Behind the Scenes: Wedding Hairpiece Commission. Sterling silver, Freshwater pearls, Crystals.

March 16, 2018

A bespoke bridal floral headpiece handmade by Irish Jewellery Designer Elena Brennan.

Recently I had the privilege of creating a floral headpiece for a beautiful bride on her special day.  I decided to take pictures along the way, from our initial concept and ideas right through to the finished piece.  

Read on to look at how the flowers grow and blossom into a beautiful intricate design!

To start with, she brought in her beautiful dress and I took some close up photos of it's gorgeous detail.

Inspiration for the bridal headpiece

 

 

 

Inspiration for the headpiece!

 

Flowers designs for floral bridal headpiece, bespoke jewelry made from pearls and sterling silver!

 

To start, I wired up some concept flowers using a variety of different freshwater  pearls, mother of pearl shapes and crystals.  Each flower had a very different look and they helped me to get a feel for what style the bride was looking for. 

 

Individual flowers for a bespoke floral jewellery bridal headpiece, made from sterling silver, pearls and something blue!

Based on the designs in her dress and the character of the flowers that I had made, I designed a hair piece that covered almost a third of her head  Two central flowers with many smaller flowers, wired leaves and delicate pearl sprays radiating outwards, each side ending in a Celtic spiral..

 

Inital sketches for a bespoke wedding jewellery piece, design of a floral bridal headpiece. 

I made the back structure of the headpiece first, which was heavy sterling silver wire, spiralled in the centre and flowing gracefully out either side. Nest the two main flowers were attached. Gradually I added more flowers, when I was sure that I had found the perfect position for them.

 Floral wedding headpiece structure, bespoke jewelry made from pearls and sterling silver!

After all were attached, I focused on the more intricate detailing of wiring the leaves, making the smaller flowers, filling gaps and making everything gel together and look right.  I also added the something blue into the headpiece for good luck!                               

The Floral wedding headpiece structure starting to come together!

 

Floral wedding headpiece something blue detailing, bespoke jewelry made from pearls and sterling silver! 

The headpiece came together beautifully after many long hours and very sore fingers, but it was all worth it to see her face light up when she laid eyes on the finished piece. She almost cried!

 

Front detail of a wedding jewelry Bespoke piece, a floral bridal headpiece made from sterling silver and pearls!

(Front floral headpiece detailing)

 

Back detail of a wedding jewelry Bespoke piece, a floral bridal headpiece made from sterling silver and pearls!

(Back floral headpiece detailing)

I also made her a matching bracelet for her big day.  She had loved one of the original flowers we created but it didn’t quite fit the style of her headpiece, so I made it into a bracelet for her instead!

 

The bespoke bridal headpiece with a matching bracelet!

(Making the band of the pearl bracelet)

Starting to design the bracelet to match the bespoke bridal headpiece.

 

The bespoke bridal bracelet is complete with a flower to match her headpiece.

 

 

I enjoyed creating this special bridal hair piece and I hope that you have enjoyed reading about it,   So much work goes into these pieces that I don't make them very often. I sometimes give classes on how to make these, as I think that it would be a lovely idea for brides to make their own hair jewellery and have something unique to pass on to their daughters. I’d love to hear what you think of this piece, so do get in touch on Facebook or Instagram and let me know!  

 






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