Hat Collaboration

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.

Morning Glories necklace

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!

Author: denise

I have done beadwork for over 25 years and got so interested in jewelry design that I took two metalwork classes at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee from wonderful teachers Deborah Lynn Gold and Marjorie Simon. I can't choose a favorite medium. I love sculptural work and adore forming and fabricating metals, but three-dimensional beadwork is more colorful. I sew a lot! Lately I've been making lots of purses and wallets as well as upcycling used clothing into new items. Lately I've gone back to sewing and refashioning cast-off clothing–mostly men's shirts, into girls' clothing. I also enjoy making handbags and wallets. They are really fun to put together–like a puzzle.

2 thoughts on “Hat Collaboration”

  1. Love the hat! My grand-daughter is a weaver, in her final year of a textiles degree. She spent some time in Peru studying weaving techniques with women in a rural community in exchange for help with marketing their textiles. She is currently preparing for her final show.

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  2. YES – wearing hats leads to beautiful skin, cared for properly otherwise, of course. As a melanoma survivor, I have worn hats for many years now – and I can’t tell you how much difference it has made when I compared myself to others my age. You can’t forestall wrinkles forever – lol – but you CAN fend them off by wearing hats. Our fore-mothers wore gloves for the same reason. Sun exposure ages skin.
    xx,
    mgh
    (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
    ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
    “It takes a village to educate a world!”

    Reply

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