When the barnyard meets burlesque

Photo shoots are exhausting, they start early with hair and make up and finish with the peeling off of eyelashes and the hope that you 'got the shot.' I only do them occasionally and would hate to be a professional model, those girls work hard!

Complaints aside photo shoots are also a lot of fun and ont his one, designer Kristi was always on hand to offer a compliment, a glass of water or adjust the underwear!

Photographer Jess taking close up photos of the corset and knickers

The shoot was Kristi Robertson's label, Corsets by Nasty Ginny, she had previously shot some of the designs the day before, but on Saturday I was with fellow Tassie burlesque dancer Scarlett Jezebel.

Kristi used to design wedding dresses, I remember seeing her studio in 2001, racks of gorgeous dresses, big frothy concoctions and slimmer silohettes. Now after getting out of the wedding game Kristi designs and creates corsets, lingerie and costumes- and is still very capable of designing items that pull in, tuck up and froth over in the best way.

Corsets and lingerie ready for the shoot

This shoot featured some of her new designs that she sells online and at the MONA Market.

Kristi's stall at MOMA

Her studio is located on her property, a hobby farm that has grassy meadows, thick bush land, chickens and an elderly horse, Copper.

posing with Scarlett in Kristi's studio

 For the shoot, Kristi had set up a beautiful tea table in the bush complete with flowers from her garden, hot tea in the teapot and shiny red apples on the table.

tea with Scarlett Jezebel

We also did some shots down the road near a run down barn. I did some turns on the country road before we headed back to Kristi's home at which point she asked, very nicely, if one of us wouldn't mind modelling just one more costume... Scarlett and I looked at each other, both of us were hot and bothered by this point with a hen's party to go to in mere hours. "You can do it Masher's" said Scarlett I rewarded her with a grimace and then remembered Copper... "OK... But can I pose with the pony!??"

The pony is actually a 24 year old dark brown horse who roams freely around Kristi's land. I got changed and Kristi went horse hunting. Kristi felt certain she could lure Copper out of the trees but when she didn't succeed we took the shoot to Copper who viewed my offer of apples with disdain until I held one of them right under his nose!

After feeding Copper two apples I was ready to eat a few myself but instead welcomed a seat in Kristi's gorgeous home to have a quick drink and some cheese- once I'd removed my corset, I imagine the idiom "eats like a bird" was coined by some hapless woman from the Victorian era.

Posing with Scarlett and Kristi

You can find the final photos on Krisi's website

Launceston gets Sketchy

I was disappointed to hear that Dr Sketchy's New York closed in 2013- although if you check the website it's promising to see that it's listed as on hiaitus until 2014- I posed for the NYC chapter in 2011 as a mechanical doll. The session was a little crazy, in the best way... So much fun, two emcees playing off each other, a dedicated group of artists, stupidly painful poses plus great tips!

Photo by Kate Black
Backstage at the Bowery Poetry Club Dr Sketchy's NYC 2011

Photo by Kate Black
Artwork at the Bowery Poetry Club, Dr Sketchy's NYC 2011

Dr Sketchy's Launceston's principal, Ruby de Winter asked me to be her first model... which was nice!
I had a quick meeting with Ruby and her partner Dan before the actual night to discuss music, costume and to nut out the posing schedule.

Photo by Bruce Moyle

Ruby emceed the evening, an intimate gathering of artists who used all sorts of mediums, chalk, charcoal, paint, pencil and one gent putting pen to paper and writing stream of conciousness poetry.

Bianca- photo by Bruce Moyle

stream of conciousness - Photo by Bruce Moyle

As I had to head straight from my other job to the Lazy Butterfly, Dr Sketchy's Launceston home, I dried and set my hair in curls early in the morning and wrapped a large cotton scarf around my head- the mid century hair covering looking a bit out of place with my normal work attire.

Photo by Bruce Moyle

I arrived with 45 minutes to get ready, part of which I spent just chatting to Ruby and Gen instead of putting on my face.
Gen House was working the door and Ruby was setting up the stage with help from Dan.
Chairs were spread in a semi circle and drawing boards were available for those who needed one.
The poses were typical for a life drawing class, five poses held for one minute, five for two minutes, two for ten minutes, a short break, finishing with two long poses, twenty minute each and finally a big stretch for me!

Photo by Bruce Moyle

Posing is utterly exhausting! I tend to keep a very straight face and although I try to relax into a pose, there are times where about halfway through I'm having major regrets... happily most of the time those are the short poses- Holding the splits with a knee on each chair was easier than bending backwards. Go figure.

Photo by Bruce Moyle

I did a reverse strip in my Corsets by Nasty Ginny sunrise ombre costume, starting in pasties and g-string and finishing in a corset and panel skirt.

Photo by Bruce Moyle

The best part was getting to see what people had produced, some was abstract, some more cartoon and others were line drawings in pencil.

Line drawing with pencil and ink by Bianca

The next class is January 16 and will feature Launceston belly dancer Gen House, I'll be putting in some time on door duties so if you're in the area, why not come say hi, scribble a bit or spend some time gazing up at the model.

