The last few months (Part Two)

So to continue my review of the last few months...

The later part of 2011 saw me journey over 2 days to get to the fantastic Bridport Hat Festival. The journey started at 10pm on a Thursday night with an overnight coach to London. The next day saw two further coach trips, one from London to Bournemouth and then finally on to Bridport a small town in Dorset that hosts the annual Hat Festival. Now in its second year, the festival sees the town come alive sharing a love of hats all thanks to resident Mad-hatter Mr Snook who runs his hat business from the town.  I wasn't alone in my journey with other milliners coming from Ireland and visitors from as far as Australia. I sat up my little stall on the Saturday in the Art Centre to a great reception. It is always so nice to get feedback from people and those I met seemed to really love what I'd produced. I showed of the newly finished Tattooed Heart range for the first time too, and was really happy with the comments I got!

On the Sunday before the mammoth trip home began I got the chance to have a look at some of the other designers showing their pieces. I met an amazing group of young women all having just finished at college including the very talented Holly Gaimen (yes, they have talent in spades in that family) who's caligraphy inspired piece I'd much admired in the Stephen Jones/Talenthouse competition we'd both entered earlier in they year. In fact it was Holly who one the public voting portion of the competition!

A little closer to home, in Glasgow, I met up with the University Steampunk Society for Glasgow by Gaslight II. The cabaret section of the day saw jugglers, magicians, belly-dancing and a guy playing classic game themes on a laser harp. I thoroughly enjoyed having a stall at this event and it gave me the change to dress up in my best Victoriana too!

Then came our bi-annual trip to the Yorkshire Coast and the little town of Whitby for Halloween. We had our usual stall at Alt Fest, but after a little accident and a trip to the towns hospital to determine if I'd broken my wrist we decided to call it a day on the Sunday and headed home instead, getting back just before midnight.

Its been a rather eventful year and my little girl is growing ever bigger an learning new things every day! We're still no closer to getting her to sleep a full 10 hours at night but we wouldn't change her for the world. 2012 promises to be an interesting year with lots of plans already taking shape. We're looking forward to a proper family holiday abroad this spring and time spent with friends, some who have just become parents for the first time too!

So its time to wish you all a Happy New Year! I'd like to end this post by sharing one of my favourite New Years Blessings by author Neil Gaimen!

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

Have a fantastic 2012!

The last few months (Part One)

So it seems I've been a little remiss with the blog for the past few months... oops! Since having gone back to work in March I've been getting used to juggling work, millinery, motherhood and just life and it seems to have all gotten away from me... I had plans for lots of blog posts for the remainder of last year that I just never got round to. So here I present a quick round up of how the later past of 2011 went for me and my little family... Part One!

August saw us visit Edinburgh on two separate occasions for the Edinburgh Book Festival. Firstly to see the fantastic Neil Gaimen, my favourite author, and listen to him speak about the amazing American Gods. It has always been on of my favourite books as I am drawn to the mythology used by Gaimen in this particular novel. I've always loved world mythology, especially from the Norse pantheon! Listening to Gaimen talk was wonderful I especially loved the part where the interviewer asked him whether it was all to much to expect the reader to believe that Shadow's wife Laura had risen from the dead and was there in the novel providing help and guidance along the way. Gaimen's response was simply... but there are millions of people all over the world who believe in Jesus and that he was resurrected so why would this be such a hard concept to understand??

I did treat myself to a new copy of American Gods (which I have to confess as to still reading as we enter the New Year... I just don't seem to have as much time to sit and read any more!) and was lucky enough to meet Neil Gaimen and have him sign my copy of Angels and Visitations. I also made myself a little fascinator to wear on the day... made from literary print fabric with Suffolk puff flowers, vintage buttons and a miniature copy of American Gods atop!

