrast and I made it a bit brighter to get rid of distractions and make the bench stand out. 

A note about editing and over editing 

Now, before we finish this chapter, I want to talk a little bit about editing. Having the means of photographing every bit of life in our pockets the whole time and so much creative minds all around, the amount of beautiful, truly beautiful images out there is something amazing. So in order to make your photos stand out, you gotta use a bit of editing. I mean, is not just editing for the sake of 'standing out', editing or using filters makes the image more you, more compelling and it's just so much fun. 

Whichever tool you use to edit or whichever style you have, be careful not to over do it. Go easy on the contrasts, cropping and use of colours. Most of the time, natural looking pictures work best. Unless you are doing some kind of fantasy imagery, of course ;)

The apps I use

When it comes to editing apps, my motto is the less, the better. On an ideal day, editing is actually just adding a filter. But of course just adding a filter sometimes is not the only thing you need so I have a few apps that make my photo-life much easier:

• VSCOcam: This app is LIFE. I do most things here, from taking the photo to cropping, fixing and adding filters. It has a lot of great editing features for any need + the filters are the most beautiful thing ever. Best thing, is free! Free version comes with a limited number of filters. If you decide to purchase more (quite cheap), you won't be disappointed. 
• PicFrame: to make collages!
• Squaready: To crop or post entire photos on IG without cropping (if you don't want the image in your feed to look cropped even when individually they are not).
• Easy Eraser: erase unwanted details in your pics, yeah. 
• Font Candy: to add text to your images.

Do you have apps you love? share with me in the comments bellow!

So that's it for now! Next, check for an interview with one of my faves IGers whith her advice for a successful IG account, identity is a surprise for now, stay tuned! And later next week, the third and last par of my Instagram for Creatives series: Key points to improve your Instagram account and reach a bigger audience. 

If you have an questions, share away in the comments bellow. Thanks for reading!

Iveth

Instagramming Ronbon, of course.

Instagram workshop for Les joailliers du dimanche

 

If you kind of have been following this blog for a while, you may have noticed that I'm a huge supporter of the idea of joining creative communities. Being an active participant in the Etsy and Montreal community has helped me get to places that otherwise would have been a struggle to get to on my own or without advice and support of like-minded people I admire and respect. Plus the journey wouldn't have been half as fun as it has been! 

Some of you also know that as part of my involvement with my local peers, I'm part of the Joailliers du dimanche collective. Les joailliers du dimanche is a network of local jewellers that support each other through advice, counsel, events and online promotion. Being part of the collective for a number of years now is one of the most rewarding things I've got to experience since I started working independently as a jewellery designer/maker. 

As part of our support projects, I decided to give a couple of workshops regarding social media, specifically, Instagram. Is no secret that I freaking love Instagram and that is by far the social media channel I enjoy the most. Taking photos is part of my everyday life: I love to document the little things that inspire me and how I see the world around me. Thanks to this, it wasn't hard for me to pick up IG and love it from the start plus develop a certain understanding on how the thing works. 

So, for the workshop I prepared a lot of info to share with Les joailliers du dimanche about my experience and advice on IG and I was so motivated by the response and feedback I got from the workshop that I don't want to stop there: I would love to share it with you, too! 

If you want to read about my take on IG or need to learn a thing or two, from how to take great photos with your phone to how to reach a bigger audience and run a successful IG account, don't miss out the series of blog posts I'm preparing! I'll be posting them here and also in Les joailliers du dimanche website, weekly. First one goes live tomorrow so stay tuned!

Thanks so much to Les joaillers du dimanche for your interest and attending this workshops in great numbers! As always, I feel immensely satisfied of being part of such a great group of awesome creatives!

xx
Iveth 

One of the two groups of joailliers attending the workshop, it was great fun!

Heat wave

Unexpected.
The ways creativity hits you sometimes is quite amazing. I always find myself inspired by many things, as I'm sure every body does: you are reading a book, travelling, listening to a song, walking on the street, you find a beautiful branch or simply washing the dishes and then it hits you, bam! an idea that is full of possibilities.

Many months ago I was sleeping one night and I was dreaming: in my dream I was sitting on my bench, busy making a pair of earrings. The earrings were roundish, they were golden and on top of the gold piece there was a detail made of a silver metal that contrasted so nicely with the gold. The silver detail had this wavy shape on the bottom and they looked beautiful. First thing I did when I woke up was to run, open my sketch book and start drawing what I remembered. To my big surprise the following night the same happened, this time in my dream I was making a ring using the gold/silver material, just a simple band. Based on the earrings design/mix of metals I designed my new collection and when I was doing so, my awe was great as to the way everything had came, this unconscious idea, this unexpected gift from a dream. And now the collection is finished and I'm ready to show it and offer it to you! 

