Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:53:57 -0700 From: Regina Lawson <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: [h-cost] 15th c Headdress Help Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I am reproducing the ensemble from the Margaret Fitzgerald tomb effigy, in St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland. The headdress is the Irish version of the heart shaped headdress. Any and all advice regarding construction or application (kputting it on) would be greatly appreciated. I have some ideas, but no practical experience with the style. ****************************************** I've made a couple of these wierd 15th century hats, though not one precisely like this. To start with you need a firmly fitting fabric headband (a wide strip of linen or cotton is good). This will keep all the stray hairs behaving (if you have the sort of hair that misbehaves) and form the base for the headdress. You can see something that might be this on the sculpture at the front of her forehead. I would pin the stiff part of the headdress to such a base. As for the stiff part, you can't really see the back of this one, so it might be two distinct horns, or it might be a single piece that goes right round the back of the head. If the latter, you could make it from buckram or cardboard (you might have to fiddle a bit to get the right shape), if the former I would use Cynthia's wireform instructions. Cover in fabric and decorate. Then drape a nice light-weight veil over the top. The wiggly bits in the middle look like oak-leaf dags to me. Dagging was used on women's hats in the 15th century (copying men's chaperones), but if, as someone else has pointed out, this is an anachronistic depiction, it maybe a mish mash of someone's ideas of 15th century styles. Claire _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