Our second trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival was to see Kaylee's favourite author Julia Donaldson (Author of The Gruffalo - Kaylee's favourite book!!) along side illustrator Lydia Monks. This was a storytelling session in which we heard the author read, among others, Sharing a Shell, The Princess and the Wizard and the new book Rhyming Rabbit. Julia Donaldson has such a talent for storytelling and the kids were all entranced by her! Kaylee even sat still for the full hour!! At the end we had the chance to meet both Lydia and Julia who signed a couple of items for us including Kaylee's giant Gruffalo poster which is not up on her bedroom wall!!

I've also had the chance to produce some fantastic custom pieces in the past few months. As much as I love making my stock pieces, I love the challenge that comes from creating custom pieces. This year I've had two very challenging pieces to work on. The first for Laura, who came to me with the idea to recreate the look of Sharpe (played by Sean Bean in the TV adaptation of the novels by Bernard Cornwell) for an event she was attending. The costume was being made by Marie from Forever in Black Designs, but Laura a previous customer of mine, knew to come to me for the hat. She wanted a miniature Shako Hat in the style worn by Sean, so after much research I set to work to create this piece! It was not a style I'd tackled before and I was very pleased with the result!!

The second piece was for the Pin-up for Heroes Calendar 2012. I was heavily involved in last years calendar and this year the organisers came to me looking for a very special piece. I was told that one of the shoots was to recreate this piece of artwork by Gil Elvgren and that they needed the hat! 

What a challenge that proved to be. With a deadline of little over 2 weeks to complete and ship the piece I set to work. The first version proved disastrous as I have miscalculated one of my measurements, but after some careful planning and mathematics I was able to finish the project on time... and look at the resulting image from Egner Photography... stunning! The calendar is available to purchase at  Pin-up For Heroes

and as always proceeds from the sales go to the Help for Heroes Charity!

 Well that's it for part one of the round-up of the last 6 months... more to follow soon!

The Dragstalgia Fascinator

A few months ago a received a lovely email from burlesque and pin-up model Miss Phoenix, offering her modelling services for Off With Her Head. We got to talking and when she told me that she was going to be the official flag girl for this years Dragstalgia (http://www.santapod.co.uk/e_dragstalgia.php) I offered to make her a fascinator for the event, and what we came up with is the Dragstalgia Fascinator.

I was inspired by the idea of the chequered flag and by hot rod flames and combined them to come up with this piece. The base was constructed from heavy cotton in a chequered print with cotton interfacing ironed to the reverse side, lined with wool felt and edged in with bias (I ended up using black bias instead of the red). The flames were constructed from 3 layers of sinamay in flame colours and decorated with Swarovski crystal accents.

I was really pleased with the finished result and shipped the piece of to Miss Phoenix who, despite the windy, wet weather during the weekend, managed to wear the fascinator and get a few great shots during the day!

Miss Phoenix can be contacted at the following:

http://www.missphoenix.co.uk
http://www.modelmayhem.com/2089874
http://www.purestorm.com/profile.aspx?id...

Products I Love!

As a busy Mum, its important to me to finds beauty products that work and involve a minimum of fuss. I dye my hair, its a dark red/brown and I've been this colour for some time now. Normally I get my little sister round in an afternoon to help me dye my hair but with a one year old running around its not entirely practical. So, when I saw the adverts for the new John Freida Precision Foam Colour which promises a 'quick and easy application' I decided to give it a go.

I selected shade 5R - Medium Red Brown which is as close to what I've been previously using and decided on Monday evening to set aside half an hour to dye my hair. I have to say I was very, very impressed! It is one of the easiest and mess free products I have ever tried. In the past I have had dye all over the bathroom, on the walls, (yep, bright red too on a cream wall!) carpet, radiator and all over the sink by the time I was finished, but the non-drip foam was fantastically easy to apply. I didn't need combs or clips to separate my hair or a third arm to make sure the back got covered properly. You simply add the colour to the developer, tilt 5 times to mix and then squeeze to get a foam which you just smooth over your roots and then massage into the rest of your hair, wait for 30 mins (no longer) then rinse and apply the conditioner and you're done! Easy!

