Davin made

I moved!

2012-01-06T09:19:00.001-08:00

I have my own domain now www.davinmade.com. Come visit me there!

A Gray Day

2009-07-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

grey and red by starburn featuring Coach bags

Today is a decidedly gray day, so I've spent most of my day doing silly girl things on the computer, instead of looking for jobs, which is what I should be doing. I've spent a couple of hours on polyvore.com making my perfect gray day outfit. Polyvore is a fun way to make mood boards online. It also has the benefit of making you feel like you're 13 again. Which is fun sometimes. Especially when you're dealing with adult things and you need a little escape.

1001 books to read before you die

2009-07-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

I tend to spend a lot of time wandering Barnes and Nobel when I'm trying to find a decent book. If only the chick lit wasn't mixed in with all the actual literature, I wouldn't get so confused. Romance novels and fantasy are separated out, why not take out the books with shoes on the cover? I always get overwhelmed and end up with a book, I think I might have heard something good about one time. That is not a good enough reason to buy a book.

Thanks to the Ravelry forums, I just discovered a really fun way to pick my next book! It's the 1001 books before you die spreadsheet. It includes a list of 1001 important books, sorted by century, and allows you to mark which books you've read. Then it does a calculation of how many books you'd need to read each year in order to read them all before you die (you plug in your age). According to the excel sheet, I've read 72 of the books, and it means I have to read about 16 books a year if I live to be the age of a "typical western female". If I'm reading the formulas correctly, the typical death age of a western woman is 80.84.

I'm going to use this as a way to keep track of what I'd like to read next and what I thought of the books that I just finished. I added a column to the excel sheet that averages my ratings from 1-10. Right now my average is 6.458333333. It's a little high, but if you think about it, this is supposed to be a list of the most worthwhile books ever. If you look at it that way, I might actually be a little too picky for my own good.

My first choice from the list is Vanity Fair. I've tried to read it a couple of times, and somehow got distracted, so I got it for my audible book this month. Hopefully having someone read it to me will keep my attention.

Gallery Jacket 4 of 30

2009-07-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is the Valley Yarns Gallery Jacket. I loved everything about knitting this sweater, the color is such a nice sophisticated gray, the springiness of the twisted ribbing, even the delightful monotony of knitting the same stitch over and over for an entire sweater.

Too bad it only looks good on people who aren't named Davin. Everyone in my family tried it on, my mom, my sister (who is modeling here, isn't she cute?), my mom's boyfriend's daughter, heck, even my mom's boyfriend! Of course, I guess it didn't look very good on him either, but man-o can this thing stretch. something about it just doesn't suit me, so it became an unintentional present for the rest of my family.

I used Cascade 220 superwash, and it made a soft fabric that I loved, and felt saddened to part with, despite the fact that I would never wear the sweater.

There was one other thing that wasn't ideal about this project. When I tried to block it, I soaked it in water as usual and it got HUGE. I mean, down to my knees huge, it could have fit about 4 of me. I nearly cried. I rushed to the internet and it told me that this happens with superwash, and that is why wet blocking really doesn't work all that well. It told me to throw it in the dryer. I was super skeptical, this sweater could have fit me if I turned into an ogre. I went to the laundromat, threw in a couple of quarters, and 20 minutes later, and it had snapped right back into shape, kind of like magic.

1. Sleepy Snake and Mischievous Mouse

2. The Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon

3.Intricate Stag Bag

If I had a million dollars

2009-06-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

The other day my mom's boyfriend asked me what I would do if I had a million dollars. Almost immediately I started to describe in detail what would probably cost a decent amount more than a million dollars to attain.

First, I would pay off my student loans.

Then, I would build the Up house, minus balloons.

(picture from http://www.depotdad.com/files/picture-2.png)

and buy a few of these guys

and maybe some ducks. I would tend animals all day, taking some time to knit or cook.

I'd be rich.

My mom's boyfriend was kind of floored at how specific I was, and how not glamorous. To me, I think, assuming that I'd like alpacas (I've never actually spent much time with them) it would be just about perfect.

