The Mermaids shoots

 You book a short holiday in Wales, on the Pembrokeshire coast – and within seconds of imagining the wild beaches and rocky formations you have an idea – the place is a perfect scenery for a mermaid themed shoot! And once the idea was hatched, there was no looking back. It might still be cold in mid April, but we have shot in colder conditions – and so the two months before saw me accumulating ideas and bits of fabric and props that could be useful.

 Out of that,  three different looks emerged, only 2 of which actually required my dressmaking skills. We came up with a regal mermaid, a warrior one, and a funky natural one….

 The location was sourced and agreed on – Freshwater West beach was perfect –  big, lots of places  suitable for shooting and facing west – so sunset light a bonus.

 In the end I only had a day to actually work on the mermaids proper, as was busy working on commissions, but the day was enough, and since i took my sewing machine with me (  did I mention at some point that it was a holiday?), I could finish things  in Wales.

  And the results – below….

 1. Regal mermaid….

 This one took the most work as i was making a corset from the scratch.

basic design

 

The corset was made out of biscuit coutil with a gold net overlay and gold leather elements. The layers on the panels were roll pinned  first and then the leather was secured with a tape

 

then the panels were stitched together.

 

The corset was boned with spring and flat steels, flossed with a turquoise linen thread and then the fun began – i had to sew on the pre-prepaed shells and fins. the shells were drilled first and  painted with glitter glue; the fins were made from 2 layers of corsetry mesh, boned with artificial whalebone and painted as well.

  The shells were also made into necklace and bracelet –  credit to my hubby who made them!

making the fins for the corset, and other bits:-)

 

The skirt was made out of a length of gold fabric – and we were all set for the first shoot. Since we visitied Pembroke castle on our way to the beach, to chat with a friend, it meant I had to apply the make up and do the hair on the location, which meant – in the car. not the best experience ever, I must say….

 But in the end, I managed to get changed, and off we went shooting….

2. The  Natural Mermaid.

This one was the simplest one – and a bit of an add -on.  while researching I came across places selling proper mermaid tails, with monofin etc – so usable.  and I just couldn’t  resist them…..  I suspect the tail and fin will be used at some point in an underwater shoot….. 🙂

was so excited when the thing arrived, i simply had to pop it on…

 So here the bottom half was sorted, and for the upper one, I have recently purchased a swimsuit in matching colours ( Panache), to provide some decency in the majority of the shoot ( we did find a nice enclosed area for some more indecent ones, far from prying eyes…. 🙂 . the wig and the make up and we were ready to go.

 Or rather – to wriggle.  it turns out that this one was the most challenging  of the whole mermaids – mostly due to the constraints of the attire ( hopping across the beach with the tail cost me some bruises…) and difficulty of finding a pose that would look  natural, graceful, and most importantly, not show too much of my own blubber.  I am not your typical size 8 model shape, and although size 12 is not bad, it soon turned out that it was tricky to find flattering poses. As a result, the majority of the photos were marked as  ‘walrus’  and discarded ( I don’t really hold with the photoshoping tricks changing the shape of a body… wysiwyg philosophy here), still, a few survived the purge…..

 We were lucky in picking up the warmest day too – so I wasn’t cold, and even water was not too bad!

3. The warrior mermaid.

 This one was the most fun, and the most in keeping with my own personality, as I do martial arts ( and have been doing one form or other of them since I was 17, including fencing, weapon sparring, kung fu, MMA etc). The styling was fun too –  not a lot of work involved with a great effect – my favourite!

  Here the most important pieces was the scale maile bits I had on loan from a friend – there were 2 bits that could form a skirt, and a few other ones, including a nice headgear/necklace. I simply mounted the skirt bits and the shoulder bit onto  leather strips – and that was it:-)

 Corset – since I ran out of time, I used one of the corsets i already made and used in the Steampunk Amazones shoot.  And, once I put it on,  it turned out, oh joy! that I have dropped at least a size since I last wore it – in the autumn I had over 2 inches gap at the back  ( the corset was originally made to a different model measurements) – but now I could  lace it up close without any special effort ! :-). Kinky metallic leggings and a swathe of sequiny fabric made up the rest – and as an afterthought we  used  the fabric from the Regal mermaid as a mantle.   The weapons  – we had a knife but mostly used an Indian guard spear shaft with a harpoon kind of blade  ( probably Indonesian?) mounted on it.

 The results below…

 and a few close up on the make up and talons…

new style of make up for me – but loved it, especially the gold speckled lenses!

using false nails, first time ever. loved the look, but found it impossible to function and perform the simplest activities… needless to say, the talons were removed first thing after the shoot….

 

post shoot – just to show off the corset….

 

Well, there you have it – 3 different mermaid  themed looks.   Pleased with the photos, but it was hard work  shooting every evening- I think I need another holiday now…

 

credits:

Corsetry, skirts etc – obviously, Prior Attire;

Scale maille – Denise Piggin and Ruth Watkin

lovely dreads  – Magic Tribal Hair

photography – Pitcheresque Imagery

 

the inspiration board on Pinterest

 

And there is even a video on making the shoots on my youtube chanel  – here – the resluts as wel as details on making the costumes, make up etc.

 

and just to end this rather picture heavy post – a few outtakes….

unexpected surge of tidal water… rather cold tidal water….

 

de- mermaided – now i have proper legs!

 

just plain scary……

 

Lucas at work