Flinging through Flinders

Arriving at Flinders!
L-R Stage manager Shelley, Lucy, Coco, Raine, Oopsy Daisy and Scarlett Jezebel

Flinders Island is a small chunk of land off the North East coast of Tasmania. The Island is part of the Furneaux group- over 50 tiny islands make up the grouping although most of the islands are uninhabited.
It was to Flinders Island and its 900 residents that we brought their first ever burlesque show!

Scarlett Jezebel organised the run list, three sets featuring three burlesque performances from Oopsy Daisy, Scarlett and me with the big haired, loud mouthed, Raine Ingmen emceeing and performing a couple of numbers and Shelley as our stage manager keeping things running behind the scenes.

We spent Friday night at my small house in Launceston, 2 to a bed and one to the couch.... Needless to say, none of us got to bed before midnight and most of us were awake at 4am so by 8am when Nat picked us up we were in desperate need of caffeine.

Our question when we met the event manager and our host, Nat at the airport was "is it ok to swear on stage." The answer was a definitive yes, which brought on a prattle of language from Raine that delighted the locals waiting in the small but comfortable airport

Nat took us for coffee at the local bakery in Whitemark- there are two, they sit opposite each other on the main road and apparently work in shifts, one open in the morning, the other in the afternoon!

Touring the Island with AJ and Oopsy

Oopsy Daisy with Coco at Trouser's Point on Saturday

We stopped at the Furneaux Tavern to drop off our bags and snag rooms which were in very comfortable cabins. Scarlett and I shared a two bedroom cabin whilst Raine, Shelley and Oopsy took a large room that could sleep six!
We spent a lot of our time going from the Tavern to another part of the Island and back again and rarely saw another car on the road but the Island itself is beautiful with mountain ranges, coast lines and rugged meadows.
 Nat continued our tour of Flinders by taking us on a  small fishing boat which took us past Cape Barron Island to an Island that is known to the locals as Russian Island. We walked up to a small house that is looked after by a caretaker- there were sheep on the Island and a small cemetery along with the remains of a post office. I jumped on the back of a 4x4 driven by Nat and Scarlett jumped behind Rockjaw and we were taken to the summit on Russian from which we could see all four sides of the horizon. The view was magnificent, azure blue water, white sand, red rock and on one side there was an old shipwreck, the Barque Farsund which was wrecked on a shoal in 1912, inaccessible by land but an amazing feature to spot from the summit.

 We got back, piled in the van and headed to Whitemark Hall for a lighting tech. AK who was our tech was very thorough and when he realised Oopsy was singing Machine Gun Fellatio's "Let me be your dirty fucking whore" he got pretty excited as he used to tour with the band! We headed back to the Tavern again do our hair and make up as although the hall had a great stage and light set up it lacked a dressing room.

Backstage with Oopsy Daisy (my costume: Corsets by Nasty Ginny)

Shelley and Scarlett getting cheeky with Raine

Scarlett as Mary Poppins

Showing off the sunburn we collected during the day! (Costume by Sonia Heap)

 The next day by unspoken mutual agreement we all slept in, but the sounds of birds scuffling on the roof and the beating rays of the sun got me up by 9am, so I grabbed a book and went to the Tavern's verandah- which overlooks the water-  to soak up the sun. Oopsy, Shelley and Raine joined me for breakfast and we heaped a plate with toast, butter, jam and a tea bag and burst upon Scarlett with Coco- singing- us, not Coco-  Scarlett emerged from under the covers to give us the evil eye- until we promised her coffee!

Oopsy and I covering up with  hats from the local shop

Braving the cold cold water at Trousers Point... It looks better than it feels!

Trouser's Point

We headed out to Trousers Point in the Furneaux Tavern's van. Nat had explained the Flinders wave to us, a two finger flick of acknowledgement that I did at every opportunity while behind the wheel. After an all too brief stop at Trousers Point we realised that time was running short and headed back to the Tavern.
Panicking slightly as time was running short we picked up a local at the Tavern, Browny who heaved in with two travellers- one in a pint glass- Nat wasn't too keen to have that much open grog in the car so he obliged by sculling one of the drinks and handing the glass back to an obliging local.
We drove out to Nat's to have a quick look at a baby wombat she was looking after- Tank's mum had been hit by a car, luckily they'd stopped and found Tank just behind her, safe.
Then we dropped Browny off after he spotted someone driving his ute! Apparently the locals like to 'borrow'each other's cars...

Tank the baby wombat

Tank!

We were way past the check in time by the time we got to the airport and were all thinking that we'd be spending another night on the Island. Happily they're an easy going bunch and we were reassured that we could fly.

Our tiny plane... Sharp airlines!

Finally, a huge thank you to my fellow cast members, to the Flinders community who made us so welcome, to the Furneaux tavern, particularly Nat Weaver and to Sharp Airlines for flying us over to a slice of Tasmanian paradise that we can promise had never seen a show quite like the one we gave them!