As part of our first project this year, we are learning all about postiche, creative hair and knotting our own facial pieces. On Monday we started creating some tester pieces, which included pinning 40 denier fronting lace onto a wooden block, with black card cello taped behind so it was easier to see the detail. To avoid any splitting in the lace, the pins are hammered into the block every half a centimeter. Polly showed us how to knot the hair onto the lace using a hook and about ten strands of human hair at a time. I must admit, it took some time to master the technique, and I found it difficult to see what I was doing because all the tools are so small and delicate. I have brought my wooden board home to practise some more before we start building our main postiche piece, and I am happy to say I am finally getting used to it. I’ve begun to experiment with some of my old wefted extension hair so that my technique is slightly more perfected.
As I am using my dad as my model for my finalassessment, I am looking at creating a character in his late 80’s early 90’s. This way I can show real depth as he already has some wrinkles to work onto. This alsomeans that I must consider the colour and type of hair I use in my moustache. As well as practising with human hair I have had a small go at knotting with Yak hair, it is more wirey and stiff than human hair but it has an amazing white/ grey colour which would be perfect for this ageing work.
