2013 Millinery Classes...Workshops...Courses

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday.  Now time to start the new year and look forward to all the promise of a new start for each of us.

Firstly, I'm announcing the 2013 millinery courses, workshops, classes...whatever you want to call them.  Most are weekend classes but some are 4-6 days.  I'll be teaching all over the USA--Atlanta, Washington,DC, San Francisco/Berkeley, San Antonio, and some of the most prestigious art/craft schools in the country.  Hopefully, you will be able to come to a class that suits your needs.  If not please stay-tuned here because.....

I hope to be posting more tutorials this coming year.  Pictorials that will show how to work in straw, buckram, sewn braid, flowermaking, felt, feathers and more!

Thanks for reading and posting your comments throughout the year!

PLEASE NOTE THAT MANY OF THESE CLASSES WILL NOT BE LISTED ON THE VENUE WEBSITES UNTIL CLOSER TO THE DATES OF THE CLASS.  Check with them regularly as some venues fill up the classes within weeks of posting registration.

May 18-19, 2013
Spruill Center For the Arts, 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, GA 30338

Hat Shapes Using Wet Buckram: 
Unique cocktail and fascinator headpiece shapes are the goal for this fashion forward millinery class.  Learn to use buckram, a woven millinery foundation, to wet shape your hat frames. Many hat styles possible and all are student created. Wiring frames and covering with domette are also important parts of the class.  To complete your hats, learn pleating, smocking and ruching  to cover the hat frames in luscious fabrics and also how to make pretty linings. Two hats will be made in class. Individual coaching for all skill levels will be available.

REGISTER HERE (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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June 8-9, 2013
Southwest School of Art, 300 Augusta, San Antonio, TX

Dyeing to Make Hats
Easy to use, non-toxic professional dyes will be used to dye a hood (sleeve/cone) and several lengths of millinery straw yardage: sinamay, jinsin, paris cloth, silk straw and/or raffia cloth.  Techniques include gradient dyeing, vat dyeing, painting/stamping, and free-form (tie-dye) dyeing.  Make your straws unique in color, shading, design!  Time permitting we will create one free-form styled hat from the straw.

REGISTER HERE (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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June 22-23, 2013
Jacksonville Center for the Arts,
220 Parkway Lane South, Suite 1, Floyd, Virginia, 24091

Hatmaking: Blocking Straws and Felts
Interested in creating beautiful big brimmed straw hats for Summer and close fitting felt cloches for Winter? This fun-filled class allows you to use traditional millinery hatblocks, in varying shapes, to steam block straws and felts into fabulous hats.  Learn about different kinds of straw and felt, blocking techniques, adding petersham headsize ribbon, wiring brim edges, and some pretty embellishment techniques.  This class is all about old-world millinery techniques not embellishing pre-made hats.  Anyone from complete beginners to more experienced hatmakers can learn from this class. Very basic sewing skills recommended.

REGISTER HERE (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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July 12-13, 2013
Judith M. Millinery Supplies, 104 S Detroit St, La Grange, IN 46761

French Flowermaking:
French flowermaking is an age-old process of creating beautiful flowers from specialized tools and rich fabrics. Each heated tool is used to shape fabric petals, leaves, and stems, as well as the textures associated with each flower part. Learn the secrets to prepping and stabilizing fabrics, cutting, shaping and assembly of each petal and part. In this class you will be making 2-3 flowers using the radius head, rattail, spoon, hammer, and knife. Patterns for 3 flowers, stamens and wire will be used along with natural fabric choices--silk, cotton, linen, rayon, bamboo, and lightweight woolen--to create your flowers.

REGISTER HERE (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline Street Berkeley, CA 94703

July 24-25, 2013
Shaded French Flowers:
Interested in creating more natural looking flowers for your hats or home decor?  Learn not only two methods of creating beautiful hand-made flowers using heated flowermaking tools, but learn tips and techniques for shading, granulation, and mark making.  You will learn how to use the various heated tools to create petals full of curls and veining, but also how to add further realism to the flowers by adding color and shading for beauty and depth of perception.  Two assembly techniques will offer you choices on entirely different types of flower backs, important in how they are used on hats, garments and home decor. Patterns for flowers included in class materials--rose and camilla.

