Visiting the yard

I walked into Bird’s yard to find that things had changed less that I expected. The rooms hadn’t been switched around yet but the third floor was being renovated and machines were so loud you could hardly hear what anyone was saying. There were plenty of staff on as we had expected the new jewellery room to be open so the work pace was quite chilled out.

After cleaning and reorganising my booth I decided to have a look round and take some pictures.

The first thing I noticed was that lovely crayfish had moved some new stuff in. I especially love the day of the dead T-Rex skeleton print, as well as the rounded corner moo cards (of which I have run out).

Pretty much immediately after this I noticed the large mirror and decided I had to seize this opportunity to get a picture of my whole outfit.

I was then asked to look through some magazines and find some interesting images for a collage. I really love this job because it reminds me of the non-stressful part of being at uni.

While looking through the magazines I came across “Fiyah!” a leeds mag I hadn’t seen before.

There was a feature on Bird’s yard inside and the Eustratia booth was visible in the picture.

I don’t think they mentioned individual designers but it was still nice to see.

The lady I was working with that day runs Urban fox. A label that makes the most adorable cushions. She also customises and re-upholsters furniture, there is a specific chain downstairs at Bird’s yard I’ve had my eye on since I first walked into the shop.

I have mentioned Belles Bejewelled on here before but I’d never tried on one of these strand necklaces. I decided to give one a go. It looked kind of cool and messy from the front but I preferred it worn over the shoulder.

One on each shoulder was a definitely strong look with maximum editorial potential. I’d love to wear these for a shoot.

It was Jubilee weekend so I decided it would be entertaining to try on Cloe’s inflatable crown and hold a diamond. I’m not usually the humorous type but this shop obviously inspires!

To finish off the nonsense, after re-pricing all the dresses on one side of the room I decided to try on a vintage wedding dress.

The top part didn’t really suit me but I love the layers of ruffles!

Accessory moment no.2

I know I’m way overdue with this so I’m going to try and post a second accessory moment at some point this week. I haven’t totally mastered fitting my blogging schedule around my other deadlines yet but I think I’m getting better.

Last weeks accessories were all about the spikes. I needed them to toughen up my otherwise girly and “safe” outfit.

1. Spike headband. I’m sure you’ve seen these all over the place by now but I decided I kind of wanted one so I DIYed it, It was very easy. I used a strip of leather but you could use whatever you want really, I just made some holes along it and stuck some spikes in. Then I bought a plastic hair band from my local fabric store and super glued the leather around it.

2. I’ve been getting really into statement earrings at the moment. Haven’t ever really worn hoops before but I love these spiked ones. I’m sure I could find some quirky boutique that sells similar for £30 but these are just off ebay for £6. The same shop also had some other nice ones which I had to buy while I was finding the link for you guys.

3. Chrome stretchy spike bracelet. This was bought for me a gift and is from NO:WEAR in Camden market but I’ve also seen them around online. I have a black variant which I wear more often but this one is also fun sometimes.

I’ve just noticed that the earrings look like they shine different colours in the light!

I also changed some of my body jewellery this week and found that Body jewellery shop is a great site to get blackline and internally threaded stuff.

New collab and Illustrated pictures

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!

Eustratia competition, June.

I was thinking it was about time for an other competition but all these new facebook rules have been confusing me so I thought it would be best to launch it off here.

I wasn’t sure what to give away so the prize will be £100 worth of stock of your choice from www.eustratia.co.uk! This also means it will be made to measure to fit you.

image ©David Richardson

How to enter: “Like” the eustratia facebook page and share this image. Please make sure your share is public or it will not show up when the names are being counted.

Extra credit: (one extra entry) will be given for reblogging this image on tumblr and/or subscribing to this blog (also valid if you already subscribe) please comment on this post to let us know.

Competition closes July 1st at 12GMT.

Good luck!

Iphone case top picks

Since getting my iphone I’ve constantly been on the lookout for cool cases and as I’ve heard a few people asking for recommendations recently, I thought I’d share some of my finds.

I’ve gone more for design that functionality with these as there are other blog posts that are probably better suited to that.

1. Malady Charlotina “Serpent” from izozzi.com $34.95

2. Black and white damask £29.20 from www.zazzle.co.uk

3. Arnsdorf SS11 crystal pattern by RoandCo

4. Victorian bride £29.95 www.zazzle.co.uk

5. Steampunk cogs and gears printer nylon case $75.00 C Westbrook design on etsy.

6. Blue country toile £26.50 from www.zazzle.co.uk

7. Totally non-fuctional but awesome Omniscient Siri case by SaGa design. $90.00 on etsy

8. Victorian anatomy skull case £24.95 www.zazzle.co.uk

9. Galaxy case £25.60 www.zazzle.co.uk

10. Vintage butterfly £24.95 www.zazzle.co.uk

11. Studded case €16.00 by Crision on etsy.

12. Steampunk doll £22.75 www.zazzle.co.uk

13. Stripey fluer de lis case £22.75 www.zazzle.co.uk14. 3d Baroque inspired case $80.00 SaGa design on etsy.

15. Speck geometric case £29.99 via www.switched.com

16. Dragonfly case £28.10 www.zazzle.co.uk

17. Casetargam case- decorate a case using your pictures from instagram $34.95 www.casetagram.com and for a limited time only they offer free international shipping.

18. Cameo case £28.10 www.zazzle.co.uk

19. Studded cross case $12.99 by studsrevolution on etsy.

20. Octopus case £26.70 www.zazzle.co.uk

I’ve included a variety of themes that I’m interested in so hopefully there will be something for everyone who might read this blog :). I’m also toying with the idea of having some cases made featuring my own art or custom decorating plain ones with some of my perspex designs…