Building a Fascinator

A number of you asked me to do a tutorial on building a fascinator. I absolutely love wearing something in my hair. For me, it's like icing on the cake.
I have a number of them that I've made.You saw this one just last week.

There is a lot going on in this piece, 5 different types of feathers, silk ribbon, a silk flower, and a few wired crystals to catch the light.

The one below was made for Christmas 3 years ago. I've worn it a number of times.

The center of the poinsettia was accented with pearls(fake)and gold beads that were wired. A crystal was glued to the gold bead to catch light.

 The poinsettia was backed with a glittery netting.

 I've worn it with the red leaves hanging down.

 But the piece can also be turned so that the red leaves extend upwards.

Another fascinator that I made to wear at Christmas time. There are 3 poinsettias used in this piece. They were left over from the one I made the year before.

 This one was made last summer.

 I wore it with the zebra dress.

I wired zebra print beads, smokey crystals, 

and in the center is a striped ribbon that I twisted and knotted to give the piece a base, break up all the black and accent the dress.

The first step in building a fascinator is to collect the pieces. In my book, more is more with a project like this. When building a fascinator, it's really all about just allowing the piece to come alive under its own terms. That may sound crazy, but that's exactly what always seems to happen. So to allow the piece to come to life, you need to have enough pieces to play with.

I like to go to my local craft/fabric store(Joann's). They have a decent selection of floral items to choose from. Be sure to take your fabric along when choosing items for the facinator.

Just to refresh your memory, here is the fabric I'm using for my dress.

  And here I've begun to accumulate my pieces. 

I will probably take the stamens out of the flowers and replace them with some of the smaller crystals that I have in my hand. I'll also add some gold beads along with some flat crystals.

The glittery gold piece is left over from a previous project. I will be cutting the flowers off the stem so that I have individual flowers. The feathers and the gold/glittery whatever it is will also be cut away from the main stem.

 I also have some ribbon and a piece of iridescent organza.

 The wire is very important for creating new stems. I will also use the flat crystals.

The wire is a 24 gauge wire and it can be purchased at a craft store. For those of you in the United States, it can be found at Joann's.

Now that I've collected all my pieces, my first step is complete. Even in a heap it looks rather pretty.

Tomorrow I will begin to put the pieces together. I always love watching them come together.
So I'll see you tomorrow!
Rhonda