This last week has been a whirlwind of activity and has left me feeling drained but exhilirated. I may as well not beat about the bush and say that I have been nominated as "Scotland's Most Stylish Male" at the bi-annual Scottish Style Awards. This came as a genuine bolt-from-the-blue shock and intially, I thought that one of the students was having a joke with me about my generally dishevelled workshop appearance but it turned out to be genuine and based on the article about me which was in the Scotland on Sunday magazine last year, written by Peter Ross and photographed by Simon Murphy and Andrew Neilson. Some of you will recall the images taken by Simon:


Armour


As you can see, Simon is an amazing photographer and we subsequently worked together on the Enough Violence: Artists Speak Out show at the SCC in Pittsburgh.



I love working with Simon. He is a bundle of energy and bursting with ideas and has an amazing eye for an image and for the details in that image. Andrew Neilson is the photographer I use for my jewellery shots and he has an amazing eye too, but in a very different way:


Macbeth Brooch


One of the things I've learned from working with Andrew is the importance of having not just a good photographer but a great one. If I hasn't started working with him, I doubt that I would have had anything like the success that I have had in recent years with being featured in books and magazines. His images capture the detail and spirit of my work and he instinctively knows which bits of a piece are to be emphasised. When I work with Andrew, the only instruction I give him is "white background" or "black background" and he does the rest.

I noticed on Crafthaus recently that Sharon Massey and Cortland de Witt are putting together a show and book about brooches made for men, Supbrooch. An excellent idea and one about which I am, naturally, very excited and I asked Simon if he could take some shots for me within the very short timespace of the deadline - 22nd November - thinking that we would stick some brooches on my studio technician, Iain, or one of the students or something like that and he asked me for a few days to think about what he could do.

Synthesising a project of his own, my book project and the recent news about my "Style Award", I found myself in the studio with a Simon, his technician, Connor, a stylist, Alan Moore, three models an owl, a Russian eagle, a falcon and a Harris hawk...


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 19


Here you can see Phil from World of Wings, Simon, Connor Close the photography technician, and model Stew Bryden of Superior Model Management. Stew is wearing a Harris Tweed jacket by Alan Moore at Ten30 studios.

In every way, this was a collaboration. The clothes were made by and the shoot was styled by Alan Moore.


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 20


Alan has been making woman's wear for some years and has recently been working with the Harris Tweed Authority to make some test pieces of menswear for them. The jackets in this shoot are the tests and this is the first outing of them in public. I am also really pleased to say that I am going to be wearing one of his jackets at the Scottish Style Awards event on 9th November. Alan also makes a rather good model...


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 25


I particularly love the way the eagle is just about to notice the swallow on Alan's arm!

The three brooches we were modelling were "Imperial Overcoat Star Of The Order Of Aksentii Poprishchin", "Future Legend" and "Richard III", all of which were photographed by Andrew and which we used in various ways on the models:


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 7


Here John Morris of Colours Agency models a jacket based on a traditional fisherman's jacket and my  "Imperial Overcoat Star Of The Order Of Aksentii Poprishchin" with a Harris hawk.  I really like Alan's work as it contains narrative elements of the sort I use in my own jewellery, right down to including embroidered texts in the linings, rather as the back of this brooch is engraved with text from Gogol's "Diary of a Madman".


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 4


Simon giving instruction on how he would like John to stand. I wouldn't be a model - even if I looked the part - for anything! Too much sitting around, standing around, having to do what you are told.


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 18


Here we have Stew Bryden again, modelling my "Richard III" brooch with another of Alan's jackets and a hood/scarf by ChouChou Couture. I was really dubious about this hood until I saw it worn and now I think I would quite like one! Here he is holding a falcon.

The most impressive part of the day for everyone was the chance to handle some of the birds and Phil, the bird handler, was great at letting us all hold them. His Russian eagle is very impressive:


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 24


The final model we worked with was John O'Hagen of The Model Team agency who cut a fine dash in this wonderful 70's-styled dinner jacket based on ideas around Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart:


Photoshoot for "supbrooch" - 30


He is wearing my "Future Legend" brooch.

I have no idea how these guys deal with this. I was exhausted at the end of the day and all I did was clean up bird mess and put brooches on people. It was a brilliant experience and enormously good fun:



And I think that the end result shows that it is not just important but critical that makers work with professionals to promote their work. On the strength of these photographs, I have been asked to write a few words for inclusion in the fashion pages of the Scotland on Sunday.
Also: Sharon, if you are reading this, we are after the cover shot!




There has been a lot going on in the workshop too. Apart from working on my commissioned piece, "Futurism", I've also decided that I want a new piece to wear to the awards event discussed above and so started work on "Verklärte Nacht", a brooch I've been thinking about making for some time:


Verklärte Nacht - WIP - 3


Over the last year, I've been increasingly drawn to corroded barbed-wire and this is the first piece I've made from it.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the text of the original but a lot to do with my response to the sound-world of what is not only a landmark in contemporary music but also one which I find absolutely overwhelming. Made from barbed wire from a collapsed fence in Sussex, a labradorite skull, quartz moon and seven natural brownish diamonds. I've still to polish and patinate it but that will be done today.

