Rangoli lace headpiece

Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye! This bespoke headpiece was collected yesterday and is going to a lovely happy owner...(You may have read my previous post about this inspiring commission.)

I loved working on this piece with *Lena. She had very specific ideas about the look and feel of the piece as well as the shape. Her gorgeous lace dress will be worn with a long sleeved bolero. Pearl was to be the main component of the design. I had to create a flat design which replicated the delicacy of lace. Lena had an image of a rhinestone comb that she liked the shape of. We were able to use this as a starting point and template.

For this design, I printed the image of the comb that Lena had brought so we could look at this shape on her head. This probably sounds mad but it gave us both an excellent idea of how the form would look! Above, you can see how I have pinned on some small beaded shapes on top of the paper.

Once we were both happy with the scale and shape of the piece, I began working on detailed sketches of the intricate form. I then created many individual beaded elements which were finely woven together as the piece was being constructed.

Once I begin constructing the design, I work directly in three dimensions and I leave the sketches aside. This design took many hours to make but was a fascinating new direction for me in terms of assembling a piece from a number of smaller forms.

I'm really looking forward to sharing this wedding with you in a couple of months. Lena is so happy with the piece, especially as she had such a clear idea in her head of how she wanted the piece to look like.

You can read about some of my other commissions on the blog. All feedback is really welcome so leave me a comment or chat with me on my facebook page!

* For anonymity reasons, Lena is not her real name!