Enchanted Dream Queen (#8, #9, #10)

I was blessed to grow up with so much diversity. I have parents that have taught me from a young age to love and accept all of God’s creation on the earth below and in the Heavens above.  Although I was raised LDS (Mormon) and I am still a practicing member of the church, I have always been fascinated with different cultures & spiritual beliefs. I grew up in a house with a very strong musical influence which will one day be center of one of my enchanted photo shoot themes, but I also remember that the décor was always culturally themed throughout, with a strong influence of Native American and Asian things. It was so beautiful.

My parents have always loved different cultures, but at one point in the 90’s, my mom was really captivated by the Native American ways and she was drawn to learn everything she could about the people and culture. She began going to pow-wows and conventions and would often take us (usually my sister and I) with her. We took part in hilltop teepee sweat lodges, and my sis and I were even part of a southwestern/Native fashion show! My mom began making hundreds of BEAUTIFUL dream catchers, mandelas, and other things to sell in little shops and for personal orders. The calm & loving nature of the people we met, was so inviting. They really wanted us to find our connection with Mother Earth and learn how to care for ourselves, others and nature.  

A man who my mom believed to be a shaman of some kind, but would humbly say he wasn't, taught us a lot. In the 90's, he was the president of the Thousand Oaks, California Native American Council. When I was about 11 years old, he and I were asked to be on a short episode of a children’s show called Tots TV. He was dressed in his ceremonial clothing and with several other kids; we planted and blessed a tree. I am still trying to figure out where it was planted because I would LOVE to go back someday! I’m hoping to be able to get a clip of the show to put on this blog posting in the future!

People, who know me personally, know that I love to sing. My grandma sings, my dad sings and my sister and I sing. Pocahontas is still one of my favorite Disney characters, especially because of her love for nature and her beautiful songs.  My sister even sang “Colors of the wind” at a Native American meeting. It’s an amazing song. So moving along to the present day… a few months back when I first started this entire enchanted project, Andrew and I went up to Mt Charleston at 5:30 in the morning. The air was cool and calm, the lighting was blue and a little hazy, and there were deer EVERYWHERE! I was tiptoeing through the woods in my PJ's while Andrew watched from the car. I was trying to walk slowly so I wouldn't frighten the deer, as I looked for locations to do some of my enchanted shoots. A few of the deer pranced up onto the nearby hill and watched my every move. When I would walk east, they would walk east. When I walked west, they walked west and continued to stare at me, hardly caring about anything they were originally doing. Like I've said before, I’m a bit of a nature loving hippie so I really like to get a feel for my surroundings; picking up dirt and rocks, touching trees, sitting on the ground, just trying to get a feel for inspiration. As I was doing this and seeing how the deer wouldn't take their eyes off me, I began to sing out loud……”You think you own whatever land you land on….the earth is just a dead thing you can claim….but I know every rock and tree and creature…has a life, has a spirit has a name….”. I giggled at myself thinking how corny I was, but then I was overwhelmed with the thought of creating a Native American fairy! I went on to find the location for my first shoot “enchanted indigo” and we drove home. That day, I pulled up to a stoplight behind a car that had a dream catcher hanging from rear view mirror. The inspiration for a headpiece and wings came rushing into my mind!

As I've said before, dreams are a big part of my life. Being uplifted by beautiful dreams and learning from the ones I’d call nightmares is just something I've learned to do. I think that God wired us to need sleep for a reason and what happens in that state shouldn't always be taken so lightly. It’s been proven that dreams help us to improve things in our waking life. Listen to your dreams, learn from them, and share them. You might find that the more you pay attention and expect them, the more will come your way.

This fairy represents all of this. She symbolizes my love for nature, nighttime, dreams, mystical & magical things, beauty, music and creativity.

Introducing…..

The Enchanted Dream Queen

So this was quite a long blog already! Sorry if you struggle to read like I do. There was just so much to explain with this one. I really like for pictures to speak for themselves, but I like for people to know the stories behind the inspiration.

First let me start by talking about her wardrobe. Like I said above, after having the woodsy inspiration about the Native American fairy and seeing the dream catcher hanging from the rear view mirror, I began to think up ways of creating her wings. I first tried to use long bendable branches, but after making a whole set of 4 dream catchers and having them snap, I decided to use something sturdier. I shaped wire into 4 large teardrop shapes (2 bigger than the other), individually connecting the ends with electrical tape and then began webbing the center with yarn (I’m cheap). I spray painted the silver wire, brown and then glued the beading and jewels on separately. I connected the left 2 together and the right 2 together and then spent some time creating a mount that could easily slip down into the corset top. Those were ready to rock n’ roll within a few weeks of tweaking and perfecting.

