This year I’m turning the big 25 and I’m so excited about all of the crazy things that have transpired in the last year. When I reflect upon my year as a 24 year old, I can hardly believe all of the amazing adventures I’ve had, people I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with and art I’ve been lucky enough to make.

I lived 80% of my year out of a suitcase in 2 of my favourite cities in the world, NYC and London. I went on the adventure of a lifetime with Angelspit, playing over 50 shows to 15 - 2000 people in tiny venues and sold out shows all over the world. I got my dream job, and then quit after I realised that the daily grind was not for me and most importantly I’ve been able to make a living from art despite everyone telling me it couldn’t be done.

It has not been a year without a great deal of heartache and tumultuous change, but life is better with the gritty bits left in.

I’d like to thank all of you, the readers of this blog, supporters of Angelspit & Miss X Aesthetic Laboratories and everyone who has had faith in me over the years. Thanks to everyone who has let me sleep on their floor, baked me cupcakes, thrown me beach parties, drawn amazing fan art and generally enriched my life. Thanks for supporting me and helping me put my art out into the world, allowing me to share my vision with you all. I’m glad that I have been able to inspire some of you to do the same, so here’s to dreaming big!

Here’s a shout out to some of the new and favorite friends that I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with over the past year, Zoog (my creative muse always), Kevin & Amy (Sugarpill), Carmen Pie, Duncy, Donna & Steve (Ego Likeness), Louisa & Baron & Izzy (best housemates ever), Steph & Tom (creative soulmates), Nubby, Star, Vulpy and Nico.

This post is dedicated to Rich Jones, my partner in crime and person who I owe so much of my happiness to. Here’s to more international trashbag adventures, zooper hot berlin warehouse underwear parties, alcoholic souvenirs and pressed pennies!

To those who have kindly asked:

No I do not have an amazon birthday wishlist as I’m desperately trying not to accumulate too many possessions as I can’t take them with me on my travels. However, I did unfortunately break my camera a few months ago (hence the lack of photo updates) and I’m saving up for a new one, so if you wanted to donate to my camera fund I would appreciate it so much! Paypal is the best way to donate: amelia @ aisforarsenic.com

A Birthday Announcement:

I’m so excited to be announcing that I will be launching my own art + fashion label called ‘A is for Arsenic’ sometime next week. Keep your eyes peeled for that!

Amelia’s Birthday Playlist:

Here are some of my favourite tunes at the moment that I will be guaranteed to be blasting on my birthday. They aren’t well put together or in any particular order.

• French Tickler - Sonic Youth
• Butter - The Bloody Beetroots
• Rave is King - Fukkk Offf (Le Castle Vania remix)
• Dolls - New Young Pony Club
• Decoy - Proxy
• USB Dick - Teenage Bad Girl
• $$Troopers - Huoratron
• Let’s Make Out - Does it Offend You Yeah?
• Hustler - Simian Mobile Disco
• Trash - The Whip
• On Fire - Alec Empire
• My People - The Presets

As always my lovelies, thank you for reading. I’m off to go on some London adventures with Rich before catching a 6am flight tomorrow morning to Hamburg (ouch!).

One part gothic doll + one part bride of frankenstein = one crazy latex lolita.

Photo Credits

Photography: Redrum Collaboration
Hair: Sarah My Big Hair Day
Makeup: Miss X Aesthetic Laboratories

Wardrobe Credits

Baroque Crest Necklace: Miss X Aesthetic Laboratories
Puff Sleeve Latex top: Atsuko Kudo
Latex suspender skirt: Reactor Rubber Sydney
Lace racing gloves: Forever 21
Strappy heels: Forever 21
Stockings: Cevrin
Corset: Deadlygirlz

The photograph was taken by the inimitable Amanda from Redrum collaboration.

