Category Archives: inspiration

Valentine’s day picks

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I’m not really the sort of girl who makes a big deal about Valentine’s day. However I do find that, if you have the means, it’s a good opportunity to do something special for your loved one.

I love compiling boards whatever the occasion so I thought I would share my top picks in case some of you would like some extra ideas.

valentines board1. Charbonnel et Walker Pink Mark de champagne truffles £20.99 Selfridges

2. Gia shelf bra £105.00, Bordelle

3. Bow bra £75, bow peep briefs £55 and bow cuffs £6 each, Eustratia

4. Spike leather harness €375.00, MIse en cage

5. pussy bow £12, stripe waistcoat £48. stripey briefs £32, bow cargers £22, cameo pasties £22, Eustratia

6. Satin harness thong in black €74.00 Mise en cage

7. Pony ear bridle €138.00 Mise en cage

8. Confetti lace waspie £132.00 Bordelle

9. Barnabe leather cuffs €135.00 Mise en cage

10. Patent leather paddle £111.00 Mise en cage

11. Nibiru harness thong €72.00 Mise en cage

12. Heart suspender $100, Creepyyeha

13. Vivienne westwood frily snake tote bag £195.00, selfridges

To celebrate Valentine’s day I’m also planning a giveaway! Keep your eyes pealed, it will be announced soon!

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Christmas 2012

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This year I was working a ridiculous amount of hours, up to Christmas eve so it was nice to be able to relax for a couple of days, I don’t believe it’s all over already.

This Christmas was a nice family affair as usual but it was the first year in a long time that we stayed at home and I had the opportunity to take pictures. I decided to make a little diary of my day.

4797fbe64ee311e2ab6722000a9e087c_7 My wintery room decorations!c22235d04ee211e29c6822000a1f9688_7At Christmas I always try to make my room look a bit nicer, this year I changed all the drapes to white. 016c14ba4fbd11e2b45222000a1f97b0_7

12273_10151349175345365_1220385515_nChristmas tree!

37065_10151349009385365_381455132_nMistletoe for my parents to kiss under!

154451_10151349012195365_1846923710_nMy stocking!

148693_10151349643220365_309811629_nPresents from my girlie friends <3

557305_10151349055480365_630028588_nMy friend Amy from Am Statik latex sent me this in exchange for one of my key necklaces which I sent her a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t expecting anything in return and this is certainly worth more!

524b8e944ee411e2ad1322000a9e28e6_7Chistmas face! I decided to do a curly updo.

15471_10151348017370365_1715759354_nI wore black and nude because I really love my new flocked leggings and I knew my dress was going to be similar colours.

525148_10151349253170365_1862595796_nShoes! This was probably my favourite present but I bought them for myself so I’m not sure if it counts.

28748_10151349261510365_1026819791_nMy second favourite present was my amazing new waste paper bin. My old bin was red and plastic and gave me a headache every time I looked at it so I was desperate to get rid of it!

61d5841c52f611e28df922000a9f1991_7I ended up wearing a sort of miss matched outfit of what I decided to wear when I got up and loads of new stuff on top of it but I thought it looked OK. I even put my antlers on for Christmas lunch.

d6cf7f6452f311e28e7522000a1fbe50_7Then I helped Scamper open with special doggy chocolate!

164635_10151351699190365_130740489_nNo Christmas is complete without new accessories!

16806_10151349762980365_2010849429_nI also made a start on my new obsession, goldstone, opal and cracked quartz plugs.

Hopefully more nice and peaceful Christmases will follow in future years

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Dark unicorn

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For a while now I’ve wanted to step away from the classic theme of the white unicorn, with its purity and rainbows and give it a bit of attitude. I thought that this was quite an obvious thought process for someone creative with a dark edge and unicorns seem to be everywhere at the moment so I was surprised by the lack of relevant images online when I decided to do some research.

