Buckram, Surface Design, and French Flowers--JCCFS, 2012

For the past three years I have been fortunate enough to be asked to teach a 'Unique Offerings' class at John C. Campbell Folk School in the Appalachian region of North Carolina.  The motto of the school is 'Sing Behind the Plow' and the logo is the plow team you see above.  This metal piece I found tacked to the entrance to one of the many craft discipline studios on this beautiful 300 acres campus.

There is a very rich history to the Folk School, named after Olive Campbell's husband.  The Campbells were enamored with the rich society mountain folk lived in and documented and cataloged that society for many years.  The School is a culmination of that effort, founded by Olive Campbell and Marguerite Butler.

Gorgeous vistas all around this campus.

This year I taught a week-long class and then a weekend class.  Week-long classes start on a Sunday night and end at lunch on Friday.  Weekend classes start on a Friday night and end on Sunday at lunch.  It made for a full week of great classes, fun people, new experiences and some fabulous work from my students.

The first class was entitled Hats and the Fabrics That Love Them (Buckram and Surface Design).  Yes, that is a mouthful! The class was designed to incorporate three different ways to make a buckram frame hat, and then (the really fun part) to create your own textiles from a fabric stash, using a number of surface design techniques. 

Surface design techniques included, pleating, slashing, dissolving, overlaying, embossing, and more.  In the photo below you see a few samples and a covered buckram form without the rich textile covering as yet.  Each student was required to make at least 4 textile samples to take home with them.  They could choose whatever technique they wanted to cover their buckram hats.

Below, Cat works hard on her buckram pillbox.  Three buckram hats were made:  one was a pre-formed shape from a millinery supplier, another was a self-created dry buckram pillbox, and the other was a wet-shaped buckram form of the student's own design.

Beverly working on her pillbox.  Beverly is a committed hat-wearer and wore one each day to class.

As we progressed through the week we also progressed in difficulty of technique.  Pictures of the shapes from the wet-shaping part of the class and the most difficult of the three buckram techniques.

Marilyn gets silly!

 At the closing ceremony each week-long class displays the work they have created during their study.  I wish I had better pictures of all the work tmy class did.  Unfortunately, I only had my phone camera.  My bad.  But each student displayed some of their sample textile pieces and at least one of their hats, most displayed two and WORE one!  When it was time for me, as the instructor, to introduce our work to all the other students from the week, ALL my students paraded to the front of the auditorium so that everyone could really appreciate the WEARING of the hats!  And everyone loved it!!

Before I get into the French Flowermaking portion of my time at the Folk School I'll show you a few more pieces of the magnificent JCCFS puzzle.  These photos are from displays in the History Museum on campus, to further explain this magical place.  Read the short bio of John C. Campbell below.

John C. Campbell

Olive Campbell and Marguerite Butler.

A few more photos of sites around campus.  You walk almost everywhere on campus and all these lovely little vistas appear out of nowhere.

On to the weekend class!  French Flowermaking.  On Friday night we all processed our fabrics so that we would be ready with dry fabrics the next morning.  Weekends are very full classes here!  Because they are very drippy after the processing, we hung them out to dry under a covered area in front of the Fiber Arts Building on make-shift clotheslines.  When I went by to check on them early the next morning, the whole area was covered in fog.  Makes for a beautiful and eery photo.

Enjoy the lovely flowers made during the class from many different fabrics--silks, linens, cottons; sheers, opaques, velvets, velveteens.  Each student made two flowers--a large rose and a peony.

Many fiber arts are offered by the school over the course of a year.  If you are interested in finding out more about the school and the many other offering throughout the year, click here.  You will not be disappointed!

Millinery Courses in France--Buckram, Surface Design, Feathers, Flat Felt

Have you heard that I'll be teaching in the South of France in October? No? Well, listen up!

Milliner Lucy Till has graciously invited me to teach in her beautiful atelier. Two classes--a one-week class entitled Fabric Frolic on a Buckram Base...and Feathers!, and a shorter 3-day class entitled Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting, will be held in early October in St. Quentin La Poterie, near Uzes. Find out more about Lucy and the classes by clicking here.

Specific dates: Fabric/Buckram class is Oct. 3-7, and Flat Felt is Oct. 12-14.

Below you will see some examples of hats made by the two techniques. First up are 2 examples of hats made in a Fabric Frolic class in Australia several years ago. The last 3 pictures are of hats made in a Flat Felt class, also in Australia. Sooooo many options but here are a few.

One of many, many different ways of creating richly textured coverings from fabrics is pictured above. You will learn numerous surface design techniques for manipulating the fabrics by gathering, folding, pleating, darting, burning, overlaying, and other ways to make a textured fabric to cover your own buckram shapes, created in class. We'll make at least 3 hats in the class...and learn lots of ways to create feather mounts by cutting, curling, shaping and combining feathers commonly used in millinery.

Another example of covering a custom designed buckram shape with a custom created fabric.

