My friend, Eiko, is a wonderful weaver. She has only been a weaver for about 3 years I think but has absolutely fallen in love with it. Her fabrics are beautiful. She designs some of her own patterns and often uses bamboo and linen threads in fabrics that are subtle and elegant.
I have fallen in love with hat-making. I don’t say millinery because I don’t think I’m good enough to qualify for that moniker yet, milliner. I love the cutting, shaping, decorating–everything. Where else can you use almost any kind of fiber, natural- or man-made material in a project? And I love sculptural arts. My beadwork was often sculptural.
Eiko had a table-runner that she couldn’t sell. It wasn’t long enough to be a scarf and no-one seems to use table runners anymore (except me). She admired my hats in the shop in which we sell and wondered if we could collaborate. Yes!
In Japan all women wear hats, Eiko says. When she visits her mother she comes back to Tennessee amazed at all the hats she owns. I have to wonder if the wearing of hats is why Japanese women have such wonderful skin.
So she gave me the table runner to work with. It was very supple and drapey. Quite a challenge for a hat maker. I had to stiffen it a lot.
It turned out okay. I think I could have done better if I’d had a little more time. Eiko had a hand-woven ribbon with which she will replace the blue band. I’ll use it on another hat. 
The fabric is linen with a wonderful woven-in slub style pattern.
I learned a lot on this hat. I will do much better on the next one. Thanks, Eiko!
