gypsies

 I don't know about anyone else but i got absolutely hooked on that TV show big fat gypsy weddings, I was desperate to do make for a big fat gypsy wedding to the point where i was considering trying to find a way to contact that woman who makes all the mad dresses for them. So imagine my surprise when i was doing a little trawl through gumtree and came across this advert.................'On the 29th of July I am looking for a makeup artist to help with a photo shot for a community arts project in Willesden Green.
Its a jewellery project run with an irish centre, myself, the artist and a group of young irish traveller girls.
We have a fantastic photographer on board to take some professional photos and would love to find some one to do their make up'.....................Perfect!!! I lost no time in contacting organizer Laura Bradshaw heap (who for the record is an exceptionally talented artist and jewellery maker, have a look at some her work here http://www.stitchandsilver.com/index.html isn't it beautiful?) and was delighted when she got back telling me that she would love to have me on board. So today I made my merry way across to Willesden green, where i was met first of all by photographer Jennika Argent Who coincidentally i discovered i had worked with once before last year - small world eh? and we made our way to the local community centre to meet the event organizers and the girls who had participated.
The organizers included a reporter from the Irish world http://www.theirishworld.com/ ( A London based newspaper for the Irish community in England) The lovely Sharon O'Regan of the Brent Irish advisory service www.biasbrent.co.uk and Gillian Christie, education director of the tricycle theater in Kilburn  www.tricycle.co.uk and of course the aforementioned Laura Bradshaw-heap.
The girls themselves were very nice, very ordinary down to earth sort of people, 2 of them were sisters from Northern ireland who had come over to london after getting married and the 3rd was london born and bred.They had all enjoyed the jewellery making project and had created some interesting pieces, they were all keen to promote awareness of the London traveler community in order to secure funding for further projects aimed at befitting young women from Irish traveler backgrounds, and helping them to integrate more within the community (they were also all very scathing about the big fat gypsy weddings program  - I kept very quiet!)
So overall  I don't think I've excactly cracked the gypsy wedding market but I had a great time, met some very nice people, learnt a lot about the problems and discrimination that faces the Irish traveler community and hope to be involved in further projects, pictures to follow............