Her top was very interesting as you can see below in the behind the scenes pics. I found a real suede jacket at the Goodwill and decided that I would become Frankenstein with it because I love the color and I had a vision for it. I put it up on my mannequin, took some measurements and very fearfully started making cuts! I took the sleeves off, then trimmed the shoulders around the back of the neck and took the back off half way down leaving the fringe. I then cut the back in half and trimmed a big chunk off of either side. I wanted to turn this large jacket into a corset, but didn't know where to find the little loops or even how to do it. Thanks to my brilliant husband, he thought of getting regular grommets from the hardware store and we were set. It was NOT an easy task, but by hand I hammered 7 holes into either side of the back and then punched the grommet hoop in as well. It worked!! I was stoked out of my mind about it.

The skirt was pretty simple. I recently finally got a sewing machine! I found some dark brown suede material from joann’s along with some elastic and just made it. Nothing too fancy.

Then I decided to make her crown out of wire as well. I can hardly describe how it was made, lol. Just wire, yarn, beads, ribbon and feathers.

Over a month ago, I sent my friend and makeup girl, Brittany Benko, a drawing (seen below) of what I kind of wanted for my fairy's face. I love giving her these crazy ideas thinking that she’s gonna think I’m nuts, but then the reply I get back is…..that’s rad! I can’t wait to practice! Shes such a go-getter and is always up for the challenge! I just love her to pieces!

I have a friend in the wedding industry, Kevin. He owns the company LED Unplugged.  He rents out a lot of cool things for events, but he specializes in lighting. Up-lighting is gorgeous at weddings. It makes the room so magical and really transforms pictures. I always recommend it to couples getting married. For this particular enchanted creation, I wanted that lighting, but out in the woods, shining up the trees. I was SO thankful when Kevin said he was happy to help me out! This would obviously not be the same without it!

So my model Melanie Boyer…..Ummm yes, she is GORGEOUS! I actually originally posted on Facebook...”does anyone know anyone who looks like Pocahontas?” (Really slick, Kira! Lol) I was getting so many replies. So thankful for everyone who was willing to share a friend, but right in the middle of the comment thread, this client of mine came into my mind! Yes! Melanie! I thought. And then I get a personal message from a mutual friend of me and Melanie, saying that Melanie would be perfect. My mind was already made up, but this just confirmed it. I text her and so was totally willing and excited! She was SOOO cool with the process and comfortable! She had to work with me being so quiet and not saying much for the first few minutes of the shoot. It takes me a bit to get my feet wet and figure out what the heck I'm doing. She totally nailed it!

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I went out to this location and tested just 2 lights. He was my model and the shots of him turned out pretty amazing actually so I had to post! He's lookin pretty smokin if I do say so myself!! I love my man!! He is so supportive, believes in me and helps me so much!! I also tried to snag some starlight pictures too! It was kinda fun and I really want to do that again sometime!

OK so that all brings us up to date! We got up to Mt. Charleston around 7:20pm. We started setting up and getting a feel for posing, lighting etc. It got dark VERY quick! 6 bright blue & orange LED lights shinning down to the ground or up in the trees! I can only imagine what this looked like from the road which wasn't too far. We could see cars, including an ambulance and fire truck slow down as they drove passed. We were close enough that the lights could be seen but for sure far enough that you'd have to have binoculars to see us. I'm sure they were wondering what the heck was going on. I fully expected to be approached by some officers, but no one ever came...maybe it was too scary for them haha!! If you see anything about an alien sighting in Mt Charleston this week.....you'll know why! That would actually be super cool! Andrew was such a champ at moving lights up and down, side to side, and trying to snag "behind the scenes pictures at the same time. He is amazing! I hope you enjoyed and I hope you like looking at some of these preparation pics!!

Behind The Scenes...

Beginning idea for the makeup......

How her corset started from the Goodwill and how I transformed it.... (sorry, my phone was being silly and only taking black and white pictures for a while)........

Knocking the grommets in

Me sewing for the first time!

The Wings!....

The Headpiece......

The whole shabang........

My sexy model hubby on our trial run out in Mt Charleston.....

Never done starlight photography before but decided to try... totally blurry but still kinda cool!....

The Makeup!.....

Shooting in the dark!..... I LOVE these pictures Andrew got with his iphone!! This one below looks like the real moon!!

Checkin out some of the pics!!