She is... Mysterious

Some preliminary shots are back from our photo shoot with Barbara, what a fun woman she is! 

I designed her costume and did her hair and makeup.  Barb brought some things with her, mostly vintage things.  The top she had and I pinned the flowers on it.  I'd found these great pearly flowers and pulled them apart, and glued them back together in a way that all of them could be different sizes.  Then added a large pearl in the center of each one to finish it off.  I also added some beaded pieces of beautiful lace to finish the line of the flowers.

 

I think this must have been an early shot because she's not holding anything 

and the key on her neck ribbon is missing.

I love the far away look.

 

Skeleton keys, they are full of potential for adventure and mysterious possibilities!  And I can't believe how much fun that necklace was once I put it on her, it was a perfect fit and she had those great ostrich feathers in her collection. 
 

I think that may be the only prelim shot where you can see that skirt I hand dyed in various shades of gray.  I love how it turned out!  

Now these two are my favs:
 

With a smile

and...
 

And just Barbara being her really beautiful self!

That's my favorite.

Thanks to my great sidekick Charles for the excellent photography!

Thanks to Barbara for being such a beautiful model!

All photos (c) Charles Garratt 2010

A Sneek Peek...

A little sneak peek at our second photo shoot. This lovely woman is Barbara and she's most comfortable in vintage clothing and since that seemed so perfectly "her" I went with it. (Though nothing in this shot is actually vintage except for those amazing gloves.) Each woman in the series has a different phrase and hers is: "She is Mysterious"

She brought a lot of herself to this project, and brought along some great props as well. I think this photo may have been taken while she was waiting on me to finish up the necklace she wore for the shoot. More photos to come!

I'm still looking for six more models for this project and the publicity stunt in March. Everything is "weather permitting" around here since we're gotten so much snow and more is in the forecast for tomorrow. *Please* let there be school tomorrow!

Looks like I've been nominated to be on the board of a local gallery, that's interesting. We'll see how that goes. I'm also doing makeup for a local theater production of "Saving Grace" which is a cute little show that will be put on in March by Waynesboro Players. The cast is only five people and it should be fairly simple as far as the makeup and hair goes. It will be fun.

I ran across an interesting quote and am curious what you think of it:

"Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night." It's from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet and I stumbled upon it here. Perhaps it is an overstatement of a principle that we should not ignore. Interesting food for thought, right?

I'm loving what I'm doing right now with this project, it's work that feels right to me. Wishing you the work that feels like play to you. This project is just playing "dress up" for adults, and who wouldn't love that?! (More photos coming!!)

With Gratitude,
-Carmen Rose