Excuse Her Nakedness - She's A Work In Progress

For some time now I have been searching for a good display for my necklaces, for my photos in the shop. I have found all the usual suspects. The velvet bib-shaped ones are too generic for my taste. The mannequins are pretty cool, but a bit of a stretch on my budget. I thought for a long time that it would be really cool to make my own. Well I finally did it this weekend!

I found a tutorial here that helped me a lot: http://aboutbyamber.blogspot.com/2009/02/tutorial-making-paper-mache-display.html
This is your basic foam-core papier mache bust. It was wonderfully messy! It was wonderfully cheap. I used all materials that I already had in my possession! Didn't have to buy a thing!

So here she is! I call her M'Lady. That's the name I give to all my critters and creations if they are too shy to tell me their real names. Well, the girls anyway!
Please excuse her nakedness. She's a work in progress!! I am either going to paint her or cover her with some kind of fabric. I haven't decided which yet. And of course after that "undercoating" I will be dressing her in lovely laces and fabrics for all her photo shoots, not to mention the jewelry of course!!















I also constructed a photo studio. I took a good heavy cardboard box, and cut away the flaps and one side, leaving a three-fold "chamber" with a floor. I covered it all with a white sheet, stapling it on. That way I won't have any ugly brown cardboard showing through my lacy backgrounds. I then attached my clamp lights to the sides and voila!!