Photography by Joy Marshall
Models: Tatiana Pimentel and Courtney Fox-Johns
Wings: Creatures Who Craft
Jewelry: Parrish Relics
For last spring’s Pre-Raphaelite issue, photographer Joy Marshall, model and artist Tatiana Pimentel, and jeweler Jen Parrish-Hill of Parrish Relics gathered at Parrish-Hills’s enchanted Massachusetts abode Frog Hollow for a beautiful Pandora shoot. While there, Parrish-Hill shared with them a beloved image styled by Rebecca Purcell for ABC Carpet & Home of a woman lying in a velvet-strewn bed in the wood, under a chandelier crafted from twigs. Tapestries and blankets hang from fallen limbs. A doll sits on one battered chair, a large black bird on another. Leaves lie scattered over a rug that’s decorated with roses.
Marshall was struck by the image’s lushness and vibrancy, its sheer gorgeousness, and wanted to return to Frog Hollow to create images in the same vein. And with faeries. Why not with faeries? The three started brainstorming about the upcoming shoot (and asked Courtney Fox-Johns to join in) and started talking about folklore and our favorite queen, Titania—who is, as we all know, the embodiment of glamour, if faeries are in fact embodied—and the suspiciously/aptly named Tatiana tried her hand at making wings for the shoot.
They all gathered on a stormy June day with two cars full of costumes and fabric and pillows to make magic of their own. They’d end up meeting three times, but it was on the first day that a storm passed through, with lightning overhead, fog hovering among the trees, and a strange light streaming down through the branches and reflecting off the water and the models’ skin. As the trees started to take on personalities of their own, the group found more and more out-of-the-way spots to shoot in, even lugging props over boulders and fallen branches to get to an especially lovely rock hanging over a stream. The place had a “rare, Tolkien-esque” beauty, Marshall says, “untouched by humans.”
We love hearing about this sort of collaboration among faerie sisters, when the weather seems to cooperate and everything aligns. Marshall, Pimentel, and Fox-Johns even met for a day before their second shoot for a marathon crafting session, making crowns and wings and generally sharing ideas and inspiration. And of course every shot featured Parrish-Hill’s exquisite handmade jewelry. One happy offshoot of all this improvising and collaboration is Pimentel’s new shop, Creatures Who Craft (creatureswhocraft.com), where she now sells wings inspired by Kali, Freya, and the original faerie queen Diana—wings made for creatures of all kinds who want to frolic in the wood and possibly surprise, and dazzle, a passing human.
See more of Joy Marshall’s work on Instagram @thewitchinghourphotography.
Visit Tatiana Pimentel on Instagram @teepimentel, Parrish Relics @parrish_relics,
and Courtney Fox-Johns @thefoxandtheivy. And visit Frog Hollow @frog_hollow.
