Mad World Blog

Hi everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend. We recently got back home from traveling and I’ve been playing catch up for the past few days. Thank you to everyone for such a warm response to Trixy’s new look that I created for the 4th. I’m excited to share some details about the shoot, as well as BTS for Bad Witch tier members.

Doing a 4th of July inspired look for Trixy is something I’ve been wanting to do for years, but have been too busy to go through with. This year was almost no exception, until I decided to make it happen just days before we were supposed to leave for a 5 day trip.

For this project, I stayed true to the roots of Trixy’s character, which meant this shoot and costume were DIY/low budget. Just a couple of weeks before the shoot, I was driving Aurora home from camp and saw a fireworks stand being set up. I immediately began to visualize how we could use that stand as a set for a 4th of July shoot and somehow take these photos without seeing the road or any cars in the background. I wanted it to look like an abandoned circus tent in the middle of nowhere.

I kept the thought to myself for a few days until sharing with Brendan that I wanted to create a look for the 4th. He expressed that he didn’t feel we would have time (which was valid), but I insisted we try. I went to Michael’s and Dollar Tree, spent about $10-15, and got to work on my look. In my very large and random wardrobe, I already had a white choker, white bra, red fishnets, red white and blue hair extensions, and all the paint I needed to transform these pieces into a 4th inspired Trixy look.

I used a red white and blue pom to attach to the bra and splattered it, along with my choker, with red and blue paint. I had a set of press on nails that I also splattered with red, white, and blue paint to match the bra and choker.

As you can imagine, I have a decent collection of contact lenses, and red was luckily something I already owned. So as it seemed, I had everything I needed to bring this look to life. I began to take notes about Trixy’s look in my phone and imagined how I would want to adjust her makeup, but still stay true to her character. I thought a little star on her red clown nose would be perfect. Luckily, it turned out exactly the way I planned (which as you know, isn’t always the case haha).

While working on the costume, we had to secure a location. Brendan and I spoke a few times about the possibility of using that firework stand, and as always being the visual dreamer, I stood in front of that stand one evening very expressively trying to paint a picture of how we could bring this vision to life. Brendan shook his head very lovingly at me and said,
‘I don’t know Babe, there’s a lot of complications to consider”. Me, being the dreamer, assured him it would be fine. After convincing him, we reached out to the person who owned the stand.

Confused at first, the owner had a few questions that we were more than happy to answer. Once everything was sorted, we got approval to shoot just two days before we went out of town. I was thrilled, and then, as always, the creative panic set in. I began to question the entire idea and started to feel stressed.

After many self-pep talks, I ignored my doubts and went forward. I spent hours the day of the shoot putting last minute things together for my look, such as creating the Trixy hair, new makeup look, and last minute touches on the costume. Once Brendan got off of work, it was time to shoot. The total time of shooting was only 2 & 1/2 hours, but the time spent that day on the project was about 12 hours total. After the 12 hour work day, I brushed out my crazy clown hair, removed all the makeup, and looked through the hundreds of photos. After a couple of hours, we landed on 5 solid choices to represent the story I was telling for this shoot.

The following two days consisted of me working from morning to night on the photos, naming them, and deciding on which would be prints, etc. The fact that we had everything wrapped and completed by 4am on July 1st is wild to me, but we did it!

This shoot was never meant to be a full costume, with my typical super involved location. I just wanted something fun that was achievable on such short notice, while staying true to Trixy’s character. After everything is said and done, I can say that I’m very proud of everything we created that day.

Going back to my roots and challenging myself with a small budget, rather than an elaborate costume designs that I’ve become accustomed to, challenged me as an artist in the best way possible. You can do and create great things without a huge budget, you just have to give it your all and go with it. Don’t wait on the perfect opportunity or situation in life to come along in order to make things happen. Just fuckin’ do it, damn it!

Thank you all for the love and support you continue to show me. I appreciate you so much and look forward to showing you what I’m currently working on!

Exclusive photos from this shoot will be coming soon for all tier members.

Much love!
Angelica