REGISTER HERE for Shaded French Flowers (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

July 26-27 , 2013
Buckram Hats — Pre-Formed and Wet-Shaped:
Create two fabric covered hats using techniques for working with a millinery foundation material--buckram.  Learn not only the different types of buckram available, but about pre-formed shapes/frames as well.  One hat will be created from a selection of commercially available pre-formed shames; additionally you will design your own hat frame using the wet-shaping method.  Learn to cut designs, wire the shapes, cover with domette, and ultimately several fabric manipulation techniques to beautifully and uniquely cover your hat frames. Linings will also be demonstrated. Both hats will be small cocktail or fascinator type hats, but bigger shapes (and the differences in covering with fabrics) will be discussed in class.

REGISTER HERE for Buckram Hats (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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September 14-15, 2013
The Art League School/Torpedo Factory
105 North Union Street Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Block Party — Open Studio Hat Blocking
Beginning through advanced milliners will enjoy this class of blocking straws and felts over traditional hat blocks. The Studio will make available over a dozen new and vintage hat blocks to use over the weekend. Beginners will learn the very basics of steam blocking and more advanced students have an opportunity to block as many hats as they like over the more complex hat blocks. Each will progress at their own comfort level. Learn about the blocking differences in felts, straws and other millinery mediums; puzzle blocks; shaping and couture finishing techniques for incredible hats. Many hat styles. Individual coaching for all skill levels will be available.

REGISTER HERE (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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September 22-28, 2013
Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway Gatlinburg, TN 37738

Hats, Textiles, Straws to Dye For
Immerse yourself into a weeklong study of millinery techniques, surface design/fabric manipulation, and multiple methods of dying straw for hats.  Firstly, learn to dye natural straw millinery forms and yardage, add some fabric manipulation (slashing, overlaying, dissolving, etc.) to create rich textiles for embellishment, and finally learn some old-world steaming, blocking, and free-form millinery techniques to create a number of unique hats.  A rare combination of skills that beginner to advanced milliners and surface design students will appreciate.  Many styles of hats, many embellishment options, and m,any colors and hues will be combined for beautiful, even quirky resulting headpieces.  Fun and inventive!

REGISTER HERE (You will be taken to the venue’s webite for registration).

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October 19-20, 2013
Spruill Center For the Arts, 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, GA 30338

To be Announced...

Fascinator Millinery Class; Alexandria, Virginia/Washington, DC

In late June, I taught a class at The Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC.  This was a very full class entitled Fashioning Fascinators.  We used quite a few millinery mediums to make the base of the fascinators.  See the following pictures for working photos and finished product.

  
 For some reason sewn braid was the base medium of choice.  Students had a choice of sewn braid or fabric covered buckram.  The 'fascinator' pieces could then be secured to headbands, elastics or used on a sinamay base.

Black triple starbright sewn braid was a favorite.  Note that the braid is being sewn on utility blocks to hold the shape.

This was a huge class of 13!  All with their own ideas of what a fascinator is.  And, by-the-way...fascinator can mean many different things to milliners and hat-wearers.  A group of  talented ladies with fascinators on their minds.

Melissa having fun!  

Sewn braid, veiling, and a peacock feather piece.

Here's a demo I did on feathers for the class.  Click here to see.  About a 4 minute demo you might find interesting.

This sweet young lady came with her grandmother to make hats!  Love it!  Isn't she sweet?  Great hat for a budding milliner.

Ranunculus flowers and hot pink sewn braid.

Melissa creates a butterfly 'bowl' with a sweep of feather spines.

Gloria's pleated ribbon trim over buckram.  Hydrangea flowers and some sweeping feathers.  Nice.

Jewels!!

Love the veil swath.

 Stylin' ladies!

Monique's gorgeous red sewn braid base with a smashing silk flowers.

Fabric covered buckram.  Beautiful batik fabric and a handmade flower.

A fascinator of two colors of triple starbright braid, sewn into circles then sewn together for a headband effect.  A twig of crin starts the embellishment process.

Here's another demo I did on using Crin (horsehair) and Sinamay as embellishment.  So many other things you can do with these materials, but hope you'll click over here to see about a 7 minute demo.

Beautiful silk flower on black triple starbright braid.  Lovely!

Next post will be of the classes in the San Francisco Bay Area--French Flowermaking, Sinamay Fascinators, and Abstract Shaping.  Soooo much to report!