If you like the necklace featured in the photograph, it’s available from Etsy or Blackpillredpill.com

While we were driving back from Savannah on our last mini tour, we happened across this abandoned, derelict motel and playground by the side of the highway. We stopped to explore and I was absolutely captivated by the textures and chilling atmosphere of the now eerily abandoned ‘Family Inn’. We all agreed that it would be the perfect setting for a zombie film. I hope to one day return to shoot a video or a proper photoshoot at this location as I think it has such an evocative quality.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of shooting the promotional images for the new Miss X eyelash range ‘Paris 2050′ with the inimitable Amanda and Jason from Redrum Collaboration. The amazing Sarah at My Big Hair Day was responsible for the two tone braided updo. I am so pleased with the outcome and couldn’t have done it without this amazing team. YAY!

Custom stripy latex top & skirt: Jane Doe Latex
Red latex spats: Vex Clothing
Mini Beret & Gloves: Atsuko Kudo
Thigh Highs: Agent Provocateur
Shoes: Dsquared2
Eyelashes: Danse Macabre & Petite Mort

DAY 3: Passaic, NJ: 28-03-10

A view of the dressing room a.k.a ladies toilet

The walls of the toilet were grungy, but I loved the vintage graphics collaged onto them.

I took snapshots of some of my favourite trashy articles collaged onto the walls.

View of the small, but fun audience from the stage.

Ego Likeness in action (with Tiger Towel in view to the right. Check out its’ facebook page!)

DAY 4: Travel day: 29-03-10

A pretty truckstop moment.

On the way we stopped briefly at South of the Border which I will be blogging more about this week.

Waiting in the lobby of our hotel in Savannah.

DAY 5: Savannah, GA: 30-03-10

I love the posters in the backstage area of the venue. I especially like the band name ‘Sinister Moustache’

Our backstage room.

Before the show.

The venue.

An abandoned supermarket opposite the venue.

Across the venue there was the amazing ‘Boyz II Men Barber Shop’. What a classy establishment!

The sign outside the venue. I love neon signs!

A fan made an amazing ‘Vena Cava’ t-shirt.

A view of the super fun audience from the stage.

DAY 6: Travel Day Savannah, GA: 31-03-10

On our day off, Donna and I commandeered our own ship!

Lobster Eggs Benedict for breakfast. Delicious!

Some buildings on the riverside in Savannah.

DAY 7: Pittsburgh, PA: 01-04-10

At a truckstop.

Cool street art outside the venue.

Outside the venue in Pittsburgh.

The audience from the stage. There weren’t that many people, but we had so much fun!

DAY 8: Richmond, VA: 02-03-10

Our backstage area in Richmond.

A snapshot of our crazy audience from the stage.

Our wild audience… the show was nuts!

Donna and I bought miniature sombreros at South of the Border. WOO!

Made of awesome list: Tiny sombreros UNITE!, scoping out the honeymoon suite at South of the Border for future kitschy adventures, finally realising it’s not important what people think, getting asked to design and collaborate with one of my favorite companies, having one of your musical idols buy stuff from your etsy store, planning future Berlin warehouse headquarters with space hopper racetracks, running around the East Village manically holding hands so tightly gripped, ‘cave man chic’ black metal bands, putting straws in Joey Letz’s hair, waking up with a huge smile on my face with ridiculous memories of the night before, heart collisions and midnight texts from pretty boys.

On the playlist: Echoplex - Nine Inch Nails, Atlas Air - Massive Attack, Forza - Zombie Nation (Fukkk Offf remix).

Fierce lashes for femme fatales by Miss X Aesthetic Laboratories. Inspired by an imagining of a futuristic Neo Noir Paris in 2050; the collection consists of 5 dramatic yet classic eyelash styles.

Campaign image shot by Redrum collaboration. More images and info about the shoot in my upcoming Style Division and Makeup Mayhem columns.

Available immediately from Blackpillredpill.com and at our retail stockiests in a few weeks.

I’ve been a little overwhelmed by projects over the past few weeks, but I’m super excited to finally be showing you some of the creative outcomes of my work. This week I’ll be showcasing my website design and rebrand for Jane Doe Latex, a couture latex brand based in London.

