Frustration

I am having so many issues with my project just now.  I ordered custom sized peacock feathers and only 12 arrived.  I contacted the woman who sold them to me, and now I am receiving twelve more, but that only makes 24 peacock feathers... and I need closer to 60 or 70 peacock feathers.  The woman does not have any more peacock feathers in that size, because she has to buy them wholesale and she will not have them until next Friday which is one day after my project is due.

I am so stressed about this project.  I'm not entirely sure what to do about this lack of feathers.  I am going to keep the model this size, or not purchase larger feathers, because I like the model in this scale.  I will figure out what to do about the lack of other feathers.

Deep breaths... that's what I keep telling myself.

Display Progress

So far I know EXACTLY what I'm doing with this project -- I have finally decided measurements for my final project.

These are my very basic sketch models I have begun:

So, I have everything -- all the ideas, colors, shapes, sizes, etc.  I just have to build.  I am going to go start that now

Inspiration for Display

I almost want to build an actual peacock for this project.  And then possibly hollow out its chest (that sounds so gruesome) and put all of the little eyeshadow boxes in there.

I also have thought of doing something more like this:

And where there are peacock feathers I would instead place the eyeshadow boxes.  I think I might go in this direction as opposed to building an actual peacock.  Two reasons: 1) I don't know that I can build an actual peacock, and 2) I think this second idea is a better way to dispense of the eyeshadows.  It's easier to grab one off of its own individual shelf

Some other images I found that I may try to work with should I choose to add branding to this display:

On a slightly unrelated note: As a dancer I found this video very beautiful and very intriguing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwFHA7DjQcU

03. packaging

This project was really difficult for me.  I struggled a lot with an idea.  I'm 95% sure the reason I struggled was because I just got stuck, and any idea but the one I had originally thought up seemed wrong.  I started off wanting to use the face I had designed for the branding project, but the fact that she had a turban made it seem like the product was more targeted towards a specific culture, as opposed to being targeted towards anyone who uses stage makeup.

I played with the idea of using a booklet for the eyeshadow:

But I didn't have a reason for the shape and I didn't like the layout (the zebra print served no purpose -- it was simply the paper I used).

From there I thought of different types of boxes I could use.  I thought of origami and how some boxes all come out of one sheet of paper and how I like that idea.  So I began to play with origami:

But then...why?  Why was I using a boxy shape for a feather-themed object?  It didn't make sense.  Which is how my idea slowly developed into creating a box in the shape of a peacock feather.  The interior holds the eyeshadow in the shape of the feather -- it mimics the outside.

This above was my first study model.  I cut out the shape of the feather from a black matte board and put a mirror inside.  The mirror I eventually moved to the inside of the top lid.

Above is what I used to hold the top lid to my base in my final project

This is the top lid with the lace attached and the mirror on the inside.

This is what the exterior of my final looked like.  I put a real peacock feather on the outside -- the shape matches up perfectly.  I'm really happy with it.

This is the interior of the box.  That's three different color eyeshadows in there.  The green and the brown were old eyeshadows I never used that I took out of their original case and put inside.  In order to make the blue eyeshadow I ground up blue pastels (it took nearly half an hour!) into a fine powder that mimicked eyeshadow.  I had to put a very thick layer of glue into each section, let it dry (I allowed it to dry overnight) and then the next morning I put in a tiny bit more glue and slowly and carefully put each color in its proper place.

This is what my living room floor looked like.  It was quite a mess.

Overall, I am very happy with my project.  It took a very long time and I think it really is beautiful.  I wish my craft were cleaner.  I've never really used materials like this before, so it has been a learning process.  Were I to have done it one more time I feel it might have been better, but I really am happy with how it came out.