Jennifer Marsh – Australia

Category: Traditional

Description

My entry was initially inspired by a vintage hat that was damaged beyond repair to wear. The flowers were removed and the stamens used from the original headpiece. So my headpiece fused together ideas from old to new and a completely different and modern headpiece evolved – you could say fusing together vintage techniques of French flower making into a modern look.

Materials

• Black basket weave (window sinamay)
• black straw
• handmade silk flowers
• ostrich quills

Techniques

• Traditional blocking of crown and brim.
• Brim was shaped on the bias and the straw crown was blocked separately.
• Flowers were made from by tooling them with French flower making tools and vintage stamens.
• Some fabric was used from the skirt that was being worn and incorporated into the flowers.
• The ostrich quills were curled using a steam iron and added as a trim to give a distinctive feature.
• The whole headpiece was hand stitched and there was no use of a sewing machine.