better photos?

I've been fooling with camera settings and trying to see how I can take better close up photos for this blog. Above is a collage of attempts good and bad. But I'm learning and that is what it is about. If you need more detail of the beads shown in previous blogs, did you know you can click on the photos to get a closer, detail look? Cool. Just discovered that.
Back for more pictures! Whew, an artist's life is lots of work!