This headdress has three elements silk flowers, a feather pompom and an upright feather element.
I decided to stick to two colors for this headdress. I have silk violet flowers with leaves and celadon Ostrich barbs, long Goose shoulder feathers and picot ribbon.
Upright Feather Element
I used 5-7″ long Goose shoulder feathers for this part of the headdress.
I use a rotary cutter and a straight edge to trim the feathers down to narrow “V”s about 1/4” wide at the base down to 0 at the tip.
Remove the remainder.
Trimming the second side.
After the second cut.
5 cut feathers.
Make a twisted wire pick to add these to. Check here for how to do that. Tape the first one of feathers to the pick.
Keep adding the feathers one at a time so that they evenly angle out in a circle.
This is how it should look with all 5 added from the side.
This is how it should look with all 5 added from the center.
Ribbon Element
Fold back the first 4.5″ into a loop wrap some thin thread covered wire about 1/2″ from the cut end to gather and anchor the loop, do not cut off the wire.
About 3/4″ down from the gather fold the ribbon to make another loop and wrap the wire around the base of the loop twice.
Do the same again to make a third loop.
Fold the loop forward, it should look like this.
Make one more loop.
Flowers
Create a cluster of flowers and leaves by taping the stems together with florist tape.
Use the end of the covered wire on the ribbon loops and wrap it around the stem of the flowers. Add another layer of tape over this.
This is what I had so far. Now the pompom has to be made around the upright element.
Ostrich Pom Pom
I used fairly large left over stem of Ostrich feathers. These need to be cut into about 5-6″ lengths.
Then cut down the middle of the stem.
I use 1/4″ paper backed double sided tape.
Add a strip of tape just to the other side of the stem. Use the tape to rejoin the 5″ segments you have. Add tape on the other side of the feather segments as well. Trim the stem away just the other side of the tape.
Use a rotary cutter and long straight edge to cut the barbs to length from aprox. 4.5″ to 6″.
When you take the ruler away it should look like this.
Use some paper to bundle the cut Goose feathers to keep them out of the way. The Ostrich will be added below the paper in the green tape area.
Remove the tape from one side of the Ostrich barbs.
Lay the wire pick/Goose feather across the tape. Starting on the short side roll near the base of the Goose feathers.
As you roll pull the tape off the other side.
Keep rolling it as tightly as possible. Angle down a little as you go.
Keep going until you reach the end. Cover the exposed tape with florist tape.
Fold back the Ostrich barbs to remove the paper. Curl the Ostrich barbs with some dull scissors as you would ribbed ribbon a few barbs at a time.
The two parts are kept separate. The metal pick is bent to 90° and slide into the high bun and the ribbon and flowers are sliced in from the side and held with a large bobby pin.