Meet the Macabre Models! #2: RavenEmber

(Photos by the awesome Grahame Steven Ritchie)

Hey folks!

My name is RavenEmber - Jodie if you know me - Big Red if you know me well. I've been modelling for 13 years now (ouch! that makes me sound so old!!) and I love it more nowadays than I ever have! I pride myself in being very versatile, willing and able to cover a high range of styles from the alternative, to high couture fashion, to horror, to edgey street fashion to beauty and more. I always work my tooshie off on a shoot to give the photographer/stylist/designer the images they are after. You have heard of method actors? Well I'm a method model! I become the character you want me to portray.

I had a hard time growing up losing a lot of very close love ones in a small amount of time for different reasons - tragic accidents, suicides, drugs, illness....but through this, I have become the woman I am today. I am very in touch with my emotions and use this everytime I take part in a shoot. I'm not afraid to express myself through my body and my facial expressions, even to the extend of creating "ugly beauty" - screaming faces, tear-y eyes, fearful gazes or happy lies! I love to create beauty of all sorts.

Modelling for me is a way of expressing myself and creating inspiring and beautiful imagery in a world that is sometimes not so nice. Beauty, inspiration, love and kindness can be found in the strangest places if you just open up your eyes and look through the filth and the cruelty and the harshness of the world. There is always someone/something there ready to give you back your faith in the goodness and the beauty of humanity when all else seems to point to darkness. If my work gives rise to one smile, one laugh, one sigh, one new thought, even one tear, then my work is done!

Hate(ful) mail

Today I received an email that made me feel very sad. All I can really say is that as vegans all we can do is try our best not to use animal tested and derived products. Unfortunately there will always be a rotten apple who feels the need to be unkind and judgmental.


> Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 16:43:47 -0400
> From: Carla_simp@hotmail.com
> To: creepcake@hotmail.co.uk
> Subject: [Santa Macabre] Vegan?
>
> I just wanted to send you a message to let you know my discussed with your website! You claim to be a vegan site and yet you sell cameos that are made using polymer clay! although it does not contain any animal biproducts, this material was tested on animals where they were fed this material to see what amount would be concidered toxic. As a vegan i am absolutely appauled by your complete lack of education on this subject. Just google it its the 4th link down, really not that complicated. I actually dont believe your a true vegan. You are selling items to people under the pretence that it is vegan friendly, thats like giving a diabetic Sugar. I find you a terrible representative of the vegan community and i will be contacting all your previous press to notify them that they need to make a full retraction on your 'vegan' advertisement. Next time a little research would do you the world of good.

My reply:

Hi Carla, firstly I was unaware that polymer clay was not vegan, which obviously is an error, but not a purposeful one on my part. I will msot definitely look into it now. However, I really don't understand your aggression and hateful attitude. It is great that you feel the need to educate vegans that are unaware of certain things, but I found your message to be abusive, spiteful and upsetting.
I am not going to explain myself to you except as to reiterate that I was unfortunately unaware of this error on my part. You can feel free to contact people about my apparently appalling vegan lifestyle, but to be honest would you not be better placed to spend your time doing something to help the cause and not hinder it?
I am also wondering how you manage to get by on a daily basis, if you 100% never use anything that may have unfortunately at some point been tested on animals? Unfortunately all we can do as vegans is try our hardest. Research is brilliant, and a helping hand toward this is always appreciated but not in the abusive manner you have done so.
I am going to post this correspondence on my blog as I have nothing to hide, and if you truly believe your appalling manner is helping the vegan cause, then I really am disappointed and saddened.

*EDIT*

As advised, I decided to do a little research on polymer clay:

"5). Does that mean polymer clay is vegan?

Short anwer is that yes, according to my e-mails with the manufacturers, Sculpey, Fimo and Kato clay don't contain animal products or by-products, and aren't tested on animals. Long answer, as all you vegans out there know, is that we can never be 100% sure because of reliance on information from suppliers. There's a certain amount of trust needed, because unless one lives in a self-built house with nothing made by anyone else, no-one can be certain that a non-vegan element hasn't snuck in."