Hats

My friend Christy and I recently got together and made hats. Not your ordinary run of the mill hats, but ones worthy of being the focal piece in a photograph. We are all about gathering up props for photo shoots these days. Or at least I am for sure and I suspect that Christy is as well.


As do most creative impulses, it began innocently enough. I found a silly hat at the store, meant to be part of a Halloween costume. I bought it. And began to mentally de-construct it. And in my head, create ones of my own design. That’s when I called Christy.

We started with a little trip to the craft store. Which led to the “Hey-they-have-feathers-and-silk-flowers-on-sale”, which led to the “Hey-I-think-I-have-a-bag-of-random-trim-in-a-tote-somewhere”, which led to the “Hey-I-have-some-fabric-scraps-in-the-attic”, all of which contributed to the giant mess on my dining room table. I do have an actual studio, but it is far too cluttered, for something on this scale of effort. So the dining room table has been called into service.

It looks just as lovely, covered in trims, as it does completely set with my fav dishes.  Or at least I think so.

We needed someone to model our finished products for us. So my 6 year old daughter, still being of an age where bribery works wonders, agreed to help out. It only cost me a trip to the toy store later that evening. Deal! Don’t be fooled by her girlish looks. Her toy of choice was a Lego’s kit. Of the Star Wars variety.

Christy made this beautiful birds nest hat. This photo is SOOC (straight out of camera).

And this delicately feathered headband is her creation as well. I used one of my custom Photoshop actions to create the look of a hand colored black and white image, taken with a pinhole camera.

As for me, I made this fall hat, complete with a partridge nestled in the autumn foliage.

And this one, resplendent in sparkling blue with an iridescent butterfly companion. We are all about butterflies lately. We were charmed by a caterpillar who decided to spin a chrysalis in the two days that he was being observed in the bug habitat. Fuzzy, turned out to be a beautiful monarch butterfly after just a few short weeks. Amazing.

Here are some of the various trims and fabrics that are awaiting their opportunity to becoming hat art. I was lucky this summer to receive a carton from my Dad full of odds and ends of trims that had belonged to my grandmother. There were spools of ribbon, bits and bobs of laces and trims, sequins, and wonderful vintage rhinestone trims as well. Not enough of any one thing for a large project, but perfect for tiny hats.

My next hat will be something that smacks of Marie Antoinette, sans any small scale model boats.

I’ve also discovered that buying tiny doll hats and perching them on headbands can be fun. I am anxious to try some of them out on my young nieces. My other models………no bribery needed.