Persephone

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. In Greek Mythology when Persephone was picking flowers, the ground opened up and Hades captured her and took her to the underworld. Demeter missed her daughter, and refused to let the plants grow until she found her daughter. She pleaded with Zeus to get her daughter back from Hades, but because Persephone had already tasted the fruit of the underworld (the pomegranate), she was forever bound to stay in the underground with Hades as his wife for a few months a year. When Persephone was away from her mother, Demeter would refuse to let anything grow, and winter arrived. When Persephone was with her mother, she let all the flowers blossom and the fruit grow. An interesting tale of the seasons.

My friend Ally is modelling as Persephone for my textiles project. Here are some images:

Pandora

One of my characters for this Greek Mythology project is Pandora, the first woman created by the Gods. Zeus gave her a gift of a box, but told her never to open it. This box contained all the terrible spirits in the world, and she let them out by sheer curiosity.

The model is one of my oldest and dear friends, Katy Vanderhorst. She is Pandora as to me, she was my first best friend, and therefore, the first woman. Together we have encountered many adventures, and will certainly be experiencing many more.

In this photo shoot we were experimenting with smoke bombs. Despite the bad weather and freezing cold I think we managed to get some good shots. The dress was borrowed from The Little Theatre in Gateshead, and I had my boyfriend help with special effects (lighting the smoke bombs).