Wednesday 17 August 2011

A Feathery Challenge

Last month a friend of my husband's asked if I could make a fascinator for his wife using some pheasant wings that he had.  Not one to shy away from a challenge and keen to introduce myself to the world of feathers I agreed and a few days later a parcel arrived containing two pheasant wings, several long tail feathers and a couple of lovely red Chinese Pheasant feathers.  All I had to do was to make sure that these were human hair friendly and collect my millinery skills together as I had now realised that this would be no ordinary fascinator - in at the deep end..... 







And after many hours of inspired creativity here is the finished design.  I hope you like it.  The lady I created it for has blond hair, so the ivory headband will be perfect.


I think the red Chinese Pheasant feathers look striking against the earthy tones of our native pheasant's plumage. 


I even learnt to curl feathers to add an extra dimension at the base of the design.



















One of the many beautiful characteristics of the wings I used was that each side was a completely different colour.  This makes the fascinator even more versatile as you can get a different look by just turning it around - two for the price of one!







I would have to say that even though this was a real challenge I absolutely fell in love with the finished article and was sad to see it leave my studio.  But I am very pleased to say that it now has a happy home and my customer loves the vintage feel that I gave to the design and she is looking forward to showing it off  at her daughter's wedding. 


To finish the whole adventure off perfectly, all of the proceeds for this fascinator have been donated to the Megan Baker House , a fantastic charity based in Herefordshire that provides free Conductive Education Services for people with motor disabilities.

Now that I have had my baptism of fire with feathers my head is spinning with so many ideas and I can't wait to start designing.

Louise x






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