Introduction to Abbelita

For my final major project I am creating a brand of silicone skin jewellery pieces. These will be presented on a website which will I be creating. Initially I decided to use a website builder such as wix but I don't think that this will give me enough freedom in the design so I will be learning how to use Adobe muse to create my own website. To ensure that I am confident in using this program I will be attending the two weeks of web design IT support classes during February, as well as looking at tutorials online and experimenting online.

I have chosen to name this brand "Abbellita", which is an Italian word meaning beautified or embellished. I thought this was fitting for my project as I really want these pieces to be delicate beautiful embellishments which challenge the current views on scarification in a similar way to how Peter Philips challenged the ideas about tattoos by introducing delicate temporary tattoos to the Chanel Paris catwalk for spring/summer 2010.

I would like this website to feature lots of high quality, high fashion images featuring the designs as accessories showing the versatility of the designs so that they are made appealing to consumers interested in fashion as well as make up artists and stylist looking for something different to add to a look that they are creating. I have been discussing shooting with a third year photography student and am currently creating mood boards for initial shoot ideas which I will be discussing with her to ensure that we are on the same page and have an understanding of the type and feel of the images we will be creating. I will also need to find stylists to work with to help me create the images I would like to create as styling is something I feel I may struggle with and while I might challenge myself and style a shoot or two I feel like due to toe amount of work I will be doing on this project it would be more sensible to delegate some of the responsibilities. I will be looking for models through websites such as modelmayhem and trying to get aspiring models looking to broaden their portfolio as with the cost of producing the designs I will not have much money left over to pay models for their time. Having said that, the models will need to be comfortable in front of the camera and have a beautiful high fashion look to them to give a professional final shoot outcome.

Currently my biggest challenge is time management. The designs themselves take at least 8 hours to create in the plasteline before they can be cast in the silicone. This makes the project more difficult as many designs that have been sketched or created on the computer often won't work in the plasteline and therefore won't work in the silicone as they are too intricate so blending them becomes very difficult. Money is also a challenge as silicone is an expensive material so it is imperative that the plasteline designs are accurately sculpted and cleaned before casting.

I believe that to ensure that the final pieces I produce are the best quality I need to be a lot more proactive in looking for inspiration, documenting it and then sketching design ideas before taking them to mentor sessions and showing them to academics and peers for feedback.