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...

Millinery Class at Wayne Wichern's Studio--California

This will be the last post about my incredible week spent teaching in the San Francisco Bay area in late July.  Posts about the French Flowermaking class and the Sinamay Fascinator class are further down this blog.  THIS post is about the fabulous one-day class I taught at master milliner Wayne Wichern's studio in Redwood City, CA, south of the Bay Area.  If you don't know who Wayne Wichern is, let me tell you a little about this wonderful milliner.

Wayne is, without at doubt, THE foremost West Coast millinery instructor and certainly one of the most knowledgeable milliners in the US.  He is a generous, talented, influential milliner and friend.  He is also the man behind the Millinery Artisan Guild, what was a West Coast millinery guild, primarily Pacific Northwest, but due to his vision, foresight, direction, and leadership,  now encompasses most of the Northern Hemisphere, as evidenced by this year's Hat Camp in Los Angeles.  (See past posts here on this blog.)  If you get a chance to take classes from him, either privately in his studio or through the classes he teaches at Canada College in Redwood City...you will be a better milliner.  Trust me.

SO!  Wayne and I met last year, when I was teaching at Lacis.  He graciously invited me to visit him in his studio after I finished all my classes.  We had a fantastic time talking all things hats before I had to leave for the airport and my flight home.  We briefly talked about me teaching in 2012 in his studio.  I was so honored he would ask. 

Later we met again at this year's Hat Camp and further got talking about classes.  Alas, we worked out all the details and made arrangements for me to teach when my classes were finished at Lacis this year.

Class title:  Abstract Shaping.  And wow, did we have some gorgeous hats come out of this VERY full class at Wayne's studio.  Thanks Wayne, for offering the class to your many followers and students.  I think it was a pretty cool class and I loved working in your studio for the day.

Below...some of the amazing pieces that came out of the class.  Enjoy!

I love the above shot.  Not only is the hat gorgeous, but I love the picture of Wayne in the back taking a sneak peak!  Couldn't have set this shot up better if I'd tried.  :-)

 After I left Wayne's that afternoon I headed BACK to San Francisco to have dinner with long-time friend, former student, and current millinery shop owner (Hats On Post) in downtown San Francisco--Peg Purcell.  Peg is such.good.fun!  I love her to pieces!  We always have a great time talking about hats until our tongues fall out...or I have to head to the airport!!!!  Dang if that wasn't the case this time. 

I packed so much into this trip to the Bay area--teaching at two venues, meeting wonderful students and practicing milliners, fabulous Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit, shopping for vintage millinery materials in Oakland, and taking in all that I could pack into my once-a-year California trip.

I'll be back again next year!  So keep your eyes open for 2013 class dates!

Fascinating Fascinators--Sinamay...at Lacis

Hello, again!  This post is about my second class at Lacis in Berkeley, California, in late July.  The first class (French Flowermaking)  is further down the blog, past Jean Paul Gaultier. 

Fascinating Fascinators:  Sinamay Headpieces, was the first time I've taught a millinery class at Lacis.  It was a one-day class, specifically about using unstiffened sinamay to create abstract and whimsical fascinators.  

Unstiffened sinamay can be harder to find than its cousin, stiffened sinamay.  However, you cannot create the free-flowing curves, loops, and twists with stiffened as you can with the unstiffened.  Unstiffened usually comes in natural, white and black, although you can sometimes get it in other colors.    Seems that right before class, as we were ordering materials, we couldn't get anything but natural.  Some students brought their own unstiffened yardage, but natural was about all there was to find on the market at the time.  That is why you see so much natural in the following pictures.

 The bias of sinamay is what gives it the wonderful curving properties needed to get shapes.  Above, Donna starts the process of using the bias to create line and shape.  You will see her finished piece further down the post.

 Miko brought in ombre black/grey sinamay.  Here you see her creating some beautiful loops and bows for a lovely finished piece.

