Spring Millinery Classes in Atlanta (Buckram) and Virginia (Straw & Felt Hats)

So many things to tell you and report to you.

FIRST!  I am so honored and pleased to have been asked back for the 4th time to teach in Australia at the International Millinery Forum.  If you are not aware of this awesome event, get to their website and start saving those dollars.  You don't want to miss this event of a full week of millinery workshops taught by 19 tutors (instructors).  This year the special international milliner is Jane Taylor, from London, who makes fabulous hats for many clients, including many of the young Royals.  Cannot wait to meet her!

Secondly, this blog post is about two classes taught earlier this Spring/Summer.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and are inspired to make some hats, join a class, or at least wear a hat....

 Atlanta--May 2013--Hat Shapes Using Wet Buckram

Very full class and above are a few of the wet blocked pieces.  Students will be creating their own unique shapes from these larger pieces.

Starting to cover the buckram with lovely silk fabrics they brought to class.  Below.

I was very pleased with the outcome of the students' pieces.  Sorry I don't have pictures of everyone's hats.

Be sure to check out upcoming millinery classes at the Spruill Center for Arts in Atlanta here>> www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm .

Next class I'd like to share with you was at a new venue for me...the Jacksonville Center for the Arts, in Floyd, Virgina.  Hatmaking:  Blocking Straws and Felts

Now.  If you are wondering why I was teaching in a place most of you have never heard of, let me tell you, when I go back there next year to teach...YOU NEED TO BE THERE.  This is THE most incredible little mountain town in southwestern Virginia, right of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I was in heaven!  This is a very small town of about 500 people.  And an amazing 1 in 6 is an artist of some sort--musician, potter, photographer, painter, weaver, fiber artist, jeweler...you name it.  And this is not 'mom and pop' craft but very high end stuff.  Seriously, you need to go there.

Friday night everyone gathers on the street for an informal music festival.  I love bluegrass music and that was what everyone was playing--fiddle, bango, upright bass, guitar, and one pretty little lady who probably 80 who stole the show with her singing. I wasn't even in class yet and I was in love with this place!

Downtown. If you've been following my blog for awhile, you know I like to showcase the great places I teach.  Hope you enjoy and appreciate this place.

The center of the music scene is shown below.  Music, craft, restaurant, fabulous,.

Locals below.  This is real, it is fun and it is magical!

Above is the Jacksonville Center of the Arts, a remodeled dairy farm, which was donated to the Center for classes.  Totally remodeled and a great space.

Class begins.  We had a class of 6, all who loved Floyd as much as I.

We started with very basic blocking of parisisal straw capelines and progressed through cutting crown from brim (and why), adding petersham, and wiring brim edges.  All very important techniques in created straw brimmed hats.

Students then free-form blocked fur felt hoods using basic blocks as initial shapes, then hand-shaping for individual hats.

A few pictures of a few of the students with their straw hats on heads, holding the felt hats.

And another shot wearing the felt hats.

I can't wait to get back to Floyd next year!  Hope you will be there too!!!

Just for grins, here are a few pictures of the trip from my host family's home to class each morning.  Oh, yeah!  Beautiful country roads.

On the way home I traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I left very early and encountered some amazing scenery.

Upcoming blog posts will feature a teaching trip to millinery supplier JudithM Millinery Supply in Indiana and San Francisco Bay area classes.  Stay tuned!

International Millinery Forum 2012--part 3

This will be my last post about the International Millinery Forum, held in Australia, in mid-January.  I've posted two other entries about IMF, which you can find by scrolling down this page.  This post?  Gala, more from the dyeing class, and some Sydney shopping.

This post is mostly about the finale Gala, held the evening of the last day of IMF.  I've attended the last two IMF Galas and this one was by far the classiest and most fun...not that the others weren't nice.  But this one had everything--luxurious venue, great entertainment, hat contest, and more.

Firstly, the theme of the Gala was My Fair Lady, and let me tell you, there were some amazing ensembles that night.  Many wore hats they had created during the week of classes.

Me with Hong Kong milliner Jaycow.  She taught a class last IMF but was there as a delegate this time.  She is the ONLY milliner in Hong Kong!

Doug Osbourne, of www.hatblocks.com.au, looking natty.  He made those swell hatblocks you saw in post #1 from the Trade Expo.  Also, the amazing Jean Carroll!  Check out the hat she created!  Jean has done theatrical millinery for decades and it shows, doesn't it?

Check out Neil Grigg (Sydney) and Lina Stein (Ireland).  If you follow Lina on Facebook you will note that her hat is made from that brim block that is lusted after all over the world...and I told her so.

IMF head honcho--Linda Tillman.  Linda works so very hard to make everything run smoothly and, indeed, it does!  Thanks, Linda, for all your hard work.  You are a miracle worker!!