This product gets a 5 out of 5 from me, although the only downside for me personally is the limited colours available... I'd love a really vibrant bright red or purple please!

So tell me, do you feel lucky??

This summer I've been busy working on a new range of fascinators inspired by the old school style tattoos, you know the ones... cherry red hearts with scrolls that have words like 'LOVE', 'ALWAYS'  and 'MUM' written in script across them an popular tattoo imagery such as anchors, swallows and cherries! Well I've some up with a range of 6 designs, that I hope you'll love as much as I do and I thought I'd share the design process as well as the finished pieces.

Sometimes, not always, I start with a blank piece of paper and a box of coloured pencils and fine liner pens! Then from that concept drawing I produce a prototype from cotton and wool felt.

There are 6 different designs for this range (at present, but I have a few ideas for some others!) - AHOY, LUCKY, LOVE, CHERRY, SWEET and ALOHA. Cotton print fabrics for each design are selected and each heart is cut from a template. Cotton interfacing is then ironed to the reverse of the fabric. Matching or sometimes contrasting wool felt hearts are also cut from the template and matched up with the cotton pieces which are then bound together and edged with bias.

Decorative elements for each piece are then selected. Pieces such as the banners, text, swallows and cherries are hand cut from wool felt and appliquéd to create a 3D effect.

I'm really please with the finished pieces! I think my favourite one has to be LOVE!

I took these with me to London for The Roost photo shoot with photographer, Ange Harper, and they received lots of positive feedback from both the models and photographers there. The lovely Lilah, who if you've seen my website over the years you will be well acquainted with, modelled a couple of designs for me, my favourite on her is LUCKY! Would you mess with this feisty Femme Fatale, tell me punk do you feel luck, well do ya??

Tattoo Inspired Fascinators RRP £30.00, available from the website and Etsy store at www.offwithherheadmillinery.co.uk

Introductory offer - get yours now for £25.00, offer ends 31st August.

Modelling for James Corrin/Captured Light

At the start of July I popped down to London for the day to take part in the annual Roost Photoshoot organised by Ange Harper (http://www4.clikpic.com/AngeHarper/) and as well as supplying a large suitcase full of hats for the other models to use I got dressed up and modelled for a couple of the photographers too!

The first set I have to offer is by James Corrin (www.capturedlight.eu), a fantastic photographer who really put me at ease, and as you can see he produced some fantastic images!

Cherry Fascinator by Off With Her Head (www.offwithherheadmillinery.co.uk)
Clothes, Styling and Make-Up all models own.

Labyrinth

Last night, Alan and I had a baby-free evening and headed off out to the DCA to see a showing of the 1986 movie 'Labyrinth' starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. 

Having loved this film for as long as I can remember and owned it in many formats (VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray), I was excited to see it in the cinema. This was the first time I had seen it on the big screen and I was not disappointed! There were around 100 off us fans packed into the cinema at the DCA (which has some of the comfiest cinema seats I'm sat in for a while). As the movie started there were murmurs of anticipation, the now somewhat dated CGI owl flew across the screen, and the opening scene of Sarah reciting lines from the Labyrinth commenced. Throughout the movie you could here others reciting lines that we all knew and loved, not least the whole 'You remind me of the Babe' part which I did too join in with! We all laughed and the goblins and at the gratuitous crotch shots, and sang along with the songs and a few of us even applauded at the end too!

It has been, and will always remain one of my favourite movies of all time. Alan and I even had 'As the world falls down' played at our wedding this past march! I've always had a soft spot for anything Jim Henson and Brian Froud! This was a real treat for me and I highly recommend that if its coming to a cinema local to you, go and see it!

Finally... can anyone guess who this is... he was perhaps the 'star' of The Labyrinth back in the day... but my hasn't her grow up!