What would you do?

P.S. I signed up to help with the Welcome Wagon on Ravelry.com, so if you sign up for Ravelry before 7/2 and your user name starts with A, I'll be sending you a welcome message! A couple of the people I welcomed this morning accidentally got the alpaca picture too.

Best Ad Ever

2009-06-18T10:51:00.001-07:00

(photo via http://www.toxel.com)

One of my friends just emailed me a link to this ad campaign for Henkel Mir Wool, and I just had to share. I want one of these for the cold months! It wouldn't be that hard to design, right?

Aviator Bunny

2009-06-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

I usually have a tableaux of sorts on top of the TV, which varies from month to month, or at the very least, season to season. This month is a little stranger than usual. It kind of reminds me of Redwall, only I don't think that the rabbits in Redwall ever used snakes to chase their mouse dinner.

This little guy is the product of a Wee Wonderfuls hand sewing pattern that Hillary Lang put out. It is part of a set of five adorable little animals including a snail, turtle, butterfly, and bird. You can find them here, I meant to give him away as an Easter present, but I finished him a little too late and now he's mine.

The pattern is really cool, and it includes pieces for an "earhat", scarf, and aviators.

I kind of want to make a whole army of them. It would be interesting to use the pattern as a jumping off point for learning how stuffed animals are put together. I could alter the pattern to make them all shapes and sizes, and in the process, learn how the different pattern pieces work together to make a whole.

Red and Green

2009-06-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Everyone should get to eat at least one home grown strawberry a year.

Like this one

Or maybe a whole bunch

And pull things like this out of the ground

And wonder when these adorable little green orbs will be red

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a summer person. I wilt in the heat. But if my garden keeps bringing me such beauty all summer long, it's possible that I'll begin to dread the fall.

I bit off more than I could chew...cinnamon raisin bagels

2009-06-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

In the world of home made things, we are always learning something new, and there's not always someone around to tell us whether or not we have it right. If you're like me, sometimes, all of a sudden, you're working on something new and you realize that you are in over your head. For me this usually happens when I try to skip learning the basics of a craft (in this case bagel making) and go straight for the big boy recipe.

I wish I could say these bagels tasted as good as they look.

The plus side is that they just might be the first pictures I've ever taken of food that didn't make me lose my appetite. Their faults however, are many. They taste weirdly sweet, they cracked all over the place, so they're hard to cut in half, and they have no nice crust. And I have to say, I think it's all my fault.

The recipe is the Smitten Kitchen Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, and as usual, it is a good well written recipe. (what is the etiquette for linking to another person's recipe? On most food blogs, you see the recipe right in the post, even if it isn't their own, is that ok?)

The mistakes that were made were that I used whole wheat bread flour instead of white and bread machine yeast instead of regular active yeast. I think the whole wheat was the main culprit. I bought it because i could buy it in bulk at harvest and they didn't have any white flour in the bins. Whole wheat flour definitely changed the flavor and texture tremendously. Novice baker that I am, I didn't realize that the whole wheat flour would need more liquid, and so my bagels are really heavy and dry.

I learned something though. Maybe even a couple of things. The first thing is that the first time I try something new, I should probably use whatever training wheels are available to me in the form of more simple recipes (or patterns). And also, if I don't know how something will affect it, I should stick to the recipe! Experimentation is best done when you have the basics under your belt.

That being said...

Boyfriend found them so irrisistabel that he couldn't wait till the end of my photoshoot!

Intricate stag 3 of 30.

2009-05-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

Doris the cat loves this bag.

She is usually a little spitfire, quick to bite and generally skittish with a virtually nonexistent purr (our other cat has terrorized her a little), but when we put her in the bag as a joke, she calmed down immediately, as if the sling around her made her feel safe and comforted. It was adorable.

And the bag is pretty cute too.

I lined the inside, and i'm totally glad that the lining worked out ok, because the back of the stranded knitting is A MESS. It's kind of a hippy bag, but I like it, it's extravagant and fun and will look cute for grocery stores or for outdoor music festivals.