About dreams.
I couldn't be happier at how things came up: many dreams came to reality, not just literal dreams. One of them, to make a big necklace. The Heat Wave necklace is bigger than any necklace I've done before. I encounter a big problem when I was making it: I couldn't solder it with my torch, it wasn't potent enough. You see I have a portable torch, not a proper, professional one. The only solution is taking the big pieces of the necklace to a local studio so they can help me out with the soldering. This is opening new possibilities as I'm planning now on improving my work space to be able to get a decent torch at last and then I'll make it entirely at my studio!

Heat wave.
Once I sat at my bench to start making collection, all the colours and shapes started to make me think of the south of Mexico where I grew up: of the sun, the heat; I started seeing the shapes as metal melting and immediately started calling the collection 'heatwave'. For me this was a temporary name, something that came to my mind but I wanted to put it a name that reflected the way the collection was conceived but never came to think of anything and each day Heatwave grew more on me, now I believe it captures the feel of the collection entirely. 

So here it is, the work of a year at last available for you all to see and enjoy. I hope you love it as much as I do!


The rings.
I made three different rings for this collection: The heatwave, the Sunrise and the Sunset ring. 

The heat wave is just a big band that's tall on the front and gradually shortens on the back with a nice v detail. The Sunrise ring features a wavy design on the front, sort of like a little crown. And the Sunset features a round shape on the front. They can be worn with the design up or down, looks pretty cool both ways! All rings come in silver and brass.

The bracelet.
The cuff bracelet is made of brass but it also can be done in silver. It features a wavy design on the front of the bracelet and it's perfect to stack with other bracelets! 

The earrings: 

The earrings, oh the earrings! I just love them. Not only because they were the origin of the collection and the subconscious gifts of my sleepy mind but because the shape and contrasts are beautiful. They are made of brass ans sterling silver.

The necklaces: 
I made two necklaces, one is the Heat Wave necklace, a core to the collection and the other is the carved necklace. I originally planned to make a pair of earrings to complement this necklace but couldn't find the time, maybe in the future! This necklace is a long beauty that features a simple U shape for pendant and I carved a little line pattern on it. It's very simple, very minimalist and a fave of mine! 

Coming up next, I'll show you the rest of the photos of my lookbook that were shoot by Sarah-Emily St-Gelais and an amazing team that I can't wait to let you know of! Thank you so much for visiting my blog and for your amazing support! 

Iveth

Photo credits: product shoots by me and model shoots by Sarah Emily St-Gelais. Make up by Sarah Ladouceur, Clothing by Zoe G Kocsis and model is Katherine Berthelot.

Etsy Road Trip!

Great news keep coming and coming guys! I'm super happy to tell you Etsy is brewing some awesome plans for the summer here in Canada and I am very fortunate to be part of them!

So, the lovely people from Etsy Canada  just got themselves a pretty rad 31-foot vintage AirStream trailer, all Etsy-fied! I can just imagine the awesomeness of that and cannot wait to see it in person. OK, so, on this vintage trailer they are going to hit the road and visit 4 Canadian cities: Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa and of course, Montreal. And when they come to my town, I'll be part of the event alongside my jewellery for all those in town to see, try, buy and enjoy! Honestly I'm so excited and can't wait!

For the events: They are going to stay two days here in Montreal. First day is on August 1st at the Olympic Park as part of the First Fridays events where more than 40 food trucks will be selling their yummy food, it'll be amazing, all that Etsy, all that food! Second stop is on August 2nd at Montreal's Old Port and there you'll find me, Noemia and Kristy Boisvert presenting our work and also you'll find food truck yummies, live performances by Little Scream and Corina Rose and to finish it all: Fireworks! well, those are not sponsored by Etsy but are part of the Feux Loto-Quebec and you'll be able to see them that same night at the old port. How exciting is that?!

I hope you come if you are in town!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day :)
Iveth

Etsy Adore Le Quebec

I was invited to the launch party for Etsy in Quebec today. I mean, Etsy it's pretty well know here but they are trying to engage more with the people from our province which I think it's pretty awesome. 

Invited to the event were many local Etsy vendors (like me!) and editors from blogs, magazines, tv, etc. Let me tell you it was pretty fun and interesting! 

Here are some photos of the event! 

 The tables were decorated with tons of flowers, it was so pretty!

The lunch was at Rosalie restaurant in downtown Montreal and food was delicious.

