雁鴻 (Yàn hóng), aka Aimee’s Handmade, is possibly one of the most impressive channels on Youtube. She teachers viewers how to make beautiful and intricate Chinese headdresses. Some of her pieces use unconventional materials like aluminum cans and nutshells!
According to her Youtube page, Aimee is a DIY-lover and a professional makeup artist. From a young age, she loved watching historical movies and dramas. These dramas inspired her to recreate the beautiful hairstyles and hair ornaments herself.
Before she started creating videos, she was a medical student. She studied nursing for five years and worked in a clinic for two years.
Aimee was unhappy with her career path, so she decided to quit and pursue her passion.
Here are my favorites of Aimee’s video so that you can craft along and make your own epic Chinese headresses!
This video best represents what I love about Aimee’s channel. Not only does she show you the craft, she explains the significance of the colors and the history of certain motifs.
She also recreates historical wear with modern and approachable techniques. For example, she uses aluminum cans and blue feathers to emulate the traditional 点翠 (diǎncuì) art style.
If you would like to see more Dian Cui art style videos, she has a playlist dedicated to it. Aimee's Handmade Chinese headdresses cover many other styles as well.
Unfortunately some of her videos, like this one, do not have English subtitles. They do have Chinese subtitles, which are great for improving your listening and reading skills.
In this video, she interprets Bai Juyi’s poem to bring Yang Guifei to life. Yang Guifei is a rather controversial figure because she brought down the Tang dynasty.
She was a very beautiful consort and the emperor’s favorite, but she accidentally promoted a rebel general.
Aimee uses wires, sparkly stones and thermoplastic to make a phoenix. Not only does she teach you how to make the beautiful headdress, she also teaches you how to do makeup and style hair.
I definitely did not know bags of hair were underneath those hairstyles!
This is an especially noteworthy project for two reasons. Firstly, Aimee used 3,050 pistachio and sunflower seed shells to make this headdress. She had to hand-paint each shell gold and glue it on!
Secondly, this video showcases Aimee's skills and creativity outside of making headwear. With some EVA board, hot glue and more thermoplastic, she can make stunning armor.
I could watch her videos all day. I would love to try on one of those headpieces someday, but I do not think my neck will be able to support them.
You can subscribe to her channel and find her on Instagram @yanhonghe27.
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