52 weeks of millinery - Week 2

 

 

So on to my second week of my 52 week millinery project and this week I have created this blue felted button fascinator.

 

A couple of months ago I had a serious liberty fabric craving and  treated my self to  a few small pieces off ebay. The piece that I have used on this fascinator is called Strawberry Thief and was originally a print created in 1883 by William Morris.

 

 

I adore bird motifs and knew that I would be able to create something lovely from this fabric.

 

The hat block I used to create this piece is pretty much my favourite hat block at the moment , it's so simple yet versatile and it creates a style of hat which is really wearable.

 

 

 

Well I couldn't let Margo the Poupee have all the fun of modelling the hat so here is a picture of me modelling the end result too.

 

 

Sorry for the terrible selfie, I usually try to avoid taking them all costs but couldn't help myself on this occasion. I really think the best part about making a hat is when you get to try the end result on!

 

Overall I'm pleased with this piece, there are definitely design elements I would do differently and I would like to use a better background colour or texture on the felt. Well I've got 50 more weeks to experiment on so I'm sure designs will develop as time goes on. xx

 

 

52 weeks of millinery - A new project!



Hello my lovelies, Hope you all had a super bank holiday weekend.

I'm excited to announce last week I started a brand new personal project. To create a new hat or head piece ever week  for the next 52 weeks ( yep a whole year ) and share pictures of it each week here on the blog.

Now the idea came to me when I listened to an episode of Tiffany Hann's podcast - Raise Your Hand. Say Yes with Jen Hewett and they talked about Jen's project 52 weeks of printmaking. It really captured my imagination and gave me a solution to tackle one of my aims at the moment - how to consistently create more hats or headpieces and stretch my skills millinery.
I kept thinking about this project a for a few weeks, trying to decide if I could really achieve creating and posting a completely new hat or head piece each week on top of  my costume work commitments and my day job, but the idea just wouldn't budge. So on my birthday on 22nd April I decided that my birthday present to myself would be to commit to starting this project the very next week.

So here we are at week one and I have gone back to an idea that has been buzzing around my head for months



I posted about my love for pompom trimmed millinery here and since then I have been meaning to  create my very own creation pompom fascinator and so last week I made the time to get down and do it.



It was really inexpensive to make, I used sinamay I had left over from some millinery projects I worked on before Christmas and the wool I had picked up months ago just because I liked the colours.
Over all I'm pleased with my start, I wasn't a particularly ambitions project but it was fun and it feels good to have realised an idea that I had been thinking of for such a long time.

Anyway it's now time to get cracking on this weeks millinery project, as well as planning out some other posts that will be coming up soon,  oh, and I'm starting working on one of the productions for our local theatre festival this week too, so it's going to be a busy one! Hope you all have a great week xxx

Historic Hat Wearers - Evelyn Tripp

image source: http://womeninblackandwhite.com

So whilst on one of my recent quest to find new treasure troves of  millinery inspiration I came across this image of Evelyn Tripp shot by Irvine Penn. Now I’m not sure why I had never heard of Evelyn Tripp before but this image grabbed my attention not only because of the wonderful hat Evelyn wore but because her features were so beautifully defined.

image source: http://alexandramodels50.tumblr.com/

 On further rummaging around the internet I realised I had come across a historically great hat wearer!

image source: pleasurephotoroom.wordpress.com



image source: http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/bo4kameda

I know that these beautiful vintage magazine images of Evelyn Tripp wearing an array of gorgeous  swoon worthy clothes will keep me inspired for hours so I just wanted to share a few of my favourites with you.


image source: http://myvintagevogue.com

image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53035820@N02/sets/72157624973974153/with/7350955002/

I think what makes the images appeal to me so much is the easy nature in which Evelyn Tripp wore hats. They seem so natural on her. Nowadays so many people say that they don’t feel they can wear a hat and many more just leave them for special occasions and events I love finding images of hat wearers past and present that wear hats effortlessly and feel confident in doing so whatever the occasion.  

image source :https://www.flickr.com/photos/53035820@N02/sets/72157624973974153/with/7350955002/

image source: http://myvintagevogue.com

 I found so many other images of Evelyn that i couldn't share them all here, it amazed me to see the breadth of publications and work that Evelyn did, from being shot by world famous photographers  and appearing on the cover of Vogue to modelling for  sewing and knitting patterns. Somehow I can't see the likes of Kate Moss or Jourdan Dunn doing the same these days.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed my finds. I'm thinking of putting together a pinterst board of all my other lovely images I found on my search, so I'll post the link if I do.

