Behind the Scenes

Caption: Beadalon Design Team in Cincinnati

This week, Beadalon Design Team Member Fernando Dasilva is in Cincinnati for the photo shoot for his forthcoming book, Modern Expressions. As Margot Potter wrote in a September blog post about her recent experience, “These shoots typically last a week with full eight-hour days of photographing the individual steps that go into creating the jewelry pieces. My job is to figure out how to break down the steps so that we can shoot them without having to reconstruct the entire design in real time.” (Margot’s book, Bead Chic, comes out next summer.)

When the three of us did the photo shoot for our book, Bead & Wire Jewelry Exposed, we spent several days in the photo studio, setting up our step-outs for each project. Since we split the projects for the books three ways and worked on them individually, it was the first time we’d gotten together to work on the book. Fernando was in charge of music, I brought the lattes, and Margot kept us all laughing.

We took turns doing our “hand shots” (yes, those are really our hands in the photos) on a plain background. The photographer, Christine Polomsky, directed us how to show the best angles and snapped photos for each step. Our editor was on-hand to take notes and make suggestions, too. When we weren’t preparing or taking photos, we were strategizing about marketing and promotions for our book.

Check out these sample projects from Bead & Wire Jewelry Exposed:

Cascade Earrings by Margot Potter

Golden Glow Earrings by Fernando Dasilva

Connections Necklace by Katie Hacker

-Katie Hacker for Beadalon

katiehacker.blogspot.com