Living on an island I am never far from the sea. Hence, considering the competition title, I chose to interpret the element Water. I took inspiration from the seascapes I see daily – sparking waves, deep blue and turquoise in colour, frothing with foam. In designing the headpiece, I walked coastal paths looking at the movement of the water. I sketched shapes trying to capture the dynamic movement of the sea. This gave me the starting shapes, colours and forms for a wave sculpture.

I chose deep blue and turquoise sinamays to depict the colours of the sea. I cut sinamay into bias strips , then steamed, sculpted, manipulated and pleated it to reflect the movement of waves. Raw edges were hand rolled. I wanted to create a pleasing and balanced form that depicted the movement of water. This process took some time, frequently standing back to look at the piece and re- manipulate it to achieve a fluid result.

I distressed a piece of white crin and manipulated it between and over the sinamay strips to represent foam cresting the waves. The pieces were held in place with clips prior to securing with small stitches. Beads were attached to reflect light dancing on the waves and shells from the beach also secured.

A base was blocked in sand coloured sinamay overlaid with blue sinamay. The base gave height to the headpiece to enable the waves to appear to flow forwards. The base was wired.

The sculptured sinamay waves were sewn to the base. A bias cut piece of blue silk was gathered and inserted as a lining . A hat elastic matching the wearer’s hair was secured to the base to ensure the headpiece would sit securely on the head.

Note: Entries have been not been edited or proofread to protect the integrity of the maker's original meaning.