So after the exhaustion of Monday I never finished the blog post but I’m posting it today! (Yay) So I shall continue with my write up from yesterday.
Today has been extremely long and extremely tiring; however I did have a lovely day in Edinburgh (although I was blinded by the sun for the most part!)
The Viking Boy had a job interview in Edinburgh this morning and since I know Edinburgh better and it is his first one for a graduate type job I promised to go with him. Unfortunately to get there in time we ending up leaving the house at 20 past 7 this morning (a great struggle since we usually get up around 9 or 10) and rushing from the train station up to Buchanan Bus Station for our bus at 8.15. We made it in plenty of time and pretty much slept most of the journey there.
The interview went well and the boy came out happy with how it had been left. He should hear very soon and then it will be a mad rush to find a flat in Edinburgh, pack and move in the next month not to mention he still has exams to finish before May!
Since we were going to be getting back until about 5 tonight I did most of my Good Mood Monday’s activities over the weekend in preparation for writing it all up tonight to post up for you good people!
First a little update on how my fabric printing experimentation went: very simply it didn’t. It seems the image maker is more suited for doing larger images rather than a smaller repeated pattern as I wanted.
As you can see it leaves a hardened residue from the leftover image make which means the fabric doesn’t sit right AND it kind of fades the actual image I wanted to use.
BUT as I promised it was back to the drawing board and I think I have found a new technique it may take a little longer and be a bit messier but it looks really good!
I had the idea of perhaps using rubber stamps to get the image, similar to maybe doing a lino cut, as luck would have it I also came across fabric paints in spray paint bottles which makes covering the rubber stamp much easier.
To avoid wastage I sprayed the paint onto a sponge first then pushed the stamp into it. After a couple of attempts I realised that I had to wipe some of the excess paint off the corners of the stamp to stop them appearing on the fabric. (You can see in the images below some of my earlier attempts. Because I’m using fabric paints it doesn’t damage the fabric and because I used the stamp I don’t have any excess paint to smudge which can sometimes happen when I use stencils.
So my plan is to get some plain bleached muslin, enough for doing my next gown and use the stamp and paint to pattern the entire fabric. It might only be a one off or a very special offer for the shop (custom hand printing will cost more I think) but it’s a fun thing to try!
Ok onto today’s topic! While at college we learned the basics of dressing wigs and hair in historical styles and I’ve always loved playing about with weird hairstyle so I recently decided to start creating various styles for my Facebook page.
I started off with a very simple 1840s hairstyle inspired by Jane Eyre then used rags to curl my hair for a Regency style. (It is always a bad idea when I decide to rag my hair as the curls are always insane!)
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A few months ago I researched how to create hair rats. These are hair accessories used to enhance a style (kind of like people using hair doughnuts today) they tended to be made using actual human hair (the selling of human hair has been a thriving trade for centuries) and were often used to create the bouffant style of the 18th and 19th centuries – they were still being used in the Edwardian era to create the much sought after “Gibson Girl” style. I decided not to use human hair for mine and instead used old tights and toy stuffing to create weird sausage things that I can wrap my hair around!
My first attempts at using the rats were quite successful, I practiced rolling the smaller ones into victory roll style ones to create the height you so often see in Victorian and Edwardian images and photographs.
Today I decided to try a few more styles out. So I was trying to get my hair from this wild and windswept mass of curls:
Into something a little more manageable and stylised
I decided to try a new style this weekend and went for a 1940’s housewife style. I used the rats first to curl my hair up then wrapped a soft scarf round my head in a 1940’s turban style.
As you can see my hair is a bit messy and tangled – sometimes my hair refuses to behave itself, and I hate using products like hairspray. I did a small, victory roll style curl to the front section of my hair and then gathered the rest at the back round one of the larger rats and pinned in place.
I think I might need to find a different scarf to use as this one slipped about quite a bit as I tried to tie it.
I quite like this style; it’s fairly uncomplicated and has a nice overall effect with very little effort. I think I’m going to look into doing a few more wartime clothing and accessories and this style will look really good with the proper outfits!
Next was to do another early Victorian style. My hair is quite thin so while its crazy curly, once I brush it out and pleat it up there isn’t much volume to it. You can see this in the next couple of photos, maybe having extensions or something would help the pleats look fuller and work better but never mind!
I did the bun at the back using a modern “hair doughnut” and it definitely helps get the shape right, especially given the thinness of my hair.
With my final style I wanted to incorporate one of the fantastic Victorian hair snoods that my mum crocheted up for me.
First I curled my hair at the front similar to the way I was first playing about with the rats then instead of rolling up the rest of my hair I pulled up the rest into a quick ponytail thing with a tiny elastic band. I then pinned the snood in place at the front and sides and gathered it with the ribbon under the ponytail, basically covering my whole head and hair, once that was done I reached through the holes of the snood and snapped the elastic band and let my hair drop into the back of the snood.
It was by this point that my hair really started misbehaving and it was becoming far too bouncy and curly to be able to force it into any shape or style. I am pleased with how my various styles turned out and once I get a few of the books I’m angling after about wig dressing and make up history I’ll be able to try even more! The next one I do aim to try is the full Gibson Girl style bouffant.
Ok that’s it for today I think. Going to be wandering around Glasgow with the mammy on Thursday hopefully and then on Friday I’ll be visiting the new exhibition at Kelvingrove!
Until then
See you in the future! ♥
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