For the strap, I braided something like 36 lengths of both colors of the yarn together. It was a statistical nightmare!! I forgot that when you are braiding you braid from the top down, not the end you are working with up. So I tied all of the ends to a chair, stood like 6 feet away and tried my best not to tangle everything. I should have taken pictures of that, you'd be under your desk laughing right now.

1. Sleepy Snake and Mischievous Mouse

2. The Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon

3.Intricate Stag Bag
4. Valley Yarns Gallery Jacket
5. Lady Wannabe gloves
6. Squirrelly Swedish Mittens
7. Anais by Norah Gaughan
8. Cobblestone Pullover My first Sweater for Boyfriend. It will hopefully be a Christmas Present.
9. Which Came First (an adorable egg that becomes a chick!)
10. Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
11. Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague
12. Pineapple Fantail doily
13. Margaretha
14. Dreamer by Wenlan Chia
15. Holding Hands Feeding Ducks Scarf
16. Traveling Stitch Legwarmer
17. Peter the Scorpion
18. Little Bunny
19. Hemlock Ring Blanket
20. Ophicleide Cardigan
21. Colette Pullover
22. Hair Bow by Just Call Me Ruby
23. Back To School U-Neck Vest
24. Gretel
25. Ena Sweater
26.Cherry Cardigan
27. Stirling Cloche (this is one of the few actual Cloche shaped hats I've seen as a knittng pattern)
28. Palndrome, A Reversible Cable Scarf
29. Fido's Flower Garden Sweater and the Scull Doggery Dog Sweater (I want to make these reversible so that it can just be one sweater)
30. Snowflake

The difference between a Knit stitch and a Twisted Knit Stitch

2009-05-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

Since I taught myself to knit when I was 18 (6 years ago! Holy moly!), I have periodically freaked out, suddenly sure that I was knitting wrong. The internet taught me, so I had no one to check my work! The trouble was always the same, I could never be sure I was knitting and purling through the right part of the stitch. I always thought I might be knitting through the back instead of the right way! I had watched a ton of videos, looked at pictures, and read every description, but I was still unsure. Each time, I would do my best to figure it out, (twice I decided I was wrong. Which cancelled out meaning I was right in the first place!) and content myself with the idea that at least my finished projects looked pretty.

Then I finally knit a project that called for twisted rib. I finally had to do what I tried to avoid doing all along! In order to do a twisted 1x1 rib, on the right side, you knit 1 through the back and purl on, and on the wrong side, you knit 1 and purl 1 through the back. So I made up a couple of swatches to make sure I was actually knitting correctly. My twisted rib looked like this

If you stretch it, you can see that the knit stitches are more defined than the purl stitches.

When you compare it to a regular knit 1 purl 1 rib, you can see just how much more defined knit stitches are in comparison.

To get the twisted rib I had to make sure I was knitting through the back like this

Instead of the needle crossing over the part of the stitch that faces you, it goes in through the back

Here is how you knit a stitch without twisting it

Similarly, when you purl a twisted stitch, you cross the part of the stitch that is furthest away from you, and it goes in from left to right instead of from right to left

Like this

When you purl a regular old straight stitch, it looks like this

To be honest, I wasn’t sure until I looked at the finished swatches that I was doing it right. I thought that maybe I was knitting or purling right, but that I was twisting the other side. I thought that I might not be able to tell the difference between the swatches, and then how would I know what was wrong! But if you look at them together, you can totally tell which one is twisted and which wasn’t. With my fears allayed, I can finally knit in peace! Or wait... Am I still wrong?? :)

Silk Scarf -2 of 30

2009-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

If you’ve never had the pleasure of knitting on public transportation before, you would be amazed at how much attention knitters get on the train. The only people who get more attention are the ones that bring their dogs. People start conversations with you, talk about you loud enough for you to hear (generally they discuss whether you’re crocheting or knitting), and openly stare, especially kids (who also point).

