There are a lot of articles about the benefits of including video in your marketing efforts and I don’t know about you but video marketing sure works on me.

I'll admit to being a person who is interested in art and craft – jewellery and beads in particular. As you can see from my profile, I work with resin and polymer clay primarily. What you may not know is that I really don't like sewing. Blame it on having to unpick too many of my sewing projects. I have never made anything where I haven't unpicked some or all the seams.

I came across an instructional video about beading on fabric recently. Love beads, not so sure about fabric as it’s associated with sewing but I brought it home anyway and watched it. 

It was a life changing experience craftwise. The presenter, Mary Stori, was amazing. She made everything look so easy. She showed the materials she used - naming specific threads and  bead sizes that she used in her projects, marking pens, the felt and embroidery hoop set up she used to carry her beads and stop them from rolling around (hallelujah!) and the fabric.

Then she started sewing. She demonstrated how to hold the project so that your hands don’t block your line of sight and so that you can always see what you are doing. She showed basic stitches and more advanced ones but always in small units. It was very easy to see how these could be combined to build a fabulous piece of clothing or jewellery.

She inspired me enough to try out a bracelet using beads and pieces of fabric I had lying around the house.

The end result wasn’t too bad if I say so myself. Not in her class but it’s my first attempt!

My first attempt at beading on fabric.

I guess it just goes to prove that a video is worth a thousand words. I have books that describe the same methods but I always thought it was too complicated. However, the video turned it into an exceptional learning experience. It made it look easy and extremely doable.

Just think, if this video had been released by a sewing and beading supplies retailer such as Lincraft or Spotlight, they probably would have a huge number of converts and a corresponding increase in sales. With services such as YouTube, they don't even have to invest in expensive distribution partnerships.

So you’ve seen those gorgeously styled black and white shots in those glossy mags and wondered how they get the effect where just the item is coloured and everything else is set in black and white? The instructions below will guide you through how to apply this effect to your photographs using Photoshop.

         Before                              After

First make a copy of the photograph you wish to use.  That way, you will always have the original if you don’t like the changes you made.

Open the copy in Photoshop.

 
Increase the zoom on the item that you want to remain in colour.

Fig 1

Select the lasso tool ( shown in Fig 1) in the tool bar on the left and trace out the outline of the item you want to remain in colour. 

  


















Trace the item all the way around until you come back to your starting point. Dotted lines will edge your selection.

Then inverse the selection to include all the area outside your traced item. Go to Select,  Inverse

This will select the area outside your traced item and you will see dotted lines around the outside edge of the photograph.

To make this selected area black and white, go to Layer , New, Adjustment Layer.

 

Select Hue/Saturation in the Type field in the New Adjustment box that appears.

 In the Hue/Saturation box that appears, move the slider for Saturation to -100 and hit OK.

And your new photographic effect is now done.

More before and after examples

I have been off the grid of late, busy with new creations and designs. One of my projects was to create a set of bangles and earrings to match a saree. The saree, which originates from India, is a lovely outfit that can be demure or vampish depending on the wearer. Modern sarees come embellished with embroidery, beads and sequins. My challenge was to create something to match a deep pink material with gold embellishments. It had to be resin and modern but still in keeping with the ethnic feel of a saree.

This was the result. Love to hear your comments and feedback.  

 

I have been thinking about spice and all things green and nice after a visit to the Penang Spice Garden in Malaysia.  It was really interesting to see the herbs and spices, that I use everyday, in their natural element. I have a picture here of a cinnamon tree. The bark is used in cooking and the leaves are also supposed to be fragrant. These were too high for me to sniff. (The cinnamon tree is the little sapling on the left)

And did you know that cardamom comes from a plant that is related to the ginger? The cardamoms are the seed pods that are formed after the plant has flowered. I was fascinated – so fascinated that I forgot to take a picture.

My mother came across a plant that is sold in her local market and it turned out to be these wild pepper leaves. They are such a lush deep green. I can understand why our ancestors were tempted to try them out. I think she is going to be buying some soon.

Did you also know that citronella, the popular insect repellant, is related to the lemongrass that is used so much in Thai and asian cooking? They had the two side by side. The citronella plant is much more robust – taller leaves and thicker stalks and have these plume like flower stalks shown above.

The spice garden also has an ornamental component to it and I came across some gorgeous plants and flowers. These were in the pond at the beginning of the walk. They are a variety of water lily which has huge leaves. These are quite small. I have seen pictures of leaves that are large enough to support the weight of a small child.

I have no idea what these are but I was reminded again of how nature creates some wonderful forms and structures.   

The Penang Spice Garden is located right next to the sea and you can get glimpses of the ocean as you walk the paths.

The visit had me thinking about natural remedies. Modern medicine is either unaware of these plants or tries to package the healing and medicinal properties into easy to take capsules or tablets. I somehow think we would be better of just adding these herbs and spices to our diet. I also hope the knowledge of how much we should take, preparation and frequency hasn’t been lost and there are still people out there to share this information with me.

If you are ever in that part of the world, the Penang Spice Garden is worth a visit.