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.