I do a lot of my knitting on my commute to work, and this project got tons of compliments. Usually, it isn’t until the project is almost done and people can tell what it is that they really are interested, but with the changing colors and lace, this scarf was beautiful almost from the very start. There was one section of yarn in the beginning where the yarn was the exact same color as dust, and at that moment, I was a little worried. But then that lovely peachy orange came, and all was right with the world.

The yarn is Noro Silk Garden, and I would love to say that I really liked working it, because people seem to like Noro a lot, but to be honest, it was a pain. The colors were beautiful, but the yarn was super delicate and it kept felting to itself, which meant that I had to deal with constant tangles. It did make a beautiful FO though, so the irritation of having to pull it apart all the time is probably outweighed with the pleasure I get from my new pretty scarf.

1. Sleepy Snake and Mischievous Mouse

2. The Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon
3.Intricate Stag Bag
4. Valley Yarns Gallery Jacket
5. Lady Wannabe gloves
6. Squirrelly Swedish Mittens
7. Anais by Norah Gaughan
8. Cobblestone Pullover My first Sweater for Boyfriend. It will hopefully be a Christmas Present.
9. Which Came First (an adorable egg that becomes a chick!)
10. Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
11. Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague
12. Pineapple Fantail doily
13. Margaretha
14. Dreamer by Wenlan Chia
15. Holding Hands Feeding Ducks Scarf
16. Traveling Stitch Legwarmer
17. Peter the Scorpion
18. Little Bunny
19. Hemlock Ring Blanket
20. Ophicleide Cardigan
21. Colette Pullover
22. Hair Bow by Just Call Me Ruby
23. Back To School U-Neck Vest
24. Gretel
25. Ena Sweater
26.Cherry Cardigan
27. Stirling Cloche (this is one of the few actual Cloche shaped hats I've seen as a knittng pattern)
28. Palndrome, A Reversible Cable Scarf
29. Fido's Flower Garden Sweater and the Scull Doggery Dog Sweater (I want to make these reversible so that it can just be one sweater)
30. Snowflake

1 Down 29 to go

2009-03-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Sleepy Snake and Mischievous Mouse

2. The Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon
3.Intricate Stag Bag
4. Valley Yarns Gallery Jacket
5. Lady Wannabe gloves
6. Squirrelly Swedish Mittens
7. Anais by Norah Gaughan
8. Cobblestone Pullover My first Sweater for Boyfriend. It will hopefully be a Christmas Present.
9. Which Came First (an adorable egg that becomes a chick!)
10. Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
11. Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague
12. Pineapple Fantail doily
13. Margaretha
14. Dreamer by Wenlan Chia
15. Holding Hands Feeding Ducks Scarf
16. Traveling Stitch Legwarmer
17. Peter the Scorpion
18. Little Bunny
19. Hemlock Ring Blanket
20. Ophicleide Cardigan
21. Colette Pullover
22. Hair Bow by Just Call Me Ruby
23. Back To School U-Neck Vest
24. Gretel
25. Ena Sweater
26.Cherry Cardigan
27. Stirling Cloche (this is one of the few actual Cloche shaped hats I've seen as a knittng pattern)
28. Palndrome, A Reversible Cable Scarf
29. Fido's Flower Garden Sweater and the Scull Doggery Dog Sweater (I want to make these reversible so that it can just be one sweater)
30. Snowflake

30 Projects in 15 months

2009-03-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

I have 483 projects in my ravelry queue. If I complete one project a month, it'll take me 40 years! I kind of doubt when I'm 63 I'll want to wear this...

(photo from Knit 1.)

I really need to step it up! That's why I'm going to try to finish 30 projects (not including Christmas Knitting) in 15 months. It's an ambitious schedule, but it would be great to knock off some of my ravelry queue, and finally have some of the things I've been coveting for quite a while.

