12 Days of Christmas Collection: 2 Turtle Doves and 3 French Hens

2 Turtle Doves, probably the one look I least time preparing for, actually turned out to be one of my more popular cards of the collection!

Very simplistic with a black back drop, the colors made a nice change from a more traditional palette, and is one of my favor color choices-black, white and hot pink. The outfit was brought together simply by going through my selection of old pieces, though I fixed up the bonnet. Erika in this look reminded me of a Victorian girl shopping for christmas after dark. 

3 French Hens, on the other hand, was another shoot from last year that I wasn’t satisfied with for the final selection. The image was warmness in the winter, using soft hues of red, orange and gold for a farm yard setting with a girl collection eggs from the hens. I hated the fact that in the original picture, you can clearly see the doll stand between Jaime’s legs! 

So the second try of the shoot, I buffed up the set with a fake tree I had to get, since it was the perfect size (I know I’ll be using it for future shoots). The background was a forest scene printed onto a sheet of wrapping paper. The hen coops were actually small boxes I saved when working in a boutique 2 years ago, the packaging used for christmas ornaments. The straw and eggs were crumpled up pieces of paper and oval shaped white zhine stones. The outfit itself was tweaked up when I added more layers of crimson fabric to the skirt.

Despite my efforts in creating the set, though, I was heart broken that when uploading the image to be printed, it kept trimming it down so you missed a lot of the details. It just didn’t do the look justice in the final photo! I’ve got to remember to not be so afraid of catching details that weren’t part of the set into the photo, and stick to cropping it on the laptop.

12 Days of Christmas Collection: Partridge in a Pear Tree

This was my Christmas collection last year, that became my major stock for the exhibition. Inspired by the number of birds in the 12 Days of Christmas, I thought of doing a shoot for each stanza of the song, and use origami to make all the different kinds of birds.

Since I was a little rushed for time last year, so instead of creating completely new outfits, I decided to go through my boxes of previous pieces and mix and match for different color palettes. It was great to learn how many pieces I’ve made over the years that can be reused again and again.

The ‘Partridge in a Pear Tree’ look had a gold and green color scheme, used from an dress I mocked up inspired by the Ghost of Christmas Present from A Christmas Carol, but I made a new headpiece. Originally I took the pictures in my kitchen, putting the origami partridge in a houseplant on the fire place mantle piece-it was pure co-incidence that the sun shaped clock got in the shot. But when I was selecting the pictures to get printed into cards, I wasn’t satisfied with this particular shoot. I decided to go back and give it another try.

This time, the shoot was much more theatrical, as if Jaime were strolling through a garden and came across the partridge in the tree in passing. I used the Stitcherella set, and mounted a branch borrowed from a local florist trimmed in print outs of pears with the origami bird perched on a branch. 

It was refreshing to take the pictures from a completely new angle. The final photo really draws in the viewer, and has more of an atmosphere than most of my shoots. However because of the closeness of the tree to the camera lens, I was disappointed that some of the branches came out so blurry.

Christmas Bazaar Afterthoughts

Well, after months of preparing Punkee Pixie made its debut yesterday at a school Christmas bazaar. 

Even though I sold very few cards, the reaction my work received was great! Everyone who saw the 90 x 60cm poster smiled. Several of the younger children were delighted by the name Punkee Pixie. Several snippets I caught were ‘fascinating’, ‘nothing like this right now’ and ‘so original’. 

Though one teenage girl stated how she felt the dolls were ‘kind of creepy, like they’re starring into your soul’. Hey, I still take that as a compliment-they’re supposed to have a little edge to them.

So, it wasn’t quite the sell out I had imagined. I can’t lie about my disappointment-I know I have a product here, I just need to find my market. I refuse to stop loving this past time that I’m passionate about. 

So whether this works out or not, Punkee Pixie is here to stay, folks!