Category Archives: Photographs

OOAK Work of Art no. 1

Since people seem to think my odd hobby has some coolness to it, I’m about to throw caution and my shyness to the wind and share my first project. Here’s a couple of pics of the Yule gift I gave to our local cougar:

The OOAK Morrighan Barbie wears a hand-made black linen skirt with two full-length slits in the front, laced shut at the front of the hips with copper floss. Her hand-dyed black halter top with mesh sleeves ties at the back. Woven into her left front braid is a pewter feather; another pewter feather is laced with copper floss to her hand-painted spear, along with a black crow feather. On her right hand lands a hand-made raven, wings held wide. Around her waist is tied a hand-tinted miniature of the recipient’s Craft tradition third-degree cords.

And a decent look at the feather cloak which rests on the Morrighan’s shoulders, designed to look like two folded raven wings:

I was really pleased with how the whole doll presents an air of alert motion and activity. For any OOAK fans who stumble across this post as a result of a search engine and who need to know, the Morrighan was created from a Kayla Secret Spells doll, and her face was not repainted: I managed to find one off the shelf who had a perfect disdainful yet amused I-can-see-into-your-soul look on her face that I wanted, without any touch-ups required.

The next doll I’m customising is very different from the active and alert Morrighan, however; I’m trying for a softer, dreamier look. And then there are the three dolls I have sitting to the left of my desk, who are destined to become a shadowbox scene of the three aspects of the goddess Brid: muse, smith, and healer. None of them require repainting, thank goodness, only creating original costumes from the sketches and colour notes I have in my notebook. (Yes, yes, fine: the dolls are Batik Princess, TRU Charity Ball 1997, and Grand Entrance 2 respectively. Happy, fellow OOAKers?)

There. More than I ever thought I’d let anyone know about this hobby. Hey, it’s costuming in miniature: saves money, saves time, and the result isn’t just worn once then hung in a closet.

It’s A Girl!

I have a new baby sister!

Her name is Cordelia, and I get to meet her this weekend.

Yes, my parents now have three Maine Coone cats. My husband joked about the value of their purebred cats almost paying off his remaining student loan. I responded with the observation that it would be difficult to fit three cats in an envelope addressed to the bank.

Well, it would.

Why Me?

We just picked up the photos.

One entire roll didn’t take; something went wrong with the camera. The other roll doesn’t have a single usable picture on it; they’re either too bright (resulting in blinding white skin, red eyes and fuschia lips), or underexposed.

My emotions can’t decide whether to let me be angry, or just cry.

I’ll make an appointment with a professional studio this week. I was trying to avoid this because I hate sitting for portraits. I was more comfortable with someone I know doing the shots. Professional pictures always turn out with me looking like I’m wooden, with a hideous plastic smile. The really horrible part about this is that the poses and shots on the film that came back were good; just over or underexposed.

I think the anger is definitely turning into a desire to just cry.

*Snap*

I truly dislike photo shoots. The one that I have just suffered through was, in fact, relatively painless. Probably because my husband was the photographer.

Why did I force myself through this dreadful process? Because, dear readers, it’s in my contract that the Publisher has the right to use my name and likeness to promote the new series. Hence the need for a likeness to send down.

We used two alternating cameras, just as extra insurance. Different hairstyles, different clothes, different poses. Glasses off, glasses on.

Now we have three rolls of film to develop (yes, there was one in our camera already, and no, I have no earthly idea what’s on it — oh, wait, Elim (muah-hah-hah), and various Yule celebrations, including the now-traditional shot of myself and Roo. Right.)

I’ll get them same-day processed, then HRH and I will pore over the various shots to choose the three best, and I’ll have them enlarged to 8 x 10 formats. Then I’ll Purolate them down to Boston, accompanied by the signed contracts that arrived in today’s mail.

If nothing else, I’ll have piles of photos to send to my grandmother and my parents and such.

Cello Stuff

It’s official – I’m playing in Cantabile’s November 15 concert. Details are below on the left in the Performing box. If you’re a fan of vocals or choral music, this is the one to go to; Puccini’s Messa di Gloria is something else again.

And look what I found: photos from the LCO Canada Day concert! This is a beautiful shot of my back:

Yes, that’s the lovely black linen dress I found for summer concerts. Too bad you can’t see the shoes I found to go with it…