If Kristin has a signature bead at this point in her career, I'd have to say it needs to be square and aqua. This latest pair of cube earrings incorporates square bails as well as her redesigned earring finding. Altogether very sharp, very classy.

Latest incarnation of this crisp, retro design. 1/4 second, f6.5, -1/3 ev. 8400 coolpix, aperture mode, custom white balance with 500w incandescent light (one of those 60 hour jobs, very nice) from the right and a mirror bounce to the left . Aside from cropping and scaling this image is unretouched. Copyright 2007 Kristin Perkins.

However, the increasing sophistication of the earring design meant my photography had to get more sophisticated too, because there was no way I could make those earwires look good lying down. Well, and show of the cool new square bail. However, I've resisted “hanging” my subjects, because the incandescent lights I use require relatively long exposures, insufficient to freeze the motion of things swaying—and sway they do.

Kristin, however suggested an intermediate approach: use monofilament (in this case, invisible thread for sewing) to hang the wires, but let the bottom of the earring rest against the background to stabilize it. This proved to be an excellent solution to the problem, so long as there is adequate tension on the monofilament that the earring still is relatively plumb. She also wanted one earring shot from the bottom, to show off the round disk finish, which echoes the round opaque dots on the cubes.

Ever so slowly, I'm getting good at this.

photograph made, and file created 10aug07.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.