Meet my assistant : Minuet! :)

According to Wikipedia minuet means  a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. But for me, it means my new assistant :) 

When I opened my shop on etsy, I had no clue about how to take photos in my house. Downstairs doesn`t get most of sunshine because of the huge tree in front of the house, upstairs is perfect in the morning to get sunlight but it isn`t big enough to shoot photos from a distance. 

I took photos upstairs but they were not good enough to show my items. I thought I needed help, an assistant. I told my husband about it and decided to check if we could find a mannequin at car boot sale or charity shop. 

One day he came with her! He found my assistant hiding in the attic of our community centre. She looked so alone and BLACK! Black wasn`t my first option to shoot photos for my shop. But I was happy, at least I had her. I choose one of my shirts and let her wear it. I tried shooting photos with her but didn`t like the results. Because I needed some space to shoot from a distance to show the items properly and I had to hide the arms of the shirt tied at her back. It was disaster. Then, I left her alone until I decided to make some change on her. She waited and waited for the inspiration of the change. At that time I realized how to set my camera and shoot photos downstairs at certain times of the day, my photos were better than before but I still needed help, the mannequin. 

I was planning to paint her in white but wasn`t sure which paint I should use. Spray paint or random white paint? I was a bit lazy about checking the paints when I went to the city centre. Aftera while, I found a better idea on pinterest : decoupage! This is another reason why I love pinterest :)   

Sewing patterns were used for the first project I saw. I didn`t want to cut my patterns to cover the mannequin and I wanted her to be in white with some little patterns. I thought about newspapers but it wouldn`t be as white as I wanted as there is too much writing on it. Then I saw Melodie! That is it! This was the look I wanted. I was also very lucky to find a music book at car boot sale for 25 pence! I had everything ready to change the mannequin`s life as well as my shop.

Last weekend I took her out of the place she was hiding, and cut the pages of the music book randomly and brushed PVA glue and covered, covered, covered. I didn`t know using brush would be that relaxing. When I finished, I was really proud and happy and so she was. I named her Minuet, it was one of the titles in the book.

During the week I retook photos of my items and I am really happy with the result. Minuet is my best assistant ever! (In fact she is the one and only:) )