Have a great week xxx

More Magpie Musings

Hello my lovelies, Just thought I would give you all a sneaky peak at some of the work that I've been doing over the last couple of days.

As I mentioned yesterday I have been realy inspired by the Magpies visting my garden at the moment, and thought I would share some of my sketchbook pages and work in progress that I had been creating from this.

The fascinator is very much a work in progress as I'm still adding beads to the sinamay base and the other embroidered Magpie is probably going to end up as either a necklace or on a head band. 

 

I'm just playing around with combining patterned fabric with playful motifs and beaded embroidery with these pieces and have a few others ( although not magpie related) in the pipeline. I think the techniques still need a bit of envelopment at the moment but I'll keep on playing with it until I get it just right.Let me know what you think, if anyone knows any great beading or embroidery resources out their please let me know in the comments because I could definitely do with a bit of guidance for techniques xxx 

Inspiration round up - February 2015

 

Hello my lovelies, just wanted to give you all a little glimpse of the thinks that have been inspiring me last month.  February whizzed by, and I can't believe we are nearly 10 days into this month already.

image source digicoll.library.wisc.edu

1. Vintage millinery books and patterns, oh gosh if I could only get a time machine and travel back to bygone ages and stock up on the lovely manuals and guides written  about making the hat styles of time I would, luckily the internet has come to help me with my quest instead. I have found that online holds a pretty good source of  free pdf copies of old millinery books. Also Amazon, Etsy and Ebay all have stockists that sell reprints and cd's of others at reasonable prices. At the moment I'm  keeping myself happy by working my way though my copy of Millinery for Every Woman ( an Edwardian hat making guide that I got off Amazon a few years ago  and How to make and trim your own hats by Vee Walker Powell which you can access for free here .

image source Getty via Telegraph online


 

2. Magpies- One for sorrow, two for joy... I know magpies are a somewhat controversial bird but I love them, yes I know they are a bit of a bully in the  bird yard and are very noisy but I can't help it I love their cheekiness and bright look. We have a few that come and visit our garden ( and in summer months chatter away at any time day or night) and lately I have been attempting to use them as a source of inspiration for some accessory designs.

image source unmistakablecreative.com

3- Unmistakable Creative podcasts.- I cam across these podcasts late last year when I was watching April Bowles Olin's interview for Michelle Ward's Grown up gigs series ( which was also super inspiring too but I digress). I can't quite get over the amount of content that the creator Srini Rao has produced for this project. There are over 400 episodes available and although I have only listened a fraction of these I can honestly say that I have found something truly inspiring in each of them.

Well that's pretty much it for now, hope everyone's week has started well and that you've enjoyed this sneaky peak at what I've been inspired by recently.

Re-Creating my workspace- Part 1

 

 

So for some time now I've been meaning to have a bit of a workspace revamp- it's always on my to do list but one of those things that I never get down to doing. So as we are now a month into the new year I decided that it was the about time I took the plunge and get on with having a look at my workspace and see how can  improve it..

I'd also been meaning to write about my workspace in ages and in recent times as you may have seen on my Instagram feed it's got the point where my workspace has actually been causing me a bit of bother.

 

This was the image I posted a few weeks before Christmas and lets be honest it's not exactly a sight for sore eyes.

