At least once a year in morning assembly she would mention the statue of the greek god of Opportunity, Kairos. She would tell us that every depiction of this god was of him running or on the wing. Now when you are aged between 11 and 18 and you've heard this story a few times, I fully admit the yawn factor kicked in. But even though at the time it usually went in one ear and straight out the other it must have stuck in there somewhere because I found myself remembering this story and contemplating its meaning a few weeks ago when I was approached by my friend Vikki to submit some pieces for a photoshoot.
It started off as a "I've got a friend of a friend" approach which we soon realised was a bit bigger than first thought. Initially I was a bit reluctant to do this because I am right in the middle of wedding season and at this time of year I am at the beck and call of all my lovely customers. The shoot was being done because the photographer wanted to broaden his portfolio and wanted to get into high end editorial work as well as the fashion shoots and art photography that he was doing, so it wasn't as if the shoot was being done for my benefit! At first it sounded like he would be using Vikki's dresses and my pieces for a Snow Queen themed shoot. Then it turned out that designers like Basia Zarzycka were involved as well and the shoot was going to be held at Chiswick House. This was far bigger than we thought it would be and suddenly I had a vision of Miss Miles stood in front of us all saying "the reason that statues of the greek god of opportunity were made to look like they were running is because if you do not grab an opportunity when it is in front of you it will escape you and will not necessarily come your way again". So I fully intended, no matter how busy I was, to grab this opportunity with both hands.
I was asked if I could provide a few of my designs. One of the first pieces to be requested was Jadis (named after the white witch in The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe).
It was lucky that Vikki contacted me on the day that she did because Jadis was about to go off to tiara heaven on that day but I thought I would let her have one last moment of glory!
And as I found out more about the shoot I remembered one of the concept pieces that I was working on. Again another crown at the time of the request it was nowhere near finished but even the state that it was in attracted some interest.
Philomena before
I was then asked if I could finish it so that they could use it in the shoot and from the incomplete concept version it turned into this
Philomena has fantastic texture and the combination of crystal and freshwater pearl strands draped over a twisted wire frame make this piece quite soft and ethereal despite the fact that it is so big.
To complement Philomena I also put together a 5ft beaded chain in quartz, crystal and freshwater pearl called Elfina.
The beauty of long beaded chains such as this is that they are so versatile. You can plait them into long hair, you can wear them like a circlet, you can drape them around your hair loosely or you can encircle a bun with them. They are very soft so they can accentuate an Elven, fairytale or grecian style in an elegant and not too specific a way. And then you have the advantage of either using the piece again after the wedding or you can have the piece converted into an actual necklace and bracelet so you are almost recycling your wedding accessories into more wearable everyday or special occasion pieces.
So was it worth it? Well unfortunately neither Jadis or Philomena were used in the shoot in the end but Elfina was. But that doesn't mean that the experience was wasted. I will get some fantastic images to use on my website and there is potential for some high end magazine coverage and who knows where that will lead. And I finished Philomena who has been "WOWing" everyone who has seen her since she was finished and she will be coming with me to another photoshoot in October and to the National Wedding Show in February. The point is I didn't let the opportunity slip by and opportunities lead to more opportunities even if you don't know where they will be coming from.
So thank you Miss Miles for your inciteful and wise words all those years ago. They obviously didn't fall on deaf ears even if we tried to make out we weren't listening!
Oh and for those of you who are interested we picked the official images from our last photoshoot on Monday so as soon as we have them edited and fiddled with, I'll be blogging them.
