Georgie Kennett
Hair Frame
Designs
Out of the four designs above I picked the best and practical bits from each and came up with a design that I knew would work with what I was trying to create.
This design meant that there was a solid supporting structure with more wire at the base since the wire was quite bendy and lightweight it needed more structure on the bottom section. It made more sense to have a supporting wire under the very top wing wire to fully secure the wings and be able to attach feathers on top laying over the net between the two wires rather than have the wings completely dangling down of one thin wire. I also started to think after the first designs how I could allow the wings to move like real wings and I designed the part in the middle that would allow the wing wire sit in there, be secured but also be able to move without falling off.
I sat it on the red head throughout this allowed me to see how high and how wide the frame will sit once applied.Once I was happy with the wing placement I secured them with extra wire wrapped around the start of each wing this also allows the wings to move without falling off.
The picture above is of half of the cone section covered in tutu net.
I used transparent weaving silk to secure the net to the wire frame. I sewed the silks around the wire and through the net to secure each bit individually because of the shape of the cone.
This is the tutu net I will be using to cover the frame, it is quite fine tutu net so that the hair will not protrude through the net when the frame is covered by the models hair.
I then wrapped two small pieces of wire around both ends of the wing structure and soldered it into place. A couple of the wires at the bottom came loose, this was because I had not soldered the pieces securely so I melted the metal again and re secured the wires.
I had created two wing shape structures with the wire and wrapped wire around the join to secure the top and bottom section into place I then used the soldering iron to secure this.
I measured the circumference of Laura's head where I wanted the frame to sit and made a base circle of wire to that measurement. I then cut eight pieces of wire to the same length to make the cone shape before soldering them to the base with a soldering iron.
At the bottom of each sewn piece of net I left a small amount of square net at the bottom of the frame these will later act as achor points that can be attached to pin curls in the hair.
The reason I had used tutu net instead of fine lace was because the frame was being completely covered by hair and was not necessary to use fine lace because of the cost when tutu net worked just as good.
To make the hair frame as comfortable as possible for my model it is important to cover the base of the frame as the wire can be quite uncomfortable.
I cut the tabs into squares, I will use hair pins through the tabs and into the pin curl anchor points in my models hair.
I drew a curve on the sponge to match the curve on the base of the frame as a guideline for cutting the sponge to fit the base.
I used the bottom half of some washing up sponges to apply on the bottom of the wire frame to add comfort to the wire so that it would not be painful for the model during the shoot.
I used a glue gun to glue the pieces of foam onto the base. I was also careful of the tabs on the bottom not to ruin them. The base was now comfortable and the wire is light weight but sturdy enough so it should not be uncomfortable for the model unless it is applied wrong so I must be careful of the placement.
This is what the pieces of sponge look like, the pieces are still quite thick to ensure the head is protected. The parts that would be most uncomfortable are mainly the joins of wire at the bottom. If those were not there I would not really need to add extra comfort because the wire is quite light weight.
I covered the top wing sections with two seperate pieces of net for each wng because of the bend it would have been difficult to do the whole thing with darts and since the whole thing was being covered with hair anyway it was not that much of an issue.
This is the frame completely covered with the net and the foam secured to the bottom. I am satisfied with the way the frame turned out. Being quite ill meant that I could think about the frame designs and draw up a few and really think about what would work, this meant that when it came to the practical side the process went quite smoothly thankfully because the turn around time was short.
I then secured net over the middle section holding the wings in place before moving on to the top section.
I thought it would help to cover the top section with black cloth material to hide the wire, I spent a long time sewing the material into place to then place the feathers on and decide it looked much better before. I then spent another long time taking the additional material off, the opaqueness of the tutu net worked so much better as you could see the whole part of the feather clearly. With this black material it covered up the top parts of the feathers.