I set up my workspace in it's current format when I started attending KCC college to study millinery, for ages it worked really well and I loved working in the space. However as time has gone on, my projects have grown bigger and my workspace has been getting more and more messy until now I can safely say that it has been in a state of messyness more often than its tidy

Also since switching from a full time day job to part time, in march last year, I have been spending a lot more time working at my desk and think that it's high time it gets a bit of remodelling as my needs have changed quite a bit since I set it up back in those college days.

So my first step has been to seek out some inspiration from other creative people's workspaces and use this as a starting point to think about what improvements I can make. Here are a few of my faves:

image source: bloodandchampagne.com via pinterest

I love the mix of inspiring objects, books and technology of this space and could really use some shelves like these above my desk to clear some more desk space.

image source:fabricpaperglue via pinterest

 

This is such a fab space saving idea, I love the way everything useful is close to hand and then the more visual items like the plant and clock are further up. Although I do wonder if I would remember to water the plants way up there, maybe I could use it to keep Cacti.

image source: everythingetsy.com

 

This is a great space, if only I had a whole  to use, but I love the full wall corkboard and the trolley used for holding books and materials and the ladder for hanging fabrics or prints to dry.

 



 

How I would love such a clutter free space, alas I know it will never happen, I am a clutter monkey by nature. I love the idea of having an all round colour scheme though. Also keeping a simple mood board on my desk, for the project I was working on at the time, would definitely be very helpful. Maybe having a really clear desk is something I can work towards as well.

If you want to check out more of my research hop on over to the pinterest board I've started to keep all my research in one place here.

 

My next step is to think about what I need from my workspace, what is working well from it at the moment and what is really causing me problems. Then come up with some ideas on how to change it- I keep you updated on how I get on. xxx

Book Talk- Craft Business Heroes by Alison McNicol

I thought it was about time I ventured into my book shelves again and wrote another book feature. As it's the new year and of many of us are setting out our goals for 2015 I thought I would share my thoughts on Alison McNicols book Craft Business Heroes.

I am steadily building up a collection of creative and craft business books, This is one of four that I own at the moment and there are at least another 6 on my wish list! One of my biggest goals is to one day earn my full  income from my millinery and creative skills so I love reading about other  peoples creative ventures. I'm an avid reader of Etsy's Quit your Day Job posts and sites like UK Handmade that give a glimpse into designer makers business journeys and it was this interest that drew me to Alison's book.

Put together from interviews that she had collected whilst  researching her other book: The Craft Business Handbook, Alison McNicol has compiled interviews and insights from creative entrepreneurs across various disciplines to share their experiences of running a craft or design business.

One of the things I really like about this book is the range of makers that have been featured. Split into 5 sections, each one focuses on a different area of craft: Jewelry, Paper goods, Homeware, Sewing and Fashion/Apparel. In turn each section has at least four different in depth interviews  from designers and makers from both UK and USA.

The range of the businesses featured is really inspiring and each unique makers story shows that there is no best way of going about a creative business. Whilst reading the book each interview has highlighted methods or business models ( such as product licensing ) which I would have never have considered within the realm of a small creative start up and has provided me with a new point of view or experience to draw upon.

Ultimately there is something very inspiring and, in a way, comforting to read about so many different artists and crafts people who have used their talents to build a business and an income for themselves. It makes me feel like my dream of one day becoming self employed is possible  and gives me great insights into the challenges and experience that I may face along this way.

I think the best feature of the book is that most of  the interviewees share their top tips for a successful business, these hold such a wealth of great advice and I'm always highlighting or jotting notes of these for future reference. It's one of those books I find I can just dip in and out of every time i feel I'm in need of a bit of inspiration and encouragement and I know I will come back to it time and again.

My only criticism of the book is that whilst the cover is quite colourfull, there are no colour photographs or graphics within the book. The inside pages are nicely laid out but I feel that they could have used a little bit of colour to lift them and I would have loved to have seen a few colour images of each of the makers work.

Other than that I think the book is really inspiring and succeeds in sharing the"How we did it" journey of each of the business featured. If anyone is indeed of a January pick me up or  for inspiration into their own craft or creative business I would definitely recommend reaching for this book. xxx