Monthly Archives: February 2012

Limbo land

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I have always really liked the idea of latex in water and have often wondered why there aren’t that many good quality underwater images around featuring latex. We have all seen the fetish pool-party type ones but I had something completely different in mind.

I was excited to be contacted by Catherine Laura Smith an underwater fashion photographer who, after seeing my work at Bird’s yard, wanted to arrange a collaboration. She had used items from the shop for shoots in the past so I was aware of how ethereal and atmospheric her work was and knew the outcome would be exactly what I was hoping for.

The whole team involved was awesome! Credits:

Wardrobe Designer: Eustratia
Stockist: Birds Yard
MUA: Natalie Greenwell
Model: Zara Abagail Syrett
Hair: Ky’cut Wilson
Assistants: Daniele Fitzgerald & Debra Smith
Support Diver: James Windeatt

I’m really pleased with them and hope others enjoy looking at them too!

Anniversary giveaway!

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My label, Eustratia has now officially been trading for a year so I’m going a little giveaway to celebrate!

I’m thankful for all the support I’ve had throughout the last year from friends and people who enjoy my work. I hope by label will continue to grow and give me the opportunity to make more of my ideas come to life.

I thought it would be fitting that the prize be items from Eustratia so I have included a selection of accessories worth just over £100.

  • Black and white striped hair bow (medium)
  • black pussy bow neck tie
  • 3-piece Perspex set. Short antler trophy necklace (used in the aesthetic contradiction logo), long arctic fox necklace and moth pin.
  • standard fingerless gloves
  • bow cuff
  • striped folded flower
  • The winner will also receive a discount code granting them 20% off their next order from Eustratia.

I tried to pick a popular colour combo but there may be replacements available for the bow cuff and flower if any other colours we have in stock would suit you better.

How to enter:

  1.  Like the following facebook pages: Eustratia and Biomechanina
  2. Follow this blog
  3. Follow me on twitter 
  4. Comment on this post using the form below.
  • name
  • email
  • facebook name
  • twitter name
  • link to any extra credit

Extra credit: (for extra entry numbers)

  1. posting about Eustratia’s new collection, products or this giveaway on your own blog (2)
  2. posting on facebook (1)
  3. posting/rebloging on tumblr (1)

The winner will be announced in a week (16th Feb). There is a maximum of 5 entries per person. The first 4 steps are compulsory in order to be entered into the draw (anyone who doesn’t use twitter can follow me on tumblr instead).

Good luck!!

Notice board collage

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For the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting increasingly bored of my website front page image. I can never seem to find one that I think  fits perfectly so I end up changing it every so often. Today I was feeling like playing around in photoshop and after seeing an images that inspired me on tumblr, I went ahead to create a notice board type collage of inspirational items and artwork that is used in my products and branding.

It features two model images, the first in the top left corner is by Toria Brightside and the second by Jennifer Byron. The other two photos were taken from my university look book. A few of the insects are from stock photos I found online and the vectors were created by me for various projects.

I haven’t made anything like this for a while and thoroughly enjoyed it, I think I need to make room for more not-strickly-work-related art projects in my life. They help to keep my work on track and inspired. One of my greatest fears is waking up in an other couple of years and realising I’ve become one of these people who just make stuff because its their job and don’t have any creative vision beyond what will sell to boring sheep-like individuals.

I also bought an overlocker today so I look forward to starting my leggings collection as soon as I have chosen the appropriate fabrics!

 

 

Hair piece tutorial

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After the interest in my horn hair-piece, I decided to do a tutorial for anyone who was inspired to make their own.

The base is made out of chicken wire. I find it a convenient material to make large hair pieces out, it’s easy and quick to shape and can be covered with virtually anything.

I used wire cutters to cut a triangular shape out of the chicken wire and joined it into a horn shape by sculpting it twisting the ends round. (each horn was formed separately)

Then I joined the two horns together in the middle by twisting the wire.

I thought Kanekalon fibre fake hair would be best for this project. I used about three packets for this in two different shades.

Basically, the idea is to wrap the hair around the chicken wire till the whole thing is covered. I found that backcombing the hair first gives better coverage and helps it stay in place. I used a few hair grips to secure the hair in some places.

After the whole hair piece was covered, I poured hot water over the hair piece so the hair set tightly around the base (only kanekalon hair has this property), this also combated the amount of fluffy hairs sticking out that were previously quite evident .

The unicorn hair-pieces I used in the VAU VAU fashion show were also made in a similar way but there I backcombed and twisted the hair into a tube before attaching it in a spiral. The way no need to pour water over these as the desired effect was already achieved and the twisting meant there weren’t that many stray hairs.

Ezra by Arien Specter at VAU VAU.

If anyone has any questions I will be happy to answer them and if making is not for you I am also happy to make hair pieces to order, please contact me for details.

