Although my photography business was built upon classic pinup style, I frequently like to venture to the dark side and I think clients have grown to love the look too.
Every Halloween I offer a different photo shoot package, and last year I decided to go a little less obvious with the Halloween theme, and opt for dark, sultry, macabre instead.
My wardrobe at the studio already contains a large amount of corsets, stockings and suspenders, so I set about making my own accessories to add to these items, in order to create that more gothic pinup feel I was looking for.
My first creation was a crown made only of items I already had in my craft stash!
First cable ties were added to a plain black plastic hairband. I then cut the ties to size, alternating the lengths to create a halo effect. I then added a layer of artificial rose heads to the band using a glue gun, and sprayed everything gold. Leaving just the tips of the cable ties black for an ombré effect.
I added some black glitter covered rose petals, left over from a previous project and filled in the gaps with tiny paper roses, with the final touch of a winged scull motif to the centre to finish.
A very simple but effective project, that took no more than 20 minutes to make.
It's amazing what you can create with cable ties!
Next up on my crafting list was a pair of skull epaulettes. I purchased some hollow plastic skulls, and cut the base away to make space to sit over the shoulders. I sprayed the skulls gold and using my trusty glue gun again fixed feathers, sequin appliqués, netting and beads to each skull.
The edges were left a little raw from where I had sawn them away, so I carefully trimmed the edges with black ribbon, to make them more comfortable to wear.
Again all of these items (besides the skulls) I already had in my crafting stash, so these epaulettes cost me a grand total of just £9.99.
My final make was another crown, which was a spruced up horn headdress from the 99p store. I added some left over gold leaf to the base of the horns, some feathers (sprayed gold), and another awesome find at the 99p store, a plastic spider. Which again, I sprayed gold.
This look was hugely popular with my clients and it's definitely something I plan to do more of in future, as I steadily build my more gothic wardrobe at the studio.
As always, all images are my own.