Feathers, Fascinators and races ... making it my hobby!

On Easter Monday, a group of us headed to the Royal Randwick Racecourse to celebrate one of our friend's birthdays, actually it was L my MOH, so an extra special day for her :) I'd been creating mine and my sister in law's fascinator's for the day a few days before hand, and was rather limited due to the lack of supplies in Lincraft and Spotlight in the Shire. But I managed to create a couple of beauties that got us some great attention on the day. I had many a comment from the girls about turning my hobby into something more lucrative. 

The beginning of the creations (my photo)

 SIL's fascintor was created from one that i'd purchased at DIVA and then destroyed to get what I wanted out of it which was the little hat like base that it had. I then attached some beautiful blue ostrich feathers, a sinamay flower and found a rhinestone buckle off one of my used and abused old fascinators. I finished it off with a peacock feather which tied everything in beautifully. Was rather impressed with myself when i created this one. 

The sinamay flower and a few coque feathers glue gunned to it (my photo)

The finished article front on (my photo)

Back view (my photo)

Side view (my photo)

So it turned out pretty spectacular when she had it attached to her head. I couldn't believe how perfectly it matched her dress!

SIL and her fascinator (my photo)

And then onto my fascinator. Mine was affectionately known as a multi coloured crow crashed landed onto my head. But everyone seemed to love it, which I was quite surprised about it. I don't have a proper side shot of it on my head, but I took some today so you can sort of see the detail in it. 

Before adding the fluffy purple feathers and sinamay work under the black flower (my photo)

My finished fascinator post races (my photo)

I'd made mine out of purple maribou feathers, and rooster feathers I think, there were some fluffy black ones and some coarse arrow shaped ones which gave it its detail. There was a black feather flower and I folded up some sinamay in the bottom of it under the flower to give it some texture. I was quite impressed with, but had a pain in the butt time trying to attach it to my head. As it seemed to pull horrendously on parts of my hair, but after working out that i could bobby pin some of the feathers to my head. It was held in place. 

The crash landed bird in my hair (my photo)

I also created a smaller one for SIL as I wasn't sure whether she'd go for the one with the peacock feather. Here is a photo of my first fluffy creation:

Blue spikey fluffy (my photo)

This one was cute but it ended up being the wrong blue for SIL's dress. Thought I'd add a couple more of my fav photos of the day ... 

Me and B, one of my friends (my photo)

Me and SIL - (my photo)

This above photo of me and SIL was sent to FH overseas and it is his sister and I.  I got the reply back in an email... 

Oh my 2 fav girls and you both look beautiful..
Love you both.. 

So that was my creation of fascinators for the races. I'm tempted to open an eBay store and attempt to sell a few in different colours and styles, to see whether I have any luck at all. I love creating things as you can probably tell by my previous posts for wedding related things. 

I scoured eBay to see what was listed on there and most things were based in China, UK and USA with not many being in Australia. So after texted FH on Skype today and him bringing up some valid points as in:

• is there a market for it
• can you make them cheaply enough
• how will you post them
• how much will it cost to post them
• how much time will it take you to make them

 I decided I will try my hand at making some of them. I've found a great site based in Australia with relatively cheap postage that I can buy supplies from. So i am going to create a few over the next couple of months and put them up on eBay and see if I get any takers. I had to laugh when FH goes, ok how much do you need. I just laughed and said nothing as this is a hobby... 

So what do you think?