Creating Gordon sister design

This is the hair accessories has been made from hand by me from jumbo braiding hair, hair weft, cardboard and a necklace. Originally I wanted to create twists in the jumbo hair in the center section of this piece, however it was really difficult to twist the jumbo hair as it was too elasticity and kept bouncing back. 

As i have a collection of hair at home i wanted to try out drying some brown hair weft that I already had at home. I remember that last year Seema told us that that to dye synthetic hair you should use fabric dye. I tried this out  nut it wasn't successful (see images below) this meant that I had to buy some black hair weft to use to create this design. 

Working with the jumbo braiding hair was quite difficult creating such small braids from it as it kept getting cause it the folds of the hair. And when I brushed the hair it was all coming out into the brush. This meant that I had to try not to brush the hair at all and ensure that the hair was being separated while being braided with my fingers. From this I have learnt that in future if i want o twist hair that it must be real hair or hair weft. 

This meant that I had to complete the center part using normal plates and fish tail plates. I believe that this still looks good however I think that twists in the hair would have also been very effective. After braiding all of the jumbo hair for the center piece I then cut out the cardboard in a snake head shape and began pinning the hair in place around the cardboard. I then used black thread and a needle to sew the hair in place. Ensuring that the hair was pulled together leaving minimal white space between the braids.

Once I had sewed the braided hair into the cardboard I then sewed the hair weft onto a thread of elastic and then glued onto the back of the cardboard around the bottom of the piece. I used this method because I didn't want to directly glue the weft as I knew I would like to keep the weft for the future. The necklace was then glued onto the cardboard and clued the biggest red braid around the top of the necklace which will be around the neck.

Before making this piece I underestimated how long it would take. This piece was very time consuming as I had to ensure that everything was the right shape and size for the final outcome. From making this piece I have learnt about the structure and tension that should be used for creating singular braids with jumbo hair. 

Close up front image of the hair piece (side way image)

The back of the piece, can see where I have sewed and glued the elements of the style to hold it together.

Me wearing the the piece.