2011 Millinery Classes/Workshops/Instruction

For those who have been asking....here is the millinery class schedule for 2011. If you are looking for millinery instruction on any number of skills, please consider these. Click here, http://www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm , for the schedule. (We have a new website, so if you do not see the new webpages, please 'refresh' your browser.)
Skills being taught this year are: French Flowermaking (Chicago, IL)--May; Wire: Bridal and Fascinators (Chicago, IL)--May; Big Brimmed Buckram Hats (Washington, DC)--June; Dyeing To Make Hats (Atlanta, GA)--July French Flowermaking: Roses & Orchids (Berkeley, CA)--July; Three Straw Hats and a Feather in Your Hat--John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC)--August; Blockmaking and the Felt Hat--John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC)--August; Fabric Frolic On a Buckram Base...and Feathers! (St. Quentin La Poterie, France)--October; Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting (St. Quentin LaPoterie, France)--October.

Will we see YOU in class? Already scheduling 2012 millinery instruction. Will we be teaching hatmaking near you? Time will tell.... Happy hatmaking!

Washington, DC Sinamay Millinery Class

Last weekend I taught at The Art League School (Alexandria, Virginia) in a suburb of Washington, DC. If you ever have a chance to go the the adjacent Torpedo Factory Craft Center, you definitely should do so. Amazing high-end craft. Lots of classes.

Last year when I taught there we had extremely cold weather with snow and ice on the ground. This year the weather cooperated with us. More about that later.

The class I taught was Sensational Sinamay: Two Techniques. Class was centered on blocking sinamay crowns and brims, and then learning the skills needed to create free-form hats as the second part of the class.

Below you will see a picture made on the way home the next day. For those of you who don't know, I live in coastal North Carolina...in the southern United States. We don't do snow. At all. We freak out. Hurricanes we can do. Snow, no way!

Below you see the first attempts of the class in blocking sinamay over crown and brim blocks. The school is in a very urban area with not much green space around our classroom. Hence, we had to lay the just stiffened pieces out on the ground. Not ideal but what we had to do.

Below, a brim in the bush is worth, oh no, wait, one in the hand is worth two in the bush! Anyway, nice black sinamay on a vintage '30's papier mache block from Hollywood Blocks. One of my oldies!

Class members sizing, or stiffening, their crowns and brims. Had to be careful of cars (you don't want sizing on your car!), plus it was cold and that has an adverse affect on the drying of the sizing.

Above you see Allyson ready to take her stiffened/sized crown and brim off the blocks.

Mary begins taking excess sinamay away from the brim block. She also used one of my vintage brim flanges.

Anneloes checks the possible headsize opening against the width of her flat brim. Note the actual crown is in front. She is just using the block to mark the headsize opening where she wants it on the brim, before she cuts the actual headsize opening in the brim.

Penny's beautiful wide flat brim (black and red) with her headsize opening cut. Again, note her crown in front. It will be laid on top of the lip or neck she has created at the headsize opening. Very important that this part be done absolutely correctly. Also, see the paper pattern she created (in the background) to make sure the brim was the size she wanted. Much easier to cut down a pattern than man-handling the sinamay, which is very fragile at this point.

Class shot. This was a HUGE class. We had 16 people in class! However, even with that many people, many who had never made a hat, the class worked very well together and progressed at a steady rate. Very proud of them!

Susan places the petersham ribbon in the headsize opening. Note the stay stitches she has placed in her flat brim. This is to keep the two layers from shifting during the cutting and sewing. We use two layers for the crown and brim. This helps to maintain shape.

Cate works on her free-form shape. While free-form shapes are not for everyone, I think it is important to experiment with what this straw medium will do. And I think the class will agree with me, free-form is fun but not as easy as one would expect in getting a shape or form that is pleasing to the eye. Somewhat like abstract painting...not as easy as it looks!

More free-form styling by the class. Everyone is very serious at this point! Class is almost over and the clock is ticking.

How far do you take the shaping? How do you know when you've done enough? Hmmm, no real answers to those questions. You have to be your own judge, but always place the shape on your head to see what it looks like. It looks very different on the block than it does on the human head!

Anneloes continues to shape her black sinamay. We spent about an hour in shaping, re-shaping, and re-shaping the sinamay pieces. Hint: Always work sinamay on the bias for shape.

