Smile for the Camera!

Yesterday was photo shoot day in the studio. I set up all the equipment and took pictures of all the pieces on my display wall, one by one. Here is the oak at sunrise, which you've only seen in sections on the loom:



And the revised aspen grove, which shows much more green than the first version:



In the past, I've always submitted jury photos with the backdrop showing around the piece. However, after trolling the American Craft Council and Smithsonian Craft Show websites and studying all the artists' work in the Decorative Fiber categories, I see that most of them just crop the image to the edge of the piece, and have no "border" in the image unless it's an integral part of the textile, or the piece is framed. So this year my jury photos will be submitted cropped to the edges.

I'm not sure if this is just a cop-out; it does solve the cases where the textile is not exactly, precisely rectangular, but veers off in one direction or another, or has very slightly wavy edges. These situations are usually caused by irregularities in the top and bottom hems, not the selvedges - I need to work on those hems a bit more carefully!