Marie Day ~ 1st April ~ Celebrate The Year that was Marie Antoinette ~AND JOIN IN FOR MY FIRST EVER GIVE A WAY TOO !!!

Well today marks the day that Marie the Magazine from Stampington is out.
A magazine filled with all art dedicated to Marie Antoinette ~ and if you didn't know by now ~ though you must do ~ she was the beautiful, lavish and highly stylish Last Queen of France.

Back in 2007 (seems a life time ago now) I embarked on a beautiful project along with 3 other talented women  Holly  Heather  and Natasha - see this POST .it was an International Round Robin on the theme Marie Antoinette ~

We submitted our books to Stampington in the hope that they might feature our work. So when they told us one small feature would not be enough and that they wanted to use our work and another group effort to put into a new publication called Marie we were thrilled. A call for more Marie inspired work and months of eye candy later Marie is born!!

So we are celebrating by having a Marie Day, and each of us have a giveaway too ~ so please go visit the other 3 girls - see their links in red white and blue, and if you have come from them thank you for visiting !!!!

Holly's and Heathers Covers were featured in all their glory.
Natasha created equally stunning work, embellishing her work with the most beautiful and exotic trims. Gorgeous work on display.

Then came my pages  ....(this was the picture I took below )

  
But I have to be honest and say the Magazine photograph of my  page above  is looking a bit smashed up and bleached out. Not how I remember it at all.

The inside page of the corset is ment to visualise a door opening onto a world that was hushed up, of partying and affairs, dangeous liasons.

My Marie page  as seen in the magazine, still very bleached out ~ all details kind of lost in the blur.

Below is the picture I took. Thats my girl  :-) thankfully she is all in one piece.
 ( I used my daughters image for Marie ... see how I turned her into Marie below )

Marie with a little more detail, all these petticoats lift up to reveal an embellished shoe underneath.

I thought it might be nice to show you how I came to create my Marie page before it was submitted and share with you some of the inspirational historical art and film that inspired my round robin page.
Original portraits of Marie below served as perfect inspiration.

 As did costume from the film Marie Antoinette by Sofia Copolla seen above..
This Picture below inspired Heathers corset page.

I created a few hairpieces for this project too and loved all the twisting and coiffuring LOL.

 So giving away a little secret here and talking hair do's ~my own daughter got a make over of a whimsical
 kind, with various  poses in corset and skirt we ended up with this picture for the pose, however the face was looking the other way and I wanted her staring straight through the lens at me.


 

so a few twists and tweaks and close ups of her face in various positions I finally found the look I was after, ironically this picture was taken just before she headed off for her Prom and so her look was filled with all the nerves and fear of the unknown, of how her evening would unfold. A perfect look for Marie Antoinette.

then a bit of photoshop

then a tad of blur

and then dressed

The first page of my book.

The pocket page ( featured) shows one side a pocket page to house info about all 4 girls who took part in the round robin. The other side is Marie ( a paper doll) arriving at Versailles carrying her packages ~ this particular package unfolded provides the story of Marie Antonia of Austria at age 14 travelling to France to marry the young dauphin of France (uncrowned king of France in waiting).

  This beautiful candelabra on the left similar from the era is installed in the Palace of Versailles and originally owned by the Duchess of Windsor. The sweet shape inspired this bird cage for my first Marie page -

I found that researching the historical archives on Marie quite eye opening and extremely interesting. I tried to bring this emotion through on to the pages.

Even while participating in a swap last year I could not resist doing up this little china figurine
re -doing her into a Marie Antoinette image. This little lady went to Cheryl of Rosy Posy Confections

In the Marie Publication you will find many more talented artists all creating some incredible work all in the name of Marie Antoinette. So if you have not bought the magazine do so.

So to celebrate the publication of Marie, Holly, Heather Natasha and me Ginny are all doing a giveaway. This will be my first GIVE AWAY . I have decided to put together a collection of trims, fabrics and embellishments ~ many of which were used in the round robin.

Vintage and modern millinery including some beautiful velvet blooms.

Opulent Embellishments, silk antique buttons, silky bobble trim, beaded trim and a gorgous antique french tassel.

TWINKLE* that's PINK
beautiful Blue hand dyed silk velvet,

French Fabrics ~ this one ideal for book covers. Strong and hardy

French embellishmets and Blue Millinenery, ribbons, lace and English and French Rose fabrics

So please come by and leave a comment here ~ (open to the entire world) I will draw a name on the 14th April .I hope that all my visitors that might just look will leave a comment on this occasion ~ you might get lucky you never know.

 Well even though I had a few criticisms of the way my work had been presented in the Marie magazine (its the artist in me) , I am still thrilled to have been included with so many like minded women within these pages of Marie and will never forget the fun I had with my 3 girls across the continents creating our own round robin.
I enjoyed the experience of doing this project so much and  was even invited to join a Marie Art Group. So I look forward to creating many more cakes and dresses in some way or form.

This my final post on our international round robin will serve to be a reminder of the year that was most definitely Marie Antoinette.
xxx to Heather, Holly and Natasha because without you we wouldn't have these beautiful books. Thank you
And thanks to you all for coming by. xx