Above: Final design outcome for the ‘gallery’ section

Close up of the header graphic and logo

Jane Doe Latex is definitely one of my favourite fashion latex labels that has been established in recent years. Nina Kate has created several custom latex pieces that I have had the pleasure of wearing on the stage. So it was a dream to be able to work with Nina Kate to create a website which communicated her unique brand of elegant, fashion oriented couture latex.

Fortunately Nina Kate provided me with some beautifully evocative photographs to work with by super talented photographer Silent View. My task was to create graphical elements that complimented the photography, so I opted for elegant neo baroque flourishes which I drew in illustrator. The site was designed for wordpress, so it was a challenge to create lyrical and fluid imagery that defied the typical ‘template’ look of many wordpress sites. The logo was based on the poetically calligraphic typeface ‘Burges Script’ by the prodigious Ale Paul.

I’m extremely happy with the outcome of the project and hope you enjoy checking out the website. Be sure to check out the galleries section where there are many beautiful latex fashion photographs featuring Jane Doe Latex.

Above: The final blog layout

A while back I went on tour with Angelspit around some of the cities on the east coast that we missed on our last US tour. We went on tour with our good friends Steve and Donna in a band called Ego Likeness, thus we dubbed the tour the ‘Egospit’ tour. I hope you’ll enjoy some of the random photographs I took of the adventures we had. There are many more installments to come!

We drove through from NYC up to Maine through lovely forests.

Friendly signs told us not to snack on the road… but I think we did.

A welcome aftershow cocktail after a fantastic show.

View of the merch table

The following pictures were taken at an amazing brunch diner we visited the next morning.

Ridiculously greasy but amazing diner food.

The diner had a kitschy Americana theme that was so much fun.

Mike, Zoog & Steve

Hi i i i i look mah! I fit in the child sized seats!

A lamp variation of the famous flying ducks.

Vintage space admiral liquor decanters… genius!

DAY 2: Salem, MA: 27-03-09

The next day we drove up to Salem and had enough time to wander around and enjoy the spooky offerings of the town.

I totally had to take a photo of this, because I couldn’t understand how they could put Star Wars and Star Trek figurines in the same glass cabinet! Frankly, it disturbed me.

Supplies for witches.

Some of the shopfronts.

I love Mexican ‘Day of the Dead’ styled figurines.

Many of the houses in Salem lived up to their somewhat spooky reputation.

A solemn moment at the Salem witch trials memorial.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this… a cheesy skully zombie nurse! Amazing…

We played in a small Thai restaurant, as it was apparently the best and most suitable venue. Needless to say, the catering was brilliant.

Our somewhat scary backstage room/toilet.

Ego Likeness in action.

View of the small but not timid crowd from the stage.

Yes the drinks at the Thai restaurant were huge and potent.

With fans in Salem.

Nothing like greasy diner food the next day

Made of awesome list: Buying satanic shirts from magic shops in salem, hanging out with my favourite people on tour, listening to Justin Timberlake & Lady Gaga in the tour van, falling over on stage, being asked to hang out with one of my favourite musical crushes, finding mystery ‘tour’ bruises all over my legs, never ending supplies of jaegerbombs, being able to BRING THE ROCK even though all of our musical equipment broke, singing really bad renditions of ‘Take on Me’ to Jenn from Ayria over the phone, ordering my favourite zine from 2002 online and being able to spend quality time off the internet.

On the playlist: CMND/CTRL - Deftones, Kontact Me - Boys Noize, I am terrified - IAMX, When I grow up - Fever Ray, On Fire - Alec Empire

In the near future we will be collaborating on many projects which I can’t wait to share with you all. In the mean time, please enjoy some of the photos I took of her studio. The military inspired pieces are from her new ‘Conform’ collection which juxtaposes the strong connotations of army fabrics with ultra feminine design features such as ruffles, crinolines and puffy sleeves. My favourite aspect of the collection would definitely have to be the pieces embellished by bloody bandage ruffles. The collection is currently available from the Freyagushi etsy store.

If you are in the London area, please come to Torture Garden this Saturday, as Freyagushi will be presenting a fashion show which I can guarantee will be amazing. Also, please say hi to me if you come!