Lee Loo And The Articles

Golden Beauty Mermaid Crown | The Articles

This crown is fit for a mermaid!

I don’t make headpieces too often, but when I do, they tend to have absolutely no relevance to anything that I’m currently working on. This one is no exception. As I was looking for other ways, besides sewing, to create this was a fun little side project to keep the inspiration flow going. It was also sitting collecting dust unfinished for the longest time. It was time that I finished this piece.

This mermaid crown headpiece thing was about three years in the making. For awhile, it sat as a giant, plain ring, a could-be would-be headpiece of some sort on my sewing table. After about a year and a half, the shells were added and the first layer of paint when on . It would be another year before it would finally be the headpiece that you see in the photo above.

I figured that this would be perfect for a gold and cream colour scheme. So the first layer of paint was  painting the shells ivory. The front is several large shells glued together. The top of the crown is decorated with small seashells delicately balanced along the rim.  I didn’t have enough shells to go all the way around, so I decorated the back with ‘scales,’ which I had individually hand cut from foam. To clean up a lot of the spaced gaps around the crown, I used dimensional fabric glue.

The rhinestones were added for a nice, glitzy touch to the piece. Okay, it’s a bit gaudy. I will admit that I did go a  wee bit overboard on the stones, but it’s a costume piece and there is no such thing as too much! I also think the gaudiness helps in having the piece transfer nicely in photos. Properly lit, it’ll show the shiny glitzy glam beast that it is. The pearl beading that’s draped around I thought was a nice added touch and looks even better when it’s worn and is draped over hair. It helps to give it that whimsical feel.

The final product is this glitzy piece of golden beauty! I don’t think I have any wardrobe that’ll go with it, but I suppose that’s just the perfect excuse to add some new wardrobe pieces to my collection.

I do hope to be able to use this piece for several different concepts. It’s just too pretty to just for one photo shoot! I’ve already used it once, and afterwards I just knew that I wasn’t done with it yet. So here’s hoping that I can dream up some beautiful concepts a few more times!

♥ Lee

Self-Portraits

Back to the Beginning | Self-Portraits

Last month, I didn’t pick up my camera once to take photos. The month before that, the last time I picked it up was around the middle of the month. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I just wasn’t inspired to. In my step away from social media, I also found myself walking away from my camera as well. I was over and underwhelmed with inspiration, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I needed to reset.

A few years ago, I didn’t go a week without taking a new self-portrait. These days, they’ve become few and far between. In a way, I blame that on my sewing and crafting, as those have become quite time consuming in an oh so very good way.

Looking back at my photography from the beginning until now, there’s definitely been progression made. I’m quite proud of how much I’ve grown and look forward to improving more in the years to come. Of course with growth comes a series of questions:

‘ What kind of photos do I want to create?’
‘Is this what I want to keep creating?’
‘Have I improved, or am I still in the same place a few years ago?’
‘How can I create better photos?’
‘What mood am I going for?’

A few years ago, I had only one question, ‘What photo shall I create today?’ Ah, simpler times…

These days, I use my costumes as leverage to improve my work. Taking photos of a gorgeous dress against a plain backdrop is just boring to me. It’s just not creatively fulfilling to me. I should tell a story with the photo by creating a scene for it. Find the perfect setting. Create the perfect mood. Capture that perfect moment. Telling stories with my photos. That’s pretty much where I’m at now creatively.

But now, I’ve found myself scrolling through my past work and thinking about my frame of thought when I was creating. I feel as though I’ve lost a part of that inspiration, so I’m going back to the beginning and combing some of the knowledge I have now with what I did then to see what becomes of it. It could completely suck and turn into some terrible work. Then again, it could turn into some of my best to date. Challenge Accepted!

In the coming weeks/months, I’m aiming to create a variety of simple as well as more involved pieces of work. I’m hoping the mix of concepts will bring me a sense of satisfaction as an artist as well as to keep my inspirational flow consistent.

The above photo was taken a couple days ago. It was a simple photo shoot against a white backdrop. I knew that I just wanted a series of black and white photos. Nothing crazy. Just something simple. I’ve just had a growing love for black and white photography in recent weeks. So perhaps I’ll start with that…

♥
Lee

Lee Loo And The Articles

Florals and Faeries | The Articles

As I clear up my space and put some order to the madness, I found that I have a nice collection of artificial flowers. By nice, I mean I had so much that these just needed to go! This is one of the creations I was working on during my time off.

I started with making a simple strappy dress using a green and white floral fabric . I gave it a pointed hem. I was limited on how much fabric I had with this, so I gave it a bottom layer of a light olive colour fabric. I wanted something slightly adjustable in sizing, so I ruched the waist with several rows of elastic. as well as a zip on the back. This was going to be my green faerie.

The leaves and flowers on this dress were hand sewn onto the dress. I could have opted for a much faster solution by just using my trusty hot glue gun to attach them, but I was afraid that I’d be too indecisive with the placement of the flowers. I didn’t quite build out the layout that I wanted. So hand sewing it was just in case I wanted to change things up.

I changed it up at least three times.

The edges are raw for the time being. I might distress them a bit more to make it a little more whimsical. Other than that, I think the one thing that’s missing now is a headpiece. So that’s something to consider adding to my list of projects!

This was a fun piece to create. The hand sewing was a bit time-consuming, but looking at the final results, it was worth it. This is definitely something I’d like to create more of. I still have plenty of leaves and flowers left over, so why not!

♥
Lee

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Model. Wardrobe Mistress. Sometimes Photographer.

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