Hair Ornament

Sometimes its the accessories that get you.

It was probably a fairly simple matter to draw the ornament in her hair but to make it was another matter. I tried several different materials to see what would give me the right combination of relief, weight and flexibility. In the end I went with leather. I traced out the design and then "un-wove" it so that after I cut it out I could reweave it. I also struggled to find feather that would stand up with the right wispy quality to match those in the picture. The ostrich feather were the most obvious part be even there I had trouble finding ones short enough to keep the right over all proportion. The largest pain was getting the feather to shoot out from behind the jewels at the right angle with out twisting around or laying flat on top of each other. In the end I solved it with a little hand made bracket and lots of glue. Once I solved a long list of technical challenges, a little gold spray paint, a curling iron for the fathers and bit of horse hair braid to pin it on was all it took.

See more about the mask here:

http://www.couturecostume.com/item878.html

See more about the dress here:

http://www.couturecostume.com/item883.html