The things on the list are
1. Sleep Snake and Mischievous Mouse
2. The Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon
3.Intricate Stag Bag
4. Valley Yarns Gallery Jacket
5. Lady Wannabe gloves
6. Squirrelly Swedish Mittens
7. Anais by Norah Gaughan
8. Cobblestone Pullover My first Sweater for Boyfriend. It will hopefully be a Christmas Present.
9. Which Came First (an adorable egg that becomes a chick!)
10. Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
11. Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague
12. Pineapple Fantail doily
13. Margaretha
14. Dreamer by Wenlan Chia
15. Holding Hands Feeding Ducks Scarf
16. Traveling Stitch Legwarmer
17. Peter the Scorpion
18. Little Bunny
19. Hemlock Ring Blanket
20. Ophicleide Cardigan
21. Colette Pullover
22. Hair Bow by Just Call Me Ruby
23. Back To School U-Neck Vest
24. Gretel
25. Ena Sweater
26.Cherry Cardigan
27. Stirling Cloche (this is one of the few actual Cloche shaped hats I've seen as a knittng pattern)
28. Palndrome, A Reversible Cable Scarf
29. Fido's Flower Garden Sweater and the Scull Doggery Dog Sweater (I want to make these reversible so that it can just be one sweater)
30. Snowflake

Wow! The next 15 months are going to be busy! I think I have a good mix of big projects and little ones, so we'll see how much I can get through by my birthday, May 10th 2010!

P.S. A few of these links are Ravelry links, and I think people who aren't members may not be able to see them, I only used Ravelry links when the download for the pattern was off the Ravelry website.

cooking with wine

2009-02-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

Due to an unfortunate incident in college, I don't like the taste of red wine. The mouth feel of the alcohol, the astringent taste of the tannins, the smell all make my stomach turn a little. That being said, when i saw a recipe for this mushroom bourguignon from Smitten Kitchen, I was inspired to learn to cook with red wine.

Cooking with wine itself isn't necessarily complex, but what happens to the taste of a dish when you add wine to a dish is. The tannins in the wine are attracted to the protein and fat in the food instead of your tongue, which reduces the astringent flavor, while allowing the fruity flavors to concentrate as you cook the wine. The alcohol is generally reduced to nothing, or at least practically nothing.

The rules of cooking with wine are pretty simple, the most important, the one that every single site emphasizes before anything else is that you should never ever ever cook with wine that you don't want to drink. For this reason, you should never use cooking wine, which is subpar wine with salt added to keep people from drinking it and to "enhance flavor". For me choosing a wine was difficult, because I don't like to drink red wine. So instead of going by taste, I read the labels at the Wine Emporium until I found a red with a delicious sounding description. The wine I chose, Bodega Septima Tempranillo, has "sweet aromas of fruits, marmalade and citrus." which all sounded very appealing.

The type of wine depends on the recipes you use. For a recipe that specifies the type of wine, you should find out it's main characteristics and either choose that kind of wine, or a wine with similar qualities. If it just says "red wine" it is generally ok to use whatever red wine you like that has some characteristics you think would go well with your food. Certain recipes will call for a fortified wine such as sherry or vermouth, these wines have more intense flavors than normal reds or whites.

For my first try, I cooked the Mushroom bourguignon recipe, and it was unbelievably delicious! It had this really rich layered flavor that was incredibly delicious. I would have taken pictures, but brown mushrooms in a brown sauce is kind of ugly. The recipe takes some time, and assumes that you've cooked mushrooms enough to know how long to brown them so that they are brown, but before they begin giving off liquid. But you should try it because it's definitely worth it!

I still had a bunch of wine left, and since I couldn't drink it, I started scrounging for recipes. I came across all kinds of things, sauces, marinades, even wine sorbet (you can also buy wine sorbet online or in certain stores via wine cellar sorbet). This rissotto rosso with sage sounded great, but the real winner was this red wine cake. It seemed kind of romantic, because wine and chocolate are such staples of Valentine's day.

It was only my second cake, and I did pretty well, except that i took it out of the pan too early and some of it stuck. A tip for new cake makers, let the cake cool before messing with it! I also used jello with sugar, so it's a little extra sweet. But it's a beautiful color and it's tender and soft and pretty great.

