I stumbled upon an amazing shop called So High, also on Berwick Street. In there I spotted some plastic fruit which inspired me. These fruits caused a delay on shoot-day as it proved hard to find a way of suspending them in a good position. Luckily, one of the sitters brought a friend, so I enlisted her help in holding the fruit strategically in place. This is where a little luck comes in, to help with proceedings! Other items I found in So High were a middle-eastern style turban, a bindhi, lace fingerless gloves, and a choker. Quite an Aladdin's cave.
It is fair to say, that once you put an idea out there and start to talk to others about it, things will come your way. Following the mail-out, a friend responded to say, that despite not wanting to participate she had a few props that maybe useful, so I paid her a visit and borrowed, amongst other things, the towelling turban which is an ingenious item that was sent as a gift from her cousin in Australia!
On my first shopping trip I secured at most, five backgrounds, so I was feeling a little anxious. I had found a beautiful hand-made paper that conjured up images of rock formations in my head, and spotted a wonderful paper of delicate ferns in Liberty. I kept that one in mind as they charge silly-money for wrapping paper, but alas I headed back the following week to buy some. Rooting around at home I found a pair of vintage-floral bunny ears left over from a shoot I did some years back - amazing what you accumulate! This led to an idea, and what I considered a stroke of genius! My first thought was to source a material/paper with carrots on, but just a couple of days before the shoot I thought of fake grass, and remembered that a friend of mine had bought some before from a local floor company, so I nipped out of home and secured myself an off-cut of artificial turf! When people wonder what I do all day!!
I had some relative success by 4th October (nine days prior to the shoot) with regard to sourcing backgrounds, but now I think about it, it's a good job I booked a few days holiday the week of the shoot.
During that week I took an afternoon out to Leigh-on-sea. The project was never far from my mind, and so it was in Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe that can be found in many a costal town, I found exactly the kind of lolly I wanted for one of the shots!
My final port of call was Lush on Oxford street. They deal in fresh, handmade cosmetics, so I headed down there a couple of days before shooting commenced. As I walked into the Lush experience, overwhelmed by a swirling sea of scents, I made my way to the fresh face-pack zone: a smorgasbord of textured creams, piled into enamel bowls and laid on a bed of ice like a fish-mongers display. I asked a young assistant for some help, and he soon enlisted the help of a colleague. They were both very excited as I explained the project and I consulted my notebook, trying to piece together the people, the backgrounds and the facepacks.
Their range of Face Packs was exceptional, and I found four face-packs that would work based on colours and ingredients. Unfortunately, I was having trouble justifying the price-tag (£7.50 a pot) as my bill-spend was escalating fast! The girl suggested, 'so you'd like x,y and z, and in this case w too!' She said "I'm going to give you this one, come with me to the till". I could hardly believe my luck - being given a freebie in a huge store on Oxford Street. Thank-you Lush lady!
