Winter wonderland

I’m late writing this post (as with most of my posts), but I needed to share this magical project.

Winter themes really inspired me this year and I wanted to bring together elements from fairy tales, wildlife documentaries and fashion in a shoot.

This was the second project I shot in collaboration with Katelizabeth photography who came to Manchester for an intense couple of days of almost constant shooting. She did a great job re-arranging the set, directing the models and editing the finished images and was a total pleasure to work with. I’m sure she will be up to great things in the future.

The point was mainly to show off my creations for Eustratia but I styled it with some wintery items from my personal collection as well as some specially made headpieces to complete the look.

_KER6470 a_KER6485 aI bought the props mainly to use in an upcoming show with a similar theme but I think they really made the set, Kate did a great job of arranging them as well!

_KER6499 a_KER6502 a_KER6504 aAnd for those of you who don’t know, this in my beautiful friend, Amber AKA Sapphire Black, if you follow my work you will have seen her before.

_KER6509 aI particularly love this images because of the composition and the fact that it shows the whole set. I had been searching for a new front page image for www.eustratia.co.uk for a while and I decided to use this one.

_KER6546 a_KER6577 a_KER6578 aI also made the headpieces for this shoot, which gave me a welcome break from working solely in latex. I have made antler headbands and bunny ears plenty of times before but the crowns were definitely something new for me and I really enjoyed working on them. I hope to have time to work on more special pieces and props this year. One of my goals is to create as complete an image as possible through my shoots and to keep my personal projects as close to the original idea as possible.

_KER6616 a_KER6621 a_KER6644 aThe wonderful make up in the images was provided by Laura Wilson. She is super talented and I hope to collaborate with her again this year. One of her best qualities is being able to realise somebody else’s vision as well as just her own, I find a lot of MUAs have a problem with this. She can also work well with different styles of make up while still retaining her signature.

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2012 recap!

When I look back on 2012, it has mostly been a year of trying to keep everything going and further establishing my business. I’m grateful to all the amazing people who have shared parts of my journey with me and worked on my various projects.

Photoshoot highlights 2012.

shoots 2012

Faces of 2012

faces2012

Inspirational images 2012

inspiration 2012I’m excited about 2013 and hope it will be the start of bigger, better things for me and Eustratia. I’ve never really been a fan of new year’s resolutions but I’ve decided to make a list of goals I hope to achieve this year so can look back on it and see how I’ve done. I think I’m always a bit optimistic when I write lists as most of my projects require more work than I originally realise but I’d rather aim high than low so I’m going to write the full list and see how I do.

  1. Learn to drive.
  2. Launch my first latex lingerie range.
  3. Do at least 5 fashion shows.
  4. Release my first non-latex items (at least 6).
  5. Get t-shirts and tote bags printed.
  6. Design and produce a new jewellery range.
  7. Find at least 2 stockists for Eustratia.
  8. Write at least 3 blog posts a month (this doesn’t sound like a lot but with my schedule it can be hard sometimes).
  9. Post at least 5 tutorials.
  10. Find cool bloggers to send items to.
  11. Collaborate with at least 12 amazing models.
  12. Be involved in at least 5 large scale photoshoots with great themes.
  13. Get at least 2 magazine covers.
  14. Find and enjoyable form of exercise that fits in with my schedule and can be done regularly.
  15. Find and keep a studio that works for my business.
  16. Visit 2 other countries.
  17. Do a fashion show out side the UK.
  18. Dress a celebrity in my pieces
  19. Increase my social media followers to a number I am happy with. (I have a lot of profiles and this varies for each but having over 10k on the Eustratia facebook page would be a start)
  20. Do something cool for the Eustratia 2nd birthday in a couple of months!

If I can achieve all of these to the standard I have in mind I dare say it will be a successful year. I’d love to hear from others who have big plans for the year! What do you guys do to stay on track? I’m going to put up a big notice board and stick notes sketches and inspirational images on it in hope that it will help to keep me focused.

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