The short 3-day class, using flat felt skirting (yardage), will concentrate on designing fabulous vintage styled hats and producing them from an age-old millinery medium---flat felt. You can 't make these style hats from hoods or capelines!

Below you see examples of flat felt hats.

Love to see some of my European readers for these classes! While they are listed as advanced classes on Lucy's website, they are, in fact open to anyone. I don't list any classes as beginner, intermediate or advanced, they're just all different skills. So don't let the advanced level scare you. None of the students in the above pictures had any skills in either technique and look what they created!

There is a max of 4 people for each class so don't delay in signing up! See you in France!! If you have any questions about class content, please contact me. If you have any questions about lodging, class fees, etc., please contact Lucy.

Au revoir!

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!!!!

Buckram and Wool Hood Class--East Carolina University

Last week I was at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, teaching a class to their Textile BFA/MFA students. I thought it would be a great idea for the students to bring in some of the fabulous fabrics they have worked on during the semester--shibori, silk dyeing, discharging and other fabric manipulation. They, in turn, requested that part of the class be working with felt hoods. So that is how the class curriculum evolved. Below are the pictures from that class.

Nice stash of dyed silks, cottons, and some feather pieces. These were to be used on the buckram forms provided for the class. All the buckram forms were variations of pillboxes.

The class prepares their buckram forms with domette. At right is Robin Haller, Assistant Professor of Textiles at ECU, who also took the class. She is a master weaver doing incredible work.

A stitch in time....

Everyone loved the way the wool felt molded in their hands. Just have to remember that damp and hot makes the work go much faster.

Above--the free-form shaping of the wool hood. Below--a very happy hatwearer models her hat in front of the mirror.

Love the multiple V's in this hat. Nice!

LOVE the shape of this hat!! So very 1930's!

Always inspiring to work with students on the university level, especially those who have a real love for fibers, fabrics, textiles. Thanks for a great workshop ECU.

Fiber Folks at aMuse--Felting, Knitting, Painting, Quilting, Hatmaking

Last night I hosted the first meeting of a group of local fiber artists. It is something I've been wanting to explore for about two years--a group that loves working with all fibers and fabrics, loves to paint, stitch, structure, manipulate, dye, discharge, yeah, do about anything to them. And with beautiful results!

So we got together, got very excited about what each of the others was doing with their work, what we could learn from each other, and decided to keep getting together in the future to learn new skills from each other, to learn of resources (classes, publications, etc.), and to support each other.

What processes were represented? Felting, knitting/crocheting, floor cloth painting, and hatmaking. Everyone brought either samles of their work or a portfolio. Lots of surface design examples. Below you see the group, minus me--l to r--Nancy, Ginny, Louise and Diane. Hoping the group will grow as we find others who have a love of all things fiber/fabric.

I'll be posting some of our work as we progress. But before our next meeting in November each person will be working on a 'challenge' piece to share with the group. Everyone is to take an 8" square of fabric, or create an 8" square of felt, then stitch it, paint it, dye it, distress it, discharge it, work it work it work it. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! I'll show it when I see it.

International Millinery Forum Attendees' Hats

Geez, I can be slow about getting some things on this blog. I promised a few weeks ago that I'd post some pictures of some of the hats made in my classes at the International Millinery Forum this past January, in Australia. So, voila! Enjoy!

I taught two sessions of two different classes while there. They were--Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting and Fabric Frolic on a Buckram Base. The hat you see above, and the next 10 hats were made in those two sessions.

I learned the flat felt hatmaking technique from my mentor, Miss Styer Collenberger, many years ago. She was an amazing milliner from the hey-days of hat wearing. Anyway, I'll have to tell you more about her later. Great story....

Take note of the structure of these flat felt hats and the great designs these ladies came up with. I was soooo proud of them!

Howz about this camel colored felt with some great feathers as embellisment? Most of the hats you will see here were not embellished as we had a very full day of just getting the hats made, what with the instructions, the design, the execution, and the many, many choices to be made in each step. But I was very impressed with their final designs!

Wow! Can't you just see this with a fabulous 1940's suit? I don't think this one needed any embellishment. Very retro, very cool.

Love the beautiful simplicity of this design. With flat felt you can fashion hats unlike any you make with a traditional capeline or hood.

Beautiful lady, beautiful hat!

Sooooo retro! Love it!

This one makes me smile. Cool custom grey felt head hugger.

These hats were the bomb! The one on the left is very military inspired, especially since it was made in Army green, and the one on the right has self curlyques for that added umpf. I envision stacked heels, smart suits, neat gloves...all set off with 'the hat.' Yeahhhh.

Now this hat, and the one following, were made in the Fabric Frolic on a Buckram Base class. We used many different surface design techniques to cover one-of-a-kind buckram shapes the attendees designed themselves. Snazzy colors, sassy shapes, serious style.

Cocktails, anyone? Wear this little red beauty out on the town and everyone will be buying you a drink. I'm sure of it.

Congratulations to all the attendees of the International Millinery Forum.