"Futurism" progresses:


Futurism - WIP - 13


I should get a lot more of this done next week.

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Comment by The Justified Sinner on November 8, 2013 at 9:01am

Yes, my main job on the day was clearing up bird mess! Otherwise, they were amazingly calm and well-behaved. They even spread their wings on cue.

I didn't bring most of this together. It was Simon who did most of the work. He has amazing vision.

Comment by 2Roses on November 8, 2013 at 8:54am

I admire your acumen and resolve to organize a photoshoot of this scope and pull it off for pennies on the dollar. The birds are a brilliant touch. Having done photo shoots with animals I appreciate the complexity that this introduces into the mix. For those of you who haven't done it, bringing an animal, particularly one that is not specifically trained for photos, into a studio environment usually freaks the animal out to some degree. This means that you have an erratic, often uncooperative element in the mix. And, one I might add, that is prone to biting, s******* and acting up at the most inopportune times and places.  All the more respect for pulling off a magnificent set of photos.

Comment by The Justified Sinner on November 8, 2013 at 1:21am

Oh! That is expensive... I suppose knowing the photographer and him knowing that he can sell the shots to a newspaper - just heard that we have the cover of the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper here on 10th November - and therefore not paying him makes it a lot cheaper. I can't imagine that the models are more or less expensive there, though these guys are fairly "new faces" so will be less than established models.

Comment by 2Roses on November 7, 2013 at 8:59am

Based on that generalized cost, I'm coming to Scotland to shoot. Doing something like this in LA would easily be upwards of $5000-$8000.

Comment by Harriete E Berman on November 5, 2013 at 10:22am

Thanks for this insight into the model photography session. 

In a presentation for the  SNAG  Professional Development Seminar, the Q & A discussion and the speaker offered great insight into finding models or catching the eye of editors. 

Audience member Jana Brevick suggested contacting modeling agency for  "new faces". The models may work for free or less because they are looking to build their portfolio.

10 Tips for Catching & Keeping an Editor's Attention by Michell...
(Listen all the way to the end for the tip on finding models.)

Harriete

Comment by The Justified Sinner on November 5, 2013 at 1:13am

Harriete, the models were found by a combination of contacts and looking at agency lists of models. There was a fourth model whom we really wanted but he was unavailable. In terms of finance, the models and the bird-handler were paid. The jackets were "on loan" and the stylist is also the maker of the jackets, so that didn't cost anything. The photographer was not paid by me or the tailor as he is going to sell the shots to the agencies and to a fashion magazine in a Sunday newspaper. (One of the agencies has already taken some of the shots: the advantage of this is that the brooch is then credited in the agency list.)

I am not prepared to talk about the actual costs of anything as this is private between the people concerned and myself but the overall cost, including studio hire and the photography technician would be somewhere just under $1500 which works out at around $280 per useable shot. Most of this is tax-deductible, however.

In this case, I genuinely did very little. I spoke to Simon and told him what I was after. He did all the rest. If you have a good photographer, that is how it works.

Comment by Harriete E Berman on November 4, 2013 at 6:00pm

I'd like to know the details if I can ask.
How did you find the models?

How much did the model cost?

How about the bird handler?

Were these models, birds, the bird handler paid for the photo shoot. I also assume that the photographer was paid. So how many $1,000's did this cost.

So sorry to ask the nitty gritty details....but it would help the rest of us figure out how to organize our own photo shoot at this level.

Harriete 

Comment by The Justified Sinner on November 4, 2013 at 8:32am

Lora, thanks for your kind words about my sense of style! It has to be said that I had to delete a couple of comments from my Flickr posts about the guys in the photoshoot as they were indecorous to say the least! When we were going through the model catalogues to select them, I let the photographer do most of the work: I wasn't sure about Stew - who definitely gave us the strongest image in the end - and I didn't want John O'Hagen at all but yet again, Simon knew exactly what he was doing and the results are spectacular.

 

Brigitte, thanks for sharing that!

Comment by Lora Hart on November 4, 2013 at 8:24am
Well, this post should make hearts swoon all over the world. In addition to the beautiful men, those birds are making my heart pitter pat a bit too. Congrats on being recognized as one of Scotland's Most Stylish Males. I've always thought you were the best dressed bearded bloke in the northern hemisphere. :)
Comment by Brigitte Martin on November 4, 2013 at 7:53am

Sharon Massey commented on Sharon Massey's blog post Call for Entry: Sup Brooch

"Wow, Dauvit, I just saw your blog post. Impressed!!!"

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