Miss April – Why choose diamonds when you can have steel?

Miss April

Hi, I’m Miss April, and when I heard the girl’s idea, making a steel babes calendar presenting steel in our every day life, I saw a great opportunity to get a picture of myself wearing my favourite jewellery. No diamonds for me, but a very glamorous necklace made of steel chains and steel nuts… (In fact, it is Hollie’s… I was just looking for an excuse to borrow it!)

More seriously, cancer has been affecting people around me, probably as it has affected people around you. It can affect anyone of us, and it scares me. Cancer research has made great progress over the past 30 years decreasing the number of death caused by cancer from almost 20%. But it still isn’t enough. In 2007, 155,500 people died from cancer in the UK only. So, participating to this calendar to collect money for this cause is something I am proud of, no matter how controversial it is.

This topic has divided SBB for months. Many of us feared our credibility as women working in a “men dominated field” would be damaged… It was indeed risky!  But I think that the final product is great. Cheeky but not too much, including fun pictures’ comments and a lot of useful information on cancer.  And after all, if for once we can use our smiles for a good cause, why shouldn’t we?! Beside, it’s not every day that normal girls like us are given the chance to play with the camera like that! This will probably be my only chance ever to “be a model” and I loved every minute of it!

Posted by: Melanie Damay, Steel Business Briefing

Miss May – adhesive on the bars…

Miss May

Well, I can promise you this, being a part of the SBB Steel Babes calendar was definitely not in the job description when I started working at SBB. I am Miss May aka Virginia and if you knew me you would know that trying to be ‘sexy’ does not come naturally! I was the tomboy at school who got involved in all sports from football to golf, the muckier the better… so when the idea arose to do this calendar, I have to admit I was reluctant at first. I didn’t want people to think we were doing this calendar to flaunt our bodies because that was definitely not our intention. The sole aim of this calendar is to raise money for what, in my opinion, is one of the most essential charities in the world, as sadly we all know someone who has been affected by it.

My shoot I think was slightly different to everyone else’s. 7am on a Monday morning, Graham (the photographer) and I had to sneak onto a building site and had literally 5 minutes to get the shot before the Manager got nervous about the other builders seeing and wondering what he was doing letting a semi-naked and so-obviously-not-a builder and a photographer onto his building site! But hopefully we got something that vaguely looks professional!

I wanted to take part in this calendar as Cancer unfortunately has been a part of my family for many generations: both my grandfathers have gone through it and my great aunt also. So please support us by buying one of our calendars; the girls have been such great sports throughout and they all look great! Bring on SBB Steel Babes 2011…..!

Posted by: Virginia Mainwaring, Marketing Executive, Steel Business Briefing

Miss August – ready for a sporting event…

Miss August

Hi, I’m Miss August, the sporty one… My body is the real deal as I go with the girls to the gym several times a week; we take our fitness really seriously! This is to eliminate all the chocolate we eat during the working hours.

Ever since I started working at SBB, the idea of doing a steel babes calendar was talked about often during our lunch breaks. The girls told me that it was something that they wanted to do for ages, so we decided to ask all the girls in the office in London and make it happen. We all were really motivated as it was for charity and we choose the Cancer Research UK because some of us went through this terrible illness with a family member or a friend.

On Sunday I met everyone at Hollie’s, I arrived there, had my breakfast while Hollie was doing my hair and then Caroline and Louise joined us for the make-up bit. Angela, from Mac was so kind to come on a Sunday and do our make-up , it’s not like we needed it but it always feel nice for a girl to have a professional doing it for you when you are doing a photo shoot that will be in a calendar.

We were so lucky it was the end of September and the weather was great, Caroline was the first one and watching her I felt the pressure growing – I was next in line! The thing is you don’t know how to react in front of a camera, I mean I watched American Next Top model all time and you think you can do it but when you are in front of the camera, it’s another story. Graham (the photographer) was great, he gave me directions and Laura (Hollie’s sister) made me laugh so I could relax. Then I think it was just matter of not taking it too seriously and just have fun.

I’m quite please with the result, I look really serious on the picture but trust me I’m more a clown than everything. I hope you will find the calendar is to your taste and that you will help us support Cancer Research UK. You might be thinking, I don’t want to support Cancer Research UK because I am not a UK citizen. I understand, I’m not a UK citizen either but if it’s UK or another country, it does not really matter as these organisations share their knowledge and if they find solution everyone will benefit from it, you, me, your friends, and family!  So please do your good action for this end of year, and the SBB Babes will thank you all year around in 2010.

