This morning on my way to my yoga class, I spotted an extermination truck with the tagline “Kills Everything”.
Imagine a world without birds, butterflies, bees, ladybugs, and the beautiful and magical garden creatures that make a garden a sanctuary. But yet this is an idea that is presented as an excellent business slogan… If a pesticide is used to get rid of one kind of weed or “pest”, that poison creates a hostile environment to the creatures that do good things for our gardens. Just as the slogan says, it “Kills Everything”.
No pesticide for me, eco designer/gardener girl. I make friends with these creatures, and sometimes they feel so comfortable they just come in the house to check it out. But that’s another story.
Bees, for example. I’ve been watching them in my own garden, buzzing around my succulent blossoms, busily doing their work. How important are they to our survival? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these workers pollinate 80 percent of our flowering crops, not only allowing us to have bouquets of fragrant blossoms, but also constituting 1/3 of everything we eat. Not to mention the honey they produce and bee venom which can be treated to treat illnesses.
My friend Monica Miller of Skye Botanicals recently threw a design opportunity my way. Monica is a Master Herbalist, Perfumer, and Beekeeper dedicated to World Peace through the active sharing of resources, education and the restoration of nature. (I was part of a group of fragrance testers for a new patchouli fragrance she was creating a couple of years ago and was happy to co-create with her again.) Her project for me was a high-fashion beekeepers costume.
I suggested we start with the bee bonnet, but design it like a wide brimmed hat with a long veil extending to the ground. Beyond that, I imagined a cartoonlike beehive resembling spun honey.
Challenging in a way, since I had to teach myself millinery, which then led into my exploration of bridal headpieces and facinators, now on my website.
I created a wide brimmed buckram hat, wrapped it in sparkly gold flecked tulle, sprinkled flower blossoms and bees on the top, and attached a long veil. I made a little yellow sequin bikini for our model, and my talented photographer friend Chika Okazumi signed on to create some images along with hairdresser Terah Tidy of Glamifornia. Together we orchestrated what I’m calling the Magical Bee Bonnet Shoot.
And magical it was. 18 mph hot Santa Anna winds created a styling headache for me but truly added drama to the images.
I love co-creating projects and am always happy to help preserve our Mother Earth any way I can.
Photogapher: Chika Okazumi
HMU: Glamifornia
“Live Green And Prosper”