Nice job, Allyson! She's used some brown veiling and a nice button as embellishment for her free-form white sinamay.

Crystal in her high-rise, very nice free-form sinamay. Several students told me they didn't think they would like the free-form part of the class, but in the end it was their favorite. Don't be intimidated by this medium. It can provide a tremendous amount of creativity to your bag of skills.

Class shot with many of the hats made in class. Nice job, ladies!

The rest of the class. See some nice hats in there? I do!!

The following shots have nothing to do with class. However, they do tell a story!

We knew there was a MAJOR snowstorm heading our way as we left Washington. We also knew we wouldn't run into this until we got about 2 hours from home. Below you see the road about 1.5 hours from home. Traveling about 70mph. Not bad.

Here you see the rapidly deteriorating conditions. Here we are about 1 hour (normally) from home. Traveling about 20mph. And in a looooong line of travelers.

Just getting into to outskirts of the city. It doesn't look it, but there was about 9" of snow on the ground here. Please note all the signage for BEACHES. It took us 9 hours to get home; normally takes us 5.5 hours. The last 90 miles of our trip took us over 4 hours!!! Sooooo glad to get home safely!

Happy hatmaking and may your travels be safe and your head warm!

Millinery Classes 2011

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

I'll be posting more about the upcoming millinery courses schedule later, but wanted to let you know right away where I'll be teaching courses next year. Again, more information later but here are the cities/schools where you can register for millinery instruction.

Washington, DC (Alexandria, Virginia)
Chicago, IL (Westmont, Illinois)
Atlanta, Georgia
Berkeley, California
John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, North Carolina)
St. Quentin La Poterie, France

I also teach private lessons at my atelier in Wilmington, North Carolina. You choose the amount of time and the class curriculum when studying with me in the atelier. All skill levels welcomed in ALL my classes--private or public.

Millinery Classes Just Added--Chicago, Washington DC and France

Start saving your pennies! I've just announced a couple of classes--one very soon, one in the mid-term, and another over a year away. A year away? Yes, check it out below. Start saving your pennies! Further information, including class descriptions, can be found at my Classes webpage, www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm .

November 13, 2010: Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting; Chicago, Illinois
November 14, 2010: Blocking a Wool Hood; Chicago, Illinois
Both classes being held at TLD Design Center in Westmont.

January 8-9, 2011: Sensational Sinamay (Straw)-- Two Techniques; Alexandria, Virginia (Washington, DC)
Class held at The Torpedo Factory, The Art League School.

October 1-8, 2011: Fabric Frolic on a Buckram Base...and Feathers!; St. Quentin La Poterie, near Uzes, in the South of France
October 14-16, 2011: Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting; St. Quentin La Poterie, France
Classes held at Lucy Till Hats.

Please contact the venues for information on Registration, as they will handle that.

I'll be adding more classes to the 2011 roster as they are finalized, but wanted these to go up now!

Hoping to see you in class!!!!

Washington, DC Millinery Class--Straw and Felt Blocking

This past weekend I was pleased to teach a millinery class, for the first time, at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia--a suburb of Washington, DC. I've been trying for years to find a place to teach in the DC area because so many people have expressed an interest from that area. I taught a class called Hats For All Seasons: Blocking Straw and Felt. I believe this is the first millinery class to be taught at the Art League School. Hopefully I'll be going back.

What you will see in this blog entry are the results of the student's felt blocking experience. They started with a 100% wool hood, and were asked to free-form shape it. I always ask them to block, re-block, and re-block using this skill, as I want them to get a real sense of what the medium will do. Until you play with the wool, by steaming and shaping, will you not get a real feel for what great abstract shapes you can achieve. It's fun!

Check out the next few pictures showing some of the class in the process of blocking their hoods. You'll see the results later in the blog entry.







Millinery students begin the process of steam blocking the wool hoods over hatblocks.

Modeling their creations in the next few pictures!

Below you will see all the hats lined up in a case. It was a great way to display all the hard work these ladies and gentleman put in to fashion their fabulous millinery creations! See what you think.

Can you believe all the diversity of shapes and colors? That's the beauty of free-form styling.

There was no time to add any embellishment to these hats, and quite frankly, many probably don't need much, if anything added to them. They are truly sculptural and works or art in their own right.

Thanks to all the Washington, DC, students for participating. You all did a super job! See you next time.