This was ultimately good news as it meant there wasn’t much I had to tick off the list due to someone else having done it before. I still wanted it to be quite an abstract interpretation of the unicorn as opposed to a full on pony costume with a horn and as always I couldn’t decide on just one way to style it so I portrayed it in 3 facets. Pretty unicorn, warrior unicorn and queen unicorn.

I thought these were all likely characters for the dark unicorn to take on and Jamie Mahon did a great job bringing them to life and create the right atmosphere. I also borrowed some beautiful taxidermy accessories from Sophie Adamson to complete the looks. The wardrobe/styling was provided by Eustratia and the chainmail by Richard Ayres, as usual.

We also took the opportunity to shoot some other bits on the same day but I’ve decided to include them in a different post.

I wore a revised version of this outfit to Torture garden for Halloween and added ears to the headband which I thought looked much better.

For those of you who are unicorn fans, the selection of unicorn themed items on my site is growing! Grad yourself something at http://www.eustratia.co.uk

Dark unicorn inspiration

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Those of you who have been following my blog for while will have seen the unicorn inspiration board that I posted last year. I’ve been wanting to do a dark unicorn shoot for a while now and have finally managed to arrange it with photographer Jamie Mahon, who’s dark aesthetic should fit the theme perfectly.

I gathered my initial inspiration on a board and I’m excited to see how the ideas evolve from there.

My wardrobe for the shoot is being provided by Eustratia and Richard Ayres and I’m also using some accessories by Sophie Adamson.

 

Inspirational photography #2

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Bette Franke by Jeff Bark for Dazed and Confused April ’12. Styled by Kate Shillingford. The editorial captures the special relationship between women and their pets and is a fresh take on the fashion & animals theme.

I love this set and wish I had such beautiful surrounding for the bedroom shoot I did a couple of months ago (which I should hopefully be able to show you soon).

New collab and Illustrated pictures

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I was recently asked to jump in on a shoot my bf, Richard Ayres had arranged with Beverly Ann photography.

If you haven’t seen a lot of Beverly’s work around yet, I’m sure you will do in the near future. She is a promising young photographer with a clear vision, who also creates props to enhance her concept. I always admire photographers who like to be involved in more than just taking pictures, they are usually edgier with bigger ideas (which in turn means they might like to work with me on some of my big ideas).

For this shoot she had made these oversised demon hands which looked great combined with some black paint that she also applied herself. I love how the image below turned out and the black eyes were such a nice touch.

I was also given permission to edit some of the images from our shoot. I did one set with light pastel colours which I’m holding back until after its publication next month and an other which I can show you now.

I started off by just doing a beauty retouch and cleaning up a few things.

I did actually consider cropping this last one but decided I liked the large white space.

Models: Myself (Biomechanina) and the beautiful Jess Sevensin who you will most likely see featured here again soon!

After editing the photos as you see them above, I wanted to add something extra. I experimented a few times by making the background darker or adding some clouds but neither of these worked for me. I then remembered that I had wanted to produce a set of images with my own illustrations over the top of them for a while and these would be perfect.I did a bit of online research to find some examples that might inspire me. I have posted some on tumblr.

I have been working on some illustrations for an upcoming t-shirt line recently and most of my illustrations feature faces and insects. There were already faces in these images so I decided to draw insects, mainly moths, butterflies and dragonflies. I also added a couple of other natural and dark themes I felt were relevant.

The outcome:

What I really liked about this is that the drawings didn’t have to be great to look effective. Most of them were just quick doodles but they really transformed the feel of the images. I tried quite a lot of different things as it was my first attempt at something like this but I will definitely be doing more in the future and may produce some more concise sets with a preset theme. In these images the illustrations were drawn separately and applied onto the pictures using photoshop but I would also like to try printing the pictures out and painting on them as well as drawing electronically.

If anyone else tries something similar (or does any sort of work combining photography and illustration) I’d love to see!

Bird’s yard update.

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As some of you already know Bird’s yard is currently my only stockist and I work there once a month so I’m available to answer questions or take people’s measurements for custom orders. I feel privileged to be part of such a unique shop that brings together so many talented designers.

