The Wedding Mask

In a stunning bout of convenience, all the things I wanted to happen on Friday, did. In fact my supplies arrived at the same time as my Mother-in-law and she whisked away the children for lunch as I worked on the wedding mask. I managed to get it completed toward the end of the day and I must say that the white mask looks so interesting with black crystals. Once it was done to this point, I staged the mask with the feathers to share with the customer.

We were initially worried that the feathers plus the crystals would be too much, but she approved them as see in this staged shot. Since these are coque feathers, they are stripped down to the small part of feather and this allowed me to run the feathers under the thread in the back using a sewing needle. It took a bit of finesse to not pull too hard to get them place right, but it worked. Then I took some quilting filament and sewed the feathers in place carefully fanning them out. I even went back and added a small amount of fabric glue to the back to ensure that those suckers don't move. I of course then neglected to take a photo of the finished product. Hopefully the bride will feel inclined to share some when it is worn at the end of the month.

Then I had another brand new dilemma...how to ship this without the feathers being damaged. I have shipped other feather pieces before, but they were dense and attached to bases which kept them in a simple to wrap state. These feathers are off on their own, all showy like. I finally realized that I could place the mask in a cut down to size manila folder, then wrap it that way. It should stay flat and protected and I can still wrap it all pretty like. It will be in the mail later today and then I'm back to more custom orders. I make such an effort to keep all but a few pieces listed as ready to sell, but inevitably the few listed as custom are the ones that sell and together to boot. Of course that's why I keep them listed whether they are made or not. They are the big sellers. Just a shame that all of them are full uninterrupted day, if not multiple day projects.

One last thing for this crazy weather Monday is a fair warning that there will be a facebook deal up later today. I promised something should I get at least 900 likes/fans by today. I am however saving the big giveaway for when I hit 1000. someone told be I should stop thinking about numbers so much because it's not healthy. I agree, but they are so shiny, the numbers and I must have more of them...just not in the form of math problems, those take the shine right off.