All in all, cooking with wine was a success.

For more information, see the links below

An incredibly detailed article on coq au vin, with the Good Eats episode and Julia Child's famous recipe, as well as a bunch of interesting facts about wine and coq au vin

An intro to cooking with wine

a more detailed introduction with interesting facts about tannins via allrecipes.com

a very detailed set of articles about cooking with wine

advice from webmd wine can be used to reduce the calories in many foods. It can either add flavor so you don't need butter or in certain places it can replace ingredients that are high in calories!
The NPR story about the guys who sell what sounds like totally delicious wine sorbet (I really want to try the champagne flavor!) listen to the creator talk

A great beginner's guide to photography

2009-02-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

The more I read about photography, the more I realize that it's

There is a lot to absorb in photography. As I read more and more about it, I have found myself getting more and more overwhelmed. There’s a lot to consider in every shot including the lighting, the exposure, the subject, the color balance, the list goes on and on. And you need to know how to Right now when I take pictures, I am trying to incorporate a little more into each shot.

Photography is kind of like cooking in this way. If a beginning cook watched an episode of Good Eats, for example, all the things they could think about to make their food better would overwhelm them. Alton Brown often goes into intense detail about how to make something simple, like scrambled eggs, which everyone kind of knows how to make. Just like everyone technically knows how to take a picture. You just point the camera at what you want to take a picture of, and you’ll probably be able to tell what it was that you took a picture of. It can be really difficult to fathom incorporating all the steps he mentions when you already know how to make ok scrambled eggs. But if you just incorporate a little more knowledge, like knowing that you should fold the eggs to create big curds, it makes it that much better. That’s what I’m trying to do with photography, add a little more knowledge at a time to get better at something I technically already know how to do.

Darren Rowse at Digital Photography School has a ton of useful information in this vein. The beginner’s section of his site is filled with clearly explained articles, and separated into different areas that you can focus on to improve. In particular, check out “10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo” which takes a whole bunch of these areas and puts them into 10 manageable questions to ponder as you click away.

How to be lucky in love- Farmer's almanac style

2009-02-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's day everyone!

I was just reading about gardening on the Farmer's almanac website and noticed that they have a section for advice. Along with how to buy a hammer and paintbrush basics, there is "How to Get Lucky the Old-Fashioned Way-Advice for anyone traversing that treacherous road to romance."

The article is kind of awesome and awkward. It includes tips such as "do not take your medicine while on a date" and "Plan to do something that allows time to talk, such as golfing, tennis, rowboating, or bowling-not target practice at the local firing range."

In my head, I picture the kind of person that might be reading this, and it gives me a warm feeling. I think he would be a sweet middle aged redneck guy out in the country somewhere, with a gun rack and a hound dog, wearing overalls, and just looking for someone he can plant carrots with and take to the firing range. I hope he finds her.

I wish everyone a little luck in love today.

Knitting pictures made better by the light box

2009-01-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

Here's an example of how useful the lightbox can be. Cables can be really difficult to photograph, particularly when it's dark yarn.
With the light box, my bayerische sock is clear as day

How to take pictures of small things

2009-01-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

(A Quick disclaimer!) When I said that I was writing a tutorial about photography, Boyfriend rightly made the point that I am no expert. The point of this blog is for me, a beginner, to help show how a person could start a craft. As I learn more, I will add posts to each craft with tips and tricks. I'd love to hear your feedback too! What are your tricks for taking great pictures? Do you know of, or have, a great resource for more information? (the end)

Taking good photos is crucial to anyone who wants to have a presence on the Internet, and since this is a new blog, it deserves good pictures. My old blogs (I had two, they are no longer in existence) were failures in this respect. I didn't know how to take pictures of the things i was making, and so my pictures weren't engaging, they weren't clear, and they certainly weren't attractive. So I decided that my first mission should be learning to take good, clear pictures.

I quickly learned that there are actually a bunch of different skill sets for photography, and there was no way i could learn or cover them all with one post. Someday there will be posts for portraits, big things, places, food and photoshop. For now I'm starting small, with photographing small things.

