In my editorial photoshoot I did for the Fabric Anthropology Fashion Week line, I made my headpiece.
I was going full on gothic with this outfit, so a headpiece with feathers was a must. I WAS NOT trying to create a caricature of a tribal headpiece, which in my research I did not find one that was configured in this way. I started looking at all of the post-apocalyptic inspiration on Pinterest and You Tube for creating a headpiece. Some were built on a wire frame, some on felt or crafting foam and some built on a headband.
As I was planning on doing my hair with a faux-hawk style and braids, I decided to go with a wire base that I wrapped with strips of faux leather.
The base needed a form, so I grabbed a mannequin head from Amazon, along with heavy gauge wire from Michaels. The feathers I got from Amazon: black rooster feathers, white cocktail feather plume, and black ostritch feathers.
I already had some craft felt and foam, so I figured that I would see what worked. As I was crafting it, I realized that just the rooster feathers worked best. I now have feathers left for more projects down the line.
This is one of those projects where you need a copious quantity of glue sticks and heat resistant finger pads.
I put together my wire form, then wrapped it with faux leather.
Next, I added the foam circles that were my base for the feathers.
I knew I needed to cover the foam, so I kept gluing feathers until it was covered, going from side to side to make sure things were turning out evenly. I glued one feather along the bottom on each side to make sure that part was covered.
This was REALLY light when all made, which was a bit of a problem when I went up on the ridge with the wind whipping around. I put some pins in it to keep it from flying off my head.
It also was pretty malleable, so it was easy to move the wires around to fit my head.
I think this worked out pretty well for my outfit!