Posted by: Aurelie Girard, Marketing Events Coordinator, Steel Business Briefing

Miss July – playing with her pots and pans…

Miss July

My experience as a steel babe
Hi there, I’m miss July in the SBB steel babes calendar…yes the one who loves to play with her pots and pans! Well contrary to what the calendar suggests I am quite the accomplished cook, which made the already surreal photographic session even more unrealistic for me. I am telling you, there is nothing natural about posing in a pristinely lit kitchen kitted out in a period frock, heels and red lipstick on a Sunday morning…well unless you’re Jamie Oliver in drag!

My initial pitch was “1950’s domestic goddess in distress”, although the fact that I have no mixture in my bowl doesn’t appear to “distress” me in the slightest. So instead I opted for a cheeky carry-on-esque pose while mouthing the obligatory “ooooh”.

My one reservation about the picture is the supporting role of the pineapple which I had hoped would make more of an appearance since it adds a certain degree of kitschness. As you can see, stainless is definitely my steel of choice; its luxurious, non-stick and easing to clean.

Posted by: Sandra Boga, Steel Business Briefing

Miss February – a real jail bird…

Miss February

I decided (was persuaded) to do the SBB Steel Babes Calendar purely to raise money for Cancer Research.  Unfortunately, Cancer has affected people close to me so this charity holds a place close to my heart.  As we started shooting for the calendar this reason, although still my priority, became one of many other reasons for taking part.  It was great fun getting together with the girls and having our make-up etc done.  I was expecting to be really embarrassed and uncomfortable in front of the camera but Graham, the photographer, was brilliant and really made us all feel at ease and helped to make it fun.

I’m glad to say I have no regrets doing this calendar and it’s great to be part of something fun and sometimes controversial, but overall I’m glad to be part of something that will be contributing to a very worthy cause.  Well done Hollie for organising it all!!  Let’s just hope it is a success!!

Posted by: Louise Jenks, Customer Service, Steel Business Briefing

Miss September – an interesting first day at work…

Miss September

When we first decided that we wanted to produce a calendar, I had no idea we would have such a great product! The final copy looks amazing and I am so proud of everyone who has taken part. I am also very pleased that Patrick has supported us throughout.

The shooting: One Sunday morning, 5 of the girls came round to my house to get their make-up done by Francesca (an amazing make-up artist) who currently works for MAC. My dad who is a professional photographer, volunteered to take the photographs for free. For these shoots, we headed to Wandsworth Common and got some great shots. Some of the girls were a little nervous but soon got into it and the results were gorgeous! I attempted to do my shoot here but unfortunately it didn’t work out very well so I had to do mine the following weekend on a train platform. I think the on-lookers were a little surprised to see me dressed like that on a Sunday morning!!! It was a lot of fun though and Virginia did a great job in coming up with most of the captions. Caroline also did an amazing job coordinating all the marketing stuff and Mik’s designing was perfect!

I decided to take part in the calendar primarily because I wanted to raise money for charity. My mother died of cancer so I am very proud to be supporting Cancer Research UK. I love that the calendar is a little risqué and it was so much fun being photographed. I am sure that the controversy which was sparked  amongst colleagues will help us to sell more copies of the product.

Posted by: Hollie Sherriff, PA to MD, Steel Business Briefing

Miss June – is anyone going to Wimbledon?

Miss June

I really wanted to support this project as it was something the girls in the company had been considering for years but never had the courage to actually do.  I was also quite eager to support it from the sidelines, but as you can tell from my picture, this is not how it turned out!

Because we all work for SBB (or The Steel Index, in my case) we wanted to make sure each month had a touch of steel and a bunch of cheeky fun.  We knew we didn’t want anything overtly sexy, we were aiming for classy, something our company could be proud of.

The steel in my month is my fork, which if you look really closely is from IKEA.  I had 4 different forks we were trying to do the shots with, which one had the best shine, the best look… bet you never knew so much thought went into this picture.

The wind kept on blowing into my lipstick, which was expertly applied by our fantastic make-up artist Francesca Angel, and then onto my face and left red marks!  It looks like I was very messy with the strawberry.  Regardless it all worked out in the end.

I love my caption, because I also live close to Wimbledon, but I have never been to Wimbledon so it is probably true that I would be really eager to get some tickets.  However I’m not sure I would ever seductively eat a strawberry and cream wearing such a small amount of clothing!

Posted by: Caroline Macmillan, Marketing Manager, The Steel Index