Fractal Plume: Zebra or Feather

Fractal Plume©

Wild Nature Collection

Fractal Plume© belongs first to the people who brought it to life. Shannen Thirlaway modelled the piece with a stillness and presence no technique could manufacture — she didn't just wear it, she inhabited it. Ika Sarna photographed it with the understanding and skill that made these images last. Nothing in this piece exists without them.

There's a version of this story I could tell you where everything went perfectly. Where the dye took exactly as planned.That version would be easier to write. It wouldn't be true.

Fractal Plume© was made in 2015. Different year, different priorities, different resources. Human hair wigs were a luxury I couldn't always reach for, so the wig I worked with was synthetic and heat-resistant. I used direct hair dye, thinned with isopropyl alcohol, freehand, and let it dry over time to see what would hold. What came out was bold — platinum white running against deep navy black in feathered, organic bands the full length of the hair. Something that read as animal marking one moment and bird plumage the next. Some people looking at it since have said zebra. Some have said feathers. I don't think either of them is wrong.

The wig held its pattern. There are images of it on the mannequin that prove that — the structure and depth were there, the dye had done its job on the fibre. I'm proud of that. It was a genuine technical result, not a lucky accident.

Where it got complicated was later, on the day of the shoot, when the hairdryer came out to move the hair as kinetic art — to catch it mid-motion, alive, not static. Direct dyes sit on the outside of the hair shaft rather than penetrating it, and on synthetic fibre that surface layer isn't as stable as it is on human hair. The heat and the movement dispersed some of those dye molecules into something close to a fine powder, and the contrast softened, just slightly, from what the mannequin images had shown. Not a collapse. Not a failure. A small loss of edge that I brought back afterwards through contrast in editing, because I wanted the images to reflect what the piece had actually been at its strongest.

I think it's important to say that plainly rather than pretend every image you see is untouched. The pattern was real. The chemistry was honest, even where it had limits. The editing restored depth that movement had taken, nothing more.

None of that would have mattered without the two people who gave Fractal Plume its life outside the workroom. Shannen Thirlaway modelled it, and she was exceptional at avant-garde work in a way that isn't common — she didn't just wear the piece, she transformed into whatever character it asked her to be, and I think she genuinely enjoyed doing it. Ika Sarna photographed it, and caught it exactly as it was, at its best, in motion. Between the two of them, a piece made under real constraints became something that still stops people when they see it now.

I do wish it hadn't lost even that small amount of edge over time. But I'd rather tell you that honestly than pretend the piece was flawless, because the honesty is part of what makes it real, and part of what I learned from doing it. If my health allowed it, I'd make this piece again tomorrow, just with those different materials- Human hair and professional salon hair colour.