Photographing small things, or macro photography, can be helpful in any number of situations, from taking pictures of a beautiful flower to selling things on ebay or etsy, or just showing off your little things.

Let's start with my old method of taking pictures.
Here's an example of what a couple of my pictures might have looked like before this post.

there are obviously about a million things wrong with these pictures, but lets take them one at a time.

Number 1- obviously get rid of all the other junk in the picture, it's distracting and sloppy.

After we clean up a little, lets make the most of the camera. To take the picture, I used the automatic feature on my camera and nothing else. Now lets add the macro, most newer cameras have this handy feature, it's usually a flower icon. It helps zoom in on details of the picture.

wow, huge difference right? and that's just one little change.

The next step is to alter the light in the photos. You can see that Totoro is pretty yellowy in the first picture, that's because the light from incandescent bulbs is very yellow compared to natural light. My camera has a light feature called tungsten that adjusts the way light shows up in the picture to filter out the yellow.

now Totoro's white parts look much more brilliant!

Stability is also important, everything I read researching this post advocated a tripod. I don't have one yet, so for all of these photos i either set the camera on the table, or stabilized it on a stack of books. There are some great, cheap small tripods out there, I'm just trying to decide whether i want to spend $9 on an ok tripod like this or $50 for this Gorillapod, which can wrap around things, and stabilize on many surfaces.

The next improvement I made was making a light box. I definitely recommend building yourself a light box out of a cardboard box. It's easy and mine is far from perfect and it has improved my pictures by leaps and bounds. You can see easy tutorials here, here, here (this one has a video), and here (this one is made from a milk jug). This allows you to have a seamless background and diffused lighting for a ton more control. Diffused lighting helps to minimize glare and shadows.

The white of the sides and background of the picture reflect light, so the lights on the outside of the box are lighting it not only from their spot, but effectively all around him. You can reflect light with poster board etc. in regular photography too, white boards used to reflect light are called flats. Directed light can also be made with a hand held mirror.

For glass, white backgrounds won't work, because the detail of the glass will blend in. Instead use black, or deep rich colors. If what you're photographing is very small, like the dollhouse miniatures sold here You can use a richly colored post it.

Did I miss anything? If I did, let me know.

Links
A glossary of photography terms
http://justdigitalphotography.com/digital-photography-glossary/

More general information
http://photojojo.com/content/tips/product-photo-tips-for-ebay-etsy-instructables/

http://www.bmpt1.com/ a very informative and detailed explanation of macro photography

Tips from people who photograph tiny dollhouse things for a living http://dollhouseminiatureresource.com/yjke/

a little more info about light- http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjglighting.htm

an on the go diffuser! made out of a film canister! Super Awesome DIY! haven't tried it yet, but it looks simple enough http://photojojo.com/content/diy/diy-film-container-flash-diffuser/

A mission statement of sorts

2009-01-13T11:38:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest parts of learning a new craft, or skill, or whatever, is figuring out where to start. When I decided I wanted to learn to knit, I didn’t know anyone who knit, so I decided to ask the Internet. But when I typed “How to Knit” into google, I got no less than 8,910,000 options. I was so overwhelmed, not only was learning a new skill difficult, but finding a resource that worked for me was almost as much work! We all learn differently, and a lot of the sites just weren’t set up in a way that made sense for my brain. The Internet can be a wonderful teacher, but sometimes wading through the vast sea of options can be too much.

I want to create a resource that can be a jumping off point.

What I will do is take a craft or skill and research it, cull together links and resources for further reading, try it myself, and provide you, my dear readers, with tutorials, history, recipes, videos, pitfalls and difficulties of the craft, anything I can to help you learn how to do whatever it is that I’m trying. I’ll show you the links that helped me, and the ones that had different approaches so that if one site doesn’t help you, another can.

If you’d like to see a topic on Davin Made, no matter how obscure or crazy, let me know, my goal is to learn to do everything!