Ren Fest Headdresses

The New York Renaissance Faire is one of my favorites that I've been to so far!  The first time that I went, I spent a lot of time looking at every single shop that they have.  I went into one that sold headdresses, and I tried one on to see if I wanted to make one myself.  I was outside the shop, looking in the mirror that the owner was holding up for me, when the owner of the Faire came up and paid for it for me!  I ended up getting my picture taken by one of the professional photographers there, and I decided to make three more, one for each season (with the purple one I got being Spring.)

We ordered a headband with horns on it for my mom's headdress, and added felt to the band to give me more surface area to attach fake foliage.  Mom's headdress is based on Fall, with more of a punk influence.  We nestled skulls and little fake rubies into the plant matter, and I put the longer faux leaves on the back to help it blend a little better into her head.

Dad's ram horns had to be glued onto the headband, and I did the same process of felt and then foliage!  His is based on Summer, with mushrooms and a piece of driftwood added to the fake plant life.  Again, longer pieces in the back to make it look more natural.

Both headdresses have elastic in the back to keep them from falling off when we bend down.

After I made these headdresses, I absolutely fell in love with the process!  A few years later I found a bunch of fake sunflowers, and I knew they would be perfect for a third headdress.  I used the same process as I did for the other two, but I went for a more subdued composition.

I'm so happy with how these turned out!  They're super light and surprisingly comfortable to wear all day.  They are definitely a little top heavy, but the elastic mitigates that pretty well.

Both of them definitely communicate the seasons that I meant them to!

I'm also incredibly pleased with how the sunflower one turned out.  I think my placement of the flowers compliments both sets of horns nicely!

Again, I'm super happy with these!  There are some structural issues with the driftwood on Summer being mostly glued to the flowers and not the headband, but it's holding up pretty well.  I think my favorite so far would have to be the Sunflower one.  I absolutely adore the composition of it!  I'm definitely planning on completing the set with a Winder headdress.