Queen brought in a brilliant red.  Using the balsa utility head as a base, she created a great headwrap.  See the finished piece further down.

Check out the following pieces.  Finished except for the final sewing together.  The design is complete.  Not much embellishment needed for these type headpieces as the curve of the piece speak volumes as to style.

So pleased with the progress and finished pieces everyone did.  Most students in the class had no millinery experience.  I think they did a fabulous job of using a millinery medium most do not use to full advantage. 

Donna in her finished piece.  You saw her just beginning the piece up at that first picture.  Oh, and that huge and smashing flower? ....created in the flowermaking class she took the two days before.  Wow!  Love it, Donna!

Ok, ok, I promise...the class at Wayne Wichern's coming up next.  Right now I'm busy packing for my annual teaching week at John C. Campbell Folk School.  That post up after I return...and after the post for Abstract Shaping at Wayne's.

Happy hatting and thanks for reading!  Tell your millinery friends about our blog.

Jean Paul Gaultier in San Francisco

While teaching in the San Francisco Bay area in late July, I was lucky enough to score tickets to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.  I was fortunate enough to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit there in 2008, which was incredible, and I knew this exhibit would not disappoint.

If you aren't familiar with his work, you will at least be familiar with his work with the artist pictured below...in JPG.  Madonna during her Blonde Ambition tour in the '90's.

Lots of pictures in this post.  Lots.  So grab a cup of tea or a glass of wine and hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen.  Enjoy!

I was in this exhibit for 2.5 hours and I have friends who were there for over 4!  Lots to see and I've only posted about 25! (Oh, pictures WERE allowed in the exhibit, so I didn't violate any museum policy by taking these.  FYI.)

Below, while not part of the Gaultier exhibit, this fabulous sculpture hung at the elevator entrance to the exhibit.  Pretty cool, and soooo hat like. (That's the shadow in the background.)

White board greetings from the man himself, who was on-hand for the opening.

 WARNING!  Actually, I didn't see anything too exotic.  :-)

 The jacket/hood piece below was the very first thing you saw as you walked into the hall.  I absolutely love this and think it may be my favorite piece in the whole show.  But that might be naive of me.  I loved many of the pieces, especially the hats and headpieces, of which you will see quite a few in this post.

OK, I can't even describe the mannequins...who had moving facial features, almost holograms but not really.  I had been told about them before I got to the exhibit, but nothing quite prepared me for the awesomeness of these ladies and gentlemen.  Oh, and they sang...and chanted... and spoke...and cried...and laughed.  Incredible!

Love this ethereal photo.  All gauzy and angelic.

Gauzy and angelic.  Only two adjectives to describe this beautiful piece.  Smashing!

Another of the talking mannequins.  Love her hat!  So 1940's!

Close-up of the hat.  Felt.

Another 1940's inspired hat, also felt.

Beading!  Lots of beading!

You are going to see that I was mesmerized by the following headpiece.  You'll see it from many angles.  All wire and tulle and lace.

And the beautiful shadow it cast below.

Couple of Eiffel Tower shots. 

Street fashion.  Note that the dress is a black plastic garbage bag, the bracelet is a tin food can, the necklace is comprised of tops from tin food cans, steel wool scrubbies, and a tea steeper ball.

Madonna and Jean Paul with the 'infamous' Blonde Ambition corset.  Corsets are a favorite of Jean Paul's and a whole section of the exhibit was dedicated to corsets.

Below...iconic Jean Paul Gaultier!

I loved the whole Friday night at the deYoung!  There was a jazz band playing when I got there, then about 50 tango couples showed up to dance in the lobby (they are so serious!), and of course the exhibit.  So much electricity throughout the building.  If you are ever in the Bay area on a Friday night, I highly recommend...they are open late each Friday night for all kinds of events.

Next post will be about my second class at Lacis (first class is the last post here on the blog) and then later a post about my class at Wayne Wichern's millinery studio.