I am a milliner living in the Surrey hills of England. Ever since I can remember, I've always enjoyed making my own creations in my spare time. When I was younger I would busy myself for hours on end making jewellery, stitching dolls clothes together, designing purses and dabbling in a bit of painting and calligraphy but to name a few of my interests!

Visit Virginie's wonderful website!
www.bespokemillinery.com

For information on creating hair jewels - see below

A few years ago I discovered Millinery by accident when I enrolled in an evening class at Kensington and Chelsea College, in South West London. I soon realised that I was hat mad and have not looked back since. My work is all about creating custom-made hats, creations and hair jewels for the individual. You can view my virtual collection at www.bespokemillinery.com.

I especially love making hair jewels because I can make almost anything from my imagination. My designs are influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and inspiration from nature and sea life. All my jewels and tiaras use PolyShrink as the main focal point.

I discovered the marvels of PolyShrink very recently and I have to say I am really addicted to it! Some of my friends chuckle when I tell them how I use it because their only recollection is cutting out basic shapes from PolyShrink and watching it shrink in the oven. In my opinion, it is an excellent medium for millinery. It is so versatile and I am already doing more experimenting for my new collection.

I combine traditional tiara techniques with PolyShrink. I use a variety of PolyShrink colours and find the oversize sheets ideal to make nice big and bold designs. I tend to go for a metallic glitter finish when I'm after an antique look. Because all the pieces are worn on the head, I also manipulate the PolyShrink to add dimension and achieve a sculptural look. To finish off the jewels, I use a mixture of beads, freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals to add sparkle and contrast.

Here's a basic list of artists supplies I use:

• Clear or Black PolyShrink
• Metallic marker pens - fine and thick nibs
• Tulip® Crystals® and Glitter®
• Variety of beads, pearls, crystals - anything to make the jewel look beautiful!
• Jewellery wire - 0.4mm, 0.8mm and 1.2mm

Here's a quick step by step to make your own hair jewel:

• Choose a design that you'd like to wear on your head.
• Create a template from your design, ensuring that it will be the right size once it has been baked!
• Trace your design with metallic markers onto your prepared PolyShrink.
• Don't forget to punch your holes in advance for where you'll want to thread your beads.
• Then fill it in with the crystals and gel glitters.
• Cut out your design and bake it.
• With your baked design, apply beads, pearls and anything pretty to enhance the jewel look. Use the thinner wires (0.4mm & 0.8mm) to thread the beads through the PolyShrink.
• Once you have done that you can attach your creation onto a tiara construction made of the thick wire (1.2mm).