Demons

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I wanted to plan a shoot to better showcase some of the accessories from the Chimera collection and had an idea for a demon series. Though not totally related to the inspiration for the collection, I felt like the concept would work well with specific pieces in mind.

I had a few different ideas about what the demon would look like and a few different types of make up in mind that I thought would be appropriate for the shoot so I decided to do a series showcasing the different styles. This gave me the opportunity to try out most of my styling ideas and create a gradual light to dark effect in the images.

I shot the set with Jennifer Byron as the final part of our accessories project as I thought we needed a set with darker thematology, most of what we have previously shot has been quite light and colourful. All chainmail components were created by Richard Ayres.

With regards to the editing, I wanted to make sure it looked different to the other sets Jenni and I have collaborated on so I thought of making the characters look statue/gargoyle-like with a stone/marble-like texture. I think Jenni did a great job with the editing and the texture in the background really ads to the images.

For the last two images, I used a hair-piece that I made as part of my Halloween outfit for TG. There has been some interest in the hair piece so I’m going to include a brief tutorial for anyone who would like to make something similar. To save making this too long, I’ve decided to put it in a separate post, here.

Personally, I am most pleased with my hair for the first two looks as its an unusual look for me. I have seen similar styles in a few magazines recently and was waiting for the opportunity to try something like that for myself. The look was achived with gel and white hair spray. I have found white hair spray to be very effective at making roots look better during shoots in general.

Featured products:

First image- nutmail cuff, nutmail cross (chainmail chain), organic lace bustier.

Second image- studded cross necklace, O-harness, studded cross gloves, crystal spike pasties.

Third image- inverted cross necklace, nutmail choker, O-harness (back to front), trophy pasties (black latexlace).

Forth image- shield necklace, chimera bra, chain garter (on forehead)

All items can be purchased from http://www.eustratia.co.uk (If you can’t find the item you are looking for please get in touch via the order form and we will do our best to help)

VAU VAU fashion show

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On Friday morning, after a long night of no sleep and a lot of sewing, I set off for Leeds and VAU VAU fashion show.

First stop was Rebel pin-up hair salon where I had to direct as the models got their hair done to fit their character in the show. Then after a quick cup of tea in a cafe we got a lift to the amazing Leftbank Church venue.

After arriving at the venue I realised the majority of my stuff was still locked in my friend’s car so I had to wait to set up the stall. I’m often worried about trading at places where I can’t bring my larger stall props but I think what I had was perfect for this event and I didn’t feel like anything was missing.

I’m particularly in love with this wire and nut tree that Rik made. I had been asking him to make a jewellery stand for a while and it turned out better than anything I had imagined. I’m also designing a jewellery stand for my upcoming homeware range but I haven’t decided on the best material to make it out of yet.

I did three interviews at the show (hopefully to follow shortly), two of which were filmed. I’m making an effort to put my work before my appearance at the moment as running the business on my own is quite hard and I need all the extra time I can get,but at times like these, I’m reminded its important to look good as well.

The models were great and managed to pull off both the walk and outfits, which I could tell some of them weren’t used to. I was please with the way the show turned out and the pictures I have seen so far. Apparently there will also be videos, can’t wait!

Some image selections from the show:

Our wonderful host, Toria Brightside wearing her custom, pink Eustratia antlers!

The images are by Arlen Specter, Danielle Jaques and Richard Ayres.

Was great to see other labels from Bird’s yard at the show, including Sophie Adamson as well as Jay Storey with his custom graffiti canvases.

After the show I managed to fit in a couple of snaps with Stuart from Walnutwax.

For those who weren’t at the show, the giant tea cups that the bunnies were holding were full of star confetti!

So far I’ve seen a review from Wildchild media which you can read here, I’m sure there will be more to follow soon.

A lot of the people who aren’t used to being exposed to it, commented on the amount of latex that I featured in the show. I would like to point out that, as I mainly sell latex on my site at the moment, commenting on the amount of fabric garments that I had in the show may have been more apt. I did end up having slightly less than I originally planned but I still think it broke it up nicely. I’m quite glad to have been able to finally take this step and show a mixed range as it justifies my not choosing a name with “latex” after it, having planned from the start not to be limited to one material.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all those involved on pulling off such a memorable event which raised around £2000 for charity. Special thanks to Toria Brightside and Emma Parry for organising, Fashion pony for sponsoring the event, Dave Abbot for my awesome, character specific music which you can listen to here, Amber for transporting all my stuff in her car, Verity for helping me sort out my technical problems, Rik for minding the stall pretty much on his own all night, Laura for cancelling work to stand in at the last minute and my glass of wine on the train and all my models/hair/MUA team for their great work.

For more images check the Eustratia facebook page.

I’ve had a few people ask about the hair pieces, I made these myself and will be posting a tutorial on how to achieve similar looks when I have time to get some pictures in order. I will also probably be doing a giveaway for one on my model page soon, for anyone who isn’t the DIY type. Commissions are welcome.

I’m already looking forward to my next show and future projects!