Ingredients:
- 1 thrifted wedding dress
- 1 seam ripper (to be used with much patience)
- 1 thrifted slip
- Gold dye from Walmart
- 1 construction lamp
- 1 off camera flash
- 1 ping pong ball
- 1 flashlight
- 1 very patient mother
- 1 bottle gold body paint
- 1 younger sister willing to be painted entirely gold
- A handful of smoke bombs
- A desire to create
Directions:
Last week I shared my newest piece Magic’s Origin, which means this week you get to see all the behind the scenes details! This may or may not be my favorite part. Let’s face it: I’d be a horrible magician because I always want to share my secrets!
In my blog post for Magic’s Origin, I shared where the inspiration for this piece (true “magic” comes from the heart). In my mind, I had envisioned a girl all in gold, slightly bent over, cupping a small ball of light in her crossed hands. Because the image was so clear in my mind, there were three aspects of this piece that were crucial I got right: the makeup, the costuming, and the lighting.
On a Saturday shortly after feeling inspired to create this piece, I ventured to my two favorite thrift shops in the area, on the hunt for two items in particular. I had seen a dress on pinterest several weeks prior that came to my mind immediately when I first began to plan out this piece, and so I knew what I needed. I would use a slip as the inner part of the dress, and a wedding dress as the outer.
While the slip was relatively easy to find, I had to do a bit more digging for the wedding dress. Towards the end of my search, near the checkout counter of the Saugus Salvation Army, hung a fabulous, 80s-tastic wedding dress (fully laced and trimmed) for a grand total of $30. Knowing the amount of lace I needed (and how much it would cost to buy the lace new from the craft store), I snatched the poor monstrosity up and brought her home. The girl at the cash register, of course, thought I was crazy, asking me if I was getting married. I hope I looked a little bit more sane when I told her I was repurposing it, and not walking down the aisle to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”.
I think she half believed me.
Once I got the dress home, I begin to pick off every piece of lace and remove the chiffon outer skirt. With an armful of lace now at my disposal, I got our biggest pot in the house and some gold dye from Walmart and spent the next 30 minutes stirring a lacey, golden concoction over the kitchen stove. Confession… I may have felt a little bit like a witch watching over her magical brew…. but with fewer toads and snails….
I had decided I would use my younger sister when I went home to Arkansas the first weekend of May to visit, so a few days later I packed up my half finished dress and props and headed for the airport. I’m sure TSA was wondering why someone was bringing their entire craft cupboard with them on vacation…. I’m just hoping they’ve seen stranger things than that.
Once in Arkansas, I was able to finish the dress and, after family dinner on Sunday night, set up the image in my parent’s garage behind the house. My sister sat patiently on a stool in the kitchen while I spent the next hour painstakingly painting her arms, chest, and face gold, doing her hair, and getting her ready to be the personification of Magic’s Origin. Armed with a sister covered head to toe in gold, my camera, an off-camera flash, a red silky bedsheet, and a construction lamp, we started to set up in the garage. Using the bed sheet to provide a plain background, I started to experiment with the various “lighting equipment” I had at my disposal, which included a speedlight, a flashlight with a ping-pong ball taped to the end, and a large construction lamp.
I promise this is going somewhere….
Since studio lighting is something I don’t have much practice in and no formal training or instruction, it took quite a bit of trial and error. In the end, the final result was created by three different lights:
- A filtered flash about ten feet off to the right hand side of the frame, providing the fill light to illuminate the overall picture,
- My “ping pong ball light” held between her hands, to create the glow of the magical orb,
- And a construction lamp, lying on it’s side behind my sister, pointing up towards the ceiling with a laundry basket placed over it to serve as a large filter (yes, you read that correctly). This was used to create just a touch of backlighting, because I wanted to see the little wisps and flyaways of her hair against the background.
With no formal training and a $0 budget I have been led to try some crazy things, but in the end, I’ve been really grateful for my limited time and budget. It has allowed me to really understand the principle of “where there’s a will, there’s a way” and that all you need is to not be afraid to get a little creative when you hit a stumbling block. All in all, I think this picture cost about $50 to create, but the image that resulted is worth so much more than that. I’ve found that you just can’t put a price tag on creating something that brings you joy. I hope I never lost sight of the satisfaction that comes from that.
Magic’s Origin: The Creation
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