This idea stems back to the fall, just after shooting week 44 in Harbour Maine! Myself, Drew & Maisy were all gathered around the island in her parents kitchen chowing down on some Goulash, and The Chronicles Narnia was on. The scene with the precious pink Dryad started, and immediately the wheels started turning. Drew must have noticed how hard I was staring at the screen, because he looked at me and said 'Oh god, you want one, don't you?'- Of course the answer was yes!
Within the next day or so we picked up a bunch of wire, and attempted a few different methods of wrapping the wire around one of my many bustforms to make a stable shape, that we could actually remove from the form when the time came. By the third try we had it, but it was time consuming. Drew started in on the torso, and made a base for me to add to. It was quite the process, and it was a slow one. The tips of my fingers were tender for a few days after. Once the torso was complete, I started in on an arm (I have a few of those kicking around too). Sadly, the amount of time in between starting the torso and continuing to finish the arm is a few weeks, and by then it was too late for my initial 'farewell to summer' concept, so we moved the wire figures downstairs to make room for other ideas.
Fast forward to Wednesday evening past, when I was attempting a brainstorm session, and decided I would create a floral dress masterpiece for week 3, but I needed my bust form from downstairs. I brought it up, removed the wire skeleton, and started to build my dress!...only to realize I didn't have the flowers I thought I did to complete the dress how I wanted, and I kept staring at the wire form across the room. It was of course in that moment I decided I was determined enough to get the form complete, to shoot for Sunday.
Unfortunately, free time wasn't something I had in spades, so the bulk of the work in completing my Dryad was done Sunday morning. I got up early, tossed on the greatest showman, and started wrapping wire around the various parts. When Drew got up, he was tasked with the leg (which he started and finished while I was still working on the head). When we finally completed the wire skeleton, we hung her from the giant archway in the living room, so I could magic her up with the vines!
We set up in one of my favourite places, however as it was a not windy Sunday, every snowshoer/skier and their dog was out and about, so there was nothing secret about this location. To give her the floating look, Drew strung her up to my backdrop stand which we set up to be well above my head (typically if I suspend anything for a photo, that's how!).
Despite what the finished image shows, she does have a lot of detail to her! She has hair, a nose that's hard to see, a lady figure, and many separate vines for the other arm + leg. My original plan was to tie up each strand of her hair, as well as the vines for her arms and legs to make her look more flowy and magical, but by the time we finished and got ready and set out, we were pushed for daylight, and it was like -15 so the fingers could only do so much moving before threatening to fall off!
She will definitely make a return in the future, as I feel there is still so much to do with her! Perhaps with a mini-series of adventures..?