Begin with dense, high-quality Styrofoam. Carve a crude shape to suit the design, then sculp the shape with smooth lines to achieve the desired finished shape. Use any and all kinds of carving equipment, including serrated bread knives, files, rasps, and sandpaper.

When the shape is to your liking, and very very smooth (from an eternity of sanding), with string grooves in all the appropriate places, paint the finished Styrofoam shape with white interior silk house paint. Paint two very thin coats, allowing to dry between coats. The third and last coat must be painted with white radiator paint.

To protect the block, cover the shape with cling film. Wet the buckram first and let sit to allow the buckram to become fluid. Block the sides with buckram. When blocking, ensure that the buckram seam is in the groove that spirals up the headpiece. When blocking, ensure that the cling film is not riding up as it has a tendency to do.

Remove the buckram once dry. Be careful when removing the buckram as it may stick to the Styrofoam.

Block the top with buckram. Pin string in the grooves to gain greater definition. Gingerly remove buckram once dry.

Overstitch the top to the sides as well as the seam down the side. Use a flat overstitch technique so that all the layers become one and lay flat.

Iron the shape. The point of ironing is to meld the seams and stitching together to achieve a smooth, flat surface.

On your favorite wooden vintage hat block, which, of course you have in your millinery studio, block a rounded donut-shaped piece for the bottom of the headpiece. Utilize a four-inch wide strip of bias buckram.

Sew the bottom onto the shape. Stitch a wire along all groove lines, up and down the interior of the shape. Ensure that the wire is securely stiched, as its the wire that provides the critical support. Without the hand-stitched wire infrastructure, the whole headpiece would be flopsy-mopsy.

Sew the base wire, with sprung steel wire. Utilize the sprung steel wire as it guarantees a perfect circle. Cover the exterior of the entire shape with fusible interfacing. Iron the entire shape once again. I hope I don't need to remind you to never ever use a steam iron near such a project. Steam would melt the buckram. (Not melt as in ice cream melts but rather melt as in lose its shape entirely.)

Bind the base wire with black petersham. Braid three strands of elastic and sew into place. This elastic goes underneath the hair and enables the headpiece to remain invisibly stationary, perched on top of the head.

Hackle feathers are sold in ribbon lengths. Always buy white feathers and dye them to suit your color preference. Refrain the urge to purchase colored feathers (already dyed). Remember, white feathers are always the best, highest quality feathers (compared to black feathers, for example).

Prepare the dye bath. Use only Jacquard brand acid dyes. Fold the white ribbon lengths back onto itself, fan-like. When dyeing feathers, ensure that the ribbon remains dry. Simply dip the feathers in and out of the dye bath. Remember, the color will lighten as it dries.

Once dyed and wet, begin drying by swatting the feathers back and forth, against your bare arm. The natural oils in the skin enable the feather to "come back" to their original full fluff glory.

Remove the dry feathers from the ribbon. This may be achieved by cutting or pulling the feathers out. Begin to separate the feathers by size.

Create four separate piles of feathers: small, medium, large, and extra large. Put aside the large and extra large feathers as they can be used for a separate project. This project only requires the small and medium feathers. Remember, in terms of couture millinery: the smaller the feather, the higher the labor, the finer the headpiece, the more expensive the product.

When padding the shape, use a dab of Uhu glue at the base of each feather. Use the spray adhesive on the wide base of the feather to ensure that each feather truly hugs the curves of the shape. Begin padding the buckram on the bottom. Overlap each feather by 50 percent.

Pad in the direction of the vertical, spiral grooves (string grooves). Cut feathers as required. The feathers must spiral up the groove uniformly. At the very top of the shape, spiral the feathers to create a neat focal point.

When selecting ostrich feathers for purchase, choose the very best feathers from the healthiest birds. I could tell you how to do that but it's kind of involved.

Take white ostrich feathers and strip the feathers off in one swoop. Save these ostrich feathers for a rainy day. Now you are just dealing with the remaining white ostrich quills. Dye them black. If you take the lazy way out and buy already-dyed black quills, you will find that they are a lesser quality than the white feathers and will therefore break or crack during the secret curling process.

Curl the black ostrich quills in the secret milliner's curling way. Ostrich quills are very difficult to curl.

Now sew the curled ostrich quills onto the headpiece (in the secret milliner's stitching way), following the grooves. Sew a black silk dupioni lining into the headpiece (in the secret milliner's lining way). In the interior, at the center back, hand-sew your millinery label into place.

So that's all there is to it. Yes, it's a lot of hand work, but that's the hallmark of couture millinery, which explains why couture hats and headpieces are so expensive. This green padded headpiece took me well over a hundred hours to complete.