Boom, Boom, Boom

This week is going by as fast as my posts are!
Sadly though I realize with as fast as the week is flying by it only means that my dear old friend Damo will be flying back to his lovely family in China this Sunday... sigh. But he has made the promise that he shall be back to live here again come the summer, so I wait. See this man is my muse, and the one true artist that gets me to thinking about my art, and what I do with it. As long as he's been gone, I feel as though my inspiration has been seriously dimmed. Until he gets back though the husbeast has been given the job of helping to track down old friends of his in the industry to aid in the job arena. Hellooooo Pixar, got a live one here for ya, anyone there, Pixxxxxar?
(There is currently an old, black, London Taxi sitting outside my work window. It's so cute, I wish I had one.)

Now finally as promised, on with the wonderful details from the millinery class this last Sunday. And yes it is a 3 week class on held on Sundays, from 10-4 across the bay in the hills, about 45 minutes from us.
The teacher is Wayne Winchern, and has been in the hat making business I believe since the 80's. He has a few kooky one that's for certain. Everything taught so far has just been vastly informative. We started off by making the brim and and crown to a sailor hat, out of buckram. Now the hat itself is not what I would have chosen to make myself, but I'm trying to make it work. Maybe I'll make it red and ship it down to my actress friend in LA. This process though has been exactly what I needed information wise. Buckram is a very sturdy sized cotton with holes wide enough to stick a needle through. As a frame it works wonders, it can also be steamed a stretched into any shape desired, or wetted and blocked into a shape using pinning.
The buckram is then sewn together, a wire edge is added to the brim, and eventually piece by piece fabric is sewn onto the buckram. Turns out that my process for making hats is relatively the same, but not as refined nor finished. But now, now it will be. I really am stoked for this chance to grow beyond what I've been doing otherwise. That sailor hat is still in the works, ie fabric needs to be added, and it needs to all be sewn together, but that's this Sunday's class.
The second hat that we worked on was a straw hat. I know ewh straw, but it's not just a hokey straw hat. We had the option of using the floppy brim form or the bell form hat. I went with the floppy in a cool grey/blue shade (the only one there!). Those hats were then wetted and blocked on a hat block. This process requires a lot of pulling and some roping off of the hat to make sure it stays put. Mine evolved into a bit of an art form. Not too sure if it'll look good on the head, but on the form it's a free flowing tricorn of sorts that has lots of movement. I think of it as being a contemporary tricorn, which shall be embellished accordingly. I have a little wooden pirate ship that I've been waiting to use with just the right hat. That and a skeleton key with lots of trim, and some feathers, sounds fun, non! I believe this weekend we'll be sizing those formed hats and adorning them.
So that so far has been my millinery class experience, a fun one with a bunch of really cool women all enjoying the art together. I keep thinking that I should take my hat frame and steam the living hell out of it and pull it into a nontraditional form if it's still possible. I feel so wicked for not being able to stick with the teacher's original intentions, but come on! It's horrendous.
Cheers for now,
I'm currently on the third block for the log cabin blanket for my FIL. Still not sure how big I'll be making it. Somewhere between 6-12 blocks.
PS I forgot to mention that if you click on the picts below you can see larger images of us goof balls.
PPS I just realized that my one year blogaversary is coming up here in Feb. on the 11th! Ahh it's been a year already how cute is that.