While I’m there I usually work in the boutique room featuring lovely vintage by Bird Shell and dramatic leather accessories by Belles Bejeweled and quirky jewellery by red paper house.

Last week I decided to try on some accessories while it was quiet.

pastel feather earring by belles bejewelled

feather headband!

furry beret that matched my hair colour.

In these photos you can also see me sporting my amazing fake fringe of happiness. I love things that allow me to change my appearance so easily.

My favourite products in the store are probably these necklaces by Belles bejewelled. I haven’t bought one yet as I already own a lot of oversized accessories but I’m sure I will at some point.

I also love Life’s big canvas (where I got my hanging spike earrings from). They always have new quirky pieces in.

I wasn’t really planning on buying anything for myself but I spotted this hairy shrug in the £10 room (yes there is a room full of items for £10 and a lot of them are worth more). This isn’t the sort of item I would usually go for, I picked it up purely because of the colour and tried it on for fun while consulting some customers. After walking around in it for a while and realising it was the perfect addition to my outfit however, I decided I had to have it.

The ground floor has recently been turned into a tea room, adding yet an other great element to the Bird’s yard experience. The downside is that the smell of food can be tempting, even when you’re not hungry.

They do make amazing toasties though!

At the end of the day we had a meeting in the tea room to discuss the future of the store and changes that are being made. The upper floors are all being rearranged and the basement is opening with more art, furniture and boys stuff! We are also planning competitions, parties and a fashion show so keep an eye out for updates!

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!

 

 

2011 Recap

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Though 2011 hasn’t been a particularly great year for me, I feel the last day of the year calls for a recap to say goodbye and welcome the new year. It will also give me something to compare new years achievements to.

So this year I have:

  • Launched my own label.
  • Moved on from just latex to having my own jewellery line and starting production of some fabric garments.
  • Attended various trade shows and fairs, including clothes show live.
  • Had modelling work published in a book, 4 magazines and two calenders.
  • Had design work published in 6 magazines.
  • Walked in 8 fashion shows for various designers.
  • Had my designs feature in 3 fashion shows.
  • Explored my CAD design skills to the point where I feel comfortable producing work for others.

Inspirational images 2011

I wanted to add more to this post and might get the chance to at a later date.

 

Unicorn inspiration

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I’m currently in the process of planning a shoot with Jennifer Byron, featuring a unicorn mask by Tom Banwell. After seeing his black rabbit mask around so much over the past year or so I was quite excited at the idea of a unicorn one.

Tom Banwell unicorn mask, complete with leather eyelashes

I’m not totally sure how much masks suit me so I’m going to make extra effort with the rest of the outfit to make sure it looks good.

When I started analysing the options I realised I didn’t know that much about unicorns and their origin so I decided to read up on them a bit. There is plenty of information online but one of the most interesting things I found was on wikipedia. Though unicorns were fist mentioned by the ancient Greeks, they are not found in Greek mythology but rather in accounts of natural history. Greek writers of natural history were convinced of the reality of the unicorn, which they located in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from Ctesias who described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn, a cubit and a half in length and colored white, red and black. Being from Greece myself I was quite suprised not to have heard this before but then again it isn’t really the kind of this they would bother teaching in school.

unicorn moodboard

I put together a vague board of unicorn-related inspiration but was actually surprised by how little I found that was to my taste. I think this shoot will be a good opportunity to create some unicorn-related imagery and accessories that aren’t overly childish or classic fantasy inspired.

I would like to keep the look with the mask quite close to the original depiction of the unicorn as possible so its going to be all white but I also like the idea of the black unicorn so I may do a second, darker look that I can play around with more.

My favourite items from the moodboard are the origami unicorns, I’d love to be able to make some of these for the shoot (especially a life-size one) but I gave it a try this afternoon and actually found it quite hard. If any origami experts happen to read this, please get in touch!