Well when we were asked by Julia, from the wedding blog Brides Up North if they could borrow one of our crowns for an alternative Royal Wedding meets The Sex Pistols inspired shoot my initial thoughts were "which pieces do I have in my studio?" and then I thought "Royal Wedding", "alternative, "red, white and blue", "huge" and my reply was "shall I design you an outrageous new one in red, white and blue?"
Of course the answer was yes and I spent a little while thinking about how I could structure such a crown and how I would apply the red, white and blue. I then remembered a piece of art that I'd seen in a magazine a few years ago which was made of strips of painted drift wood and which formed a union jack and it hit me....draped and intertwined strands of red, white and blue crystals around a deep wire frame. The frame needed to be an integral part of the design- it needed to be seen as well as provide a platform with which to work on. And the wire had to be curled to provide the depth and added texture but this would also enable me to thread the beading through the back, middle and front of the frame so that you weren't just faced with a wall of colour but you have a depth of colour as well which also allowed for interesting glimpses of the alternative colours through the more solid sections. Also by draping the strands of colour we can achieve a more abstract feel which in a crown of this size (and believe me it is big!) helps to soften what could be something quite overpowering if it was all straight lines. Overall there's over 100 metres of wire in this piece.
I also chose the colours and textures of the 3290 Swarovski crystals very carefully. The red was easy - I had to use Siam but I also used Siam Ab to break up the mass of red. And the blue was an interesting one. Many of the "royal wedding" designs I'd seen used the shade sapphire but I knew this would be too dull for this crown so I used capri blue mixed in with crystal metallic blue 2X to give a brighter overall colour with the dark metallic crystals giving a different texture and depth. And to finish I chose white alabaster for its opaque quality. So whilst the blue and red crystals allowed for light to pass through them, the white, the lightest of the colours was a block of colour. This provided an interesting texture to the colour that was to be used the least in the whole design. And then a light draping of silver wire was applied on the outside which served as decoration but also allowed me to tie in and hold some of the beaded drapes.
So after 25 hours of ruining my nails and aching wrists this is what I came up with
God Save The Queen
It was such fun bringing this piece into the world but it only started living when it was used for the purpose to which it was born for.....the photoshoot! The photoshoot itself was organised by the wedding blogger Julia of Brides Up North who also starred in this shoot which was captured by Assassynation. The location was Danby castle and the styling was created by The Fine and Funky Events Company. And with gorgeous gowns and veils from The Harrogate Wedding Lounge,accessories by Wedding and Baby and bunting from Little Bundles Bunting as well as God Save The Queen by yours truly this shoot had a wonderful alternative feel. But the addition of leather jackets, boots, red shoes, aviators and tees gave the shoot a true punk edge.
Here are a couple of my favourite images from the shoot of God Save The Queen (as I get more images I will add them to the blog) but for the full shoot on the Brides Up North blog click here.
I hope you have found this interesting - I do love being able to give an insight into designs and I look forward to being able to share more images of this shoot with you soon and also share more design insights as well!
So until next time........