 Here I am with Nicole, Quebec PR coordinator for Etsy Canada and with Michelle, team captain of the Montreal Etsy team and co-coordinator of Etsy: Made in Canada market (and guess who is the other coordinator? MEEEEEE!!!!! So many exciting news to comeeee!!!).

Photo taken by the lovely ladies at REV Communications Montreal (far right), Sophie Durocher, Florence from the blog Me, Myself and Montreal and I.

 And here we have the best tarte au citron in the universe. I need another one.

So, congrats Etsy Canada for your official presentation in our beautiful province and thanks so much for inviting me to be part of it!! 

Guys stay tuuuuned because we are preparing the first ever Etsy market in Canada and we are super excited about it!! Will tell you more about it soon!!!!!

 Iveth

A Mountain Necklace

A little while ago I was asked by a lovely customer to make her a couple of Mountain necklaces that were just like my Mountain earrings. And although it's not the first time I thought about making my mountain into a necklace I encounter the same fear about the durability of the delicate dual polishing effect on my Mountains on a pendant which is touched, rubbed and scratched more often than earrings. So we came out with the idea of using layers and oxidization to clearly mark the lines and make the contrasts on this piece to endure. The results were pretty awesome and I'm completely in love with these necklaces!

Now, let me tell you something: I'm not usually fond of custom works BUT before you let your mind wander on that, I gotta tell you that when the right custom request comes along, I absolutely love making it possible for my costumers! What I love to make are their visions of my own work, you know? like what their own minds and fancy get when they see what I do and when they admire my style. Whenever that connection happens between my customer and my work, I cherish it and enjoy so much to hear about their vision + trying to make it possible.

Been very lucky lately in the custom request department: I also got a request by one of the singers I admire the most to make a necklace for another amazing singer I admire, it was awesome! I'll share some photos of that work soon.

What do you think of the Mountain necklace? are you loving it? would you like it to make and appearance on my shop? Thanks!!

Iveth

The Angry Weather Spring-Summer 2013

After many months of designing, planing, making, photographing, editing and organizing, I'm very happy to present to you my new collection!

I call it Solstice as I longed to capture the sunshine and the long hours of bright, golden light during the hot summer days into a jewel that felt very easy to wear. To do this I used sterling silver and bronze materials and in many cases used both of them in one piece to take advantage of the contrasts and luminosity.

This collection also represent something important for me as I conceived the 'feel' of the jewellery through an inner search for a simpler, uncomplicated way of life. 

For the aesthetic of this new line I was also inspired by primitive jewelry and shapes: what people used to make thousands of years ago when the tools and techniques were in a first stage of development and the jewels were a representation of those early ideas and understandings of the forces of nature, the worship of the sun, and the changes of the Stations through basic forms.

All in all, this new line is full of beautiful, carefully constructed pieces that have a minimalist air and that feel effortless to wear: in the last months this line is almost the only jewellery I'm using and I got to tell you: I'm in love with it and I can't take it off (not that I want to!)! 

Come see and click the images to know more!

Inspiration that comes from objects: I found this very old bronze block and tiny bronze hammer and I knew immediately I wanted to experiment with them to make new things. The block is a tool that jewellers use to place rings and mark them on the inside with purity marks (karats, 925, etc) or their logos. Of course I had different ideas for it!

I don't usually make long earrings but I was so inspired to make these. What is a summer day without a pair of dangle earrings to adorn you ears under the golden sunlight, right? 

And bracelets! oh, dear bracelets how I adore you. These lovelies look effortless and feel wonderful.They look so beautiful by themselves and when staking several of them they make such a cool statement. 

For my necklace collection I went for sunshine and objects that would be super easy to wear on a hot summer day but also that look delicate, cool and uncomplicated with just any casual outfit. 

I think the names I put them reflect pretty much their feel based in metal combinations: The Southern Sun necklace is made of sterling silver and bronze and the combination of these two metals give it a warm feeling, like the sun back in Mexico.

The Northern Sun necklace is all shiny sterling silver and is all about those beautiful sunny days in the middle of Winter were the sun rays are as cold as the ice all around. Beautiful Canada.

And the Midnight Sun Necklace is made of oxidized sterling silver and bronze. The combination of these two colors is absolutely rich and makes me think of the summer sun in the northern -and southern- most parts of the planet where the sun shines strong in the middle of the night.

And that is it! Thank you very much for going through all that explanation! I'm incredibly happy with my Solstice collection and couldn't go without telling you how much I love it and how much your support and encouraging words that you kindly leave me through FB, Twitter, Etsy, IG and emails mean to me! I hope you love this collection as much as I do!

xx

Iveth, The Angry Weather.