What sort of camera do you have? If you have a light background like that you need to increase the exposure somehow (depending on the camera) to show the full detail of your work as the camera is taking a light reading that is skewed by the background, or you could add a light-source behind you - but I find that doesn't look as good. Another simple alternative is to use a darker background, so the camera will increase exposure automatically. If you are worried about the axe-y thing being out of focus you might be able to get a wider depth of field if you decrease your aperture size (depending on the camera).
I use a white background (A4 piece of printer paper) with a digital SLR on a tripod in a living room with reasonable ceiling lighting - I increase the exposure 1 full point and depending on the light it usually takes around a 1 second exposure, so I use a 2 second delay on the shutter so the tripod is nice and still.