Eugenie Van Oirschott, Jenny Phanenstiel, friend of Jenny's, and myself.  Note Eugenie's hat...sooo intricately made.  Jenny made hers in Eugenie's class.  Fabulous!

Shot of my millinery instructor from years ago, Waltraud Reiner of Torb and Reiner, and fellow USA instructor Eia Radosavljevic who teaches millinery at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jasmin Zorlu (L) and Rosie Boylin (R).  Jasmin is a San Francisco milliner (and USA instructor at IMF), and Rosie is a theatrical milliner who has made hats for Moulin Rouge, The Piano, and numerous other movies, stage and TV.  She went to the Gala as Eliza Doolittle!  Love it!

Love this 'birdcage' hat from Wagga Wagga IMF instructor, Pam Martin.  Spectacular!

Louise McDonald, who made hats for the fashionable and hat-centric series 'House of Elliot,'  and Eia--my tablemates at the Gala. When I lived in Australia 'House of Elliot' was on TV.  I sat, mesmerized, with a sketchbook in my hand each week,  I was so taken with the hats...and clothes.  If you've never seen it...find it and watch!

My host family, Kim and Scott!  They are the nicest people, and SO.MUCH.FUN!!

By the end of the evening, when all tutors were called to the stage for pictures, we were feeling pretty good. :-)  L to R--Lina Stein, Pam Martin, Carol Maher, me, Kerrie Stanley, Serena Lindeman, Neil Grigg, Waltraud Reiner, Rosie Boylan, and there are MORE tutors that aren't in this picture.

Below--a few pictures of delegates in great hats and ensembles.  Enjoy!

 

Below are a few pictures of the beautiful Olivari farm where I stayed with Kim and Scott.  Their farm is about 10 miles out of Wagga and it was spectacular.  Last IMF Wagga was in a very bad drought, but this year things were pretty green.

Every afternoon this bird came and groomed itself outside my bedroom window.  I wanted to make pictures of the cockatoos and parrots that swooped and cackled from daybreak to sunset everyday...but they were way to flighty for the camera.  I LOVE Australian birds!  They make the most incredible sounds!!!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know I am obsessed by sunrises and sunsets.  This was was outside my bedroom window at about 11 at night!

After I left Wagga, I returned to Sydney for a couple of days before going back to the US.  When the plane arrived in Sydney, carrying most IMF people, it was pouring rain.  I made it to my hotel in Paddington, and as soon as I got checked into my hotel on Oxford Street, I made my way to the Paddington Market, which I had been told last IMF, that I was not to miss.  Well, I did miss it last time but not this!  I found some incredible deals on a kangaroo leather belt for my husband, a necklace for my Mom, the most amazing pair of vintage sunglasses for myself, and some happies for the ladies to keep the shop while I'm off teaching in the far regions of the Earth.

The next day, my last full one in Australia, I went in search of the fabulous boutiques and up-and-coming designer shops of Oxford and William Streets in Paddington.  I can't even describe the luscious lines of clothing and accessories I saw there, but I will tell you that if you are ever in that section of Sydney you MUST do William Street.

There must be at least a hundred tiny but intensely wonderful boutiques on William Street.  I was totally in awe!

Milliner Neil Grigg is lucky enough (well, I don't know if lucky is the right word because of his well-rounded millinery talents) to have his lovely shop on William Street. 

And a shoemaker--um, cordwainer!  I've taken some shoemaking classes in my time, it is something I wish I had time to pursue, and I can so appreciate what goes into making a shoe for someone!  Yikes!

Seriously, if my shop were on this street I'd be constantly inspired and maybe even intimidated!  So much talent in a concentrated area!  But I have a feeling that each pulls the other along the creativity continuum.

On the morning of my last day I spent some time walking around the neighborhood.  Just around the corner from my Oxford Street hotel I found this millinery shop...no name but some great hats.  Anybody in Sydney know who might be around the corner from The Arts Hotel?  Nice find!

Oh, one more serendipitous happening.  While in Sydney, before IMF, I went to a number of shops down by the harbor.  I happened to mention that I was going to the millinery forum, to which the owner of one show said, "I have some vintage millinery supplies I bought decades ago that you might like.  I can have them here for you when you get back to Sydney."  YES!

Vintage straw braid, straw CLOTH, eyelash horsehair, and other niceties.

No way you find this stuff anymore, except in crazy circumstances like this.

OK, below, a few more pictures from my Dyeing To Make Hats classes.  So many beautifully shaded straws to make hats from, that I just had to add a few more for you to enjoy.

So long for now!  Happy hatmaking to you all!  And start saving your pennies for IMF 2014!!!