Sunday 20 September 2015

Give and Take

I've been waiting for Carol to come back for several months now. Or a few minutes, depending on how you look at it.

Last winter I made Carol a cap decorated in appliquéd felt ginko leaves. She loved its inspiration, a black felt blocked hat, but a cap was more practical. "I'm not a hat person," she confessed. It's okay. I'm open-minded.

Months ago, Carol told me the cap needed taking in. She has been welcome to bring it back to me ever since. It pleased the stars to align today to bring us finally together. She parked, knocked on my door, and then Carol asked if she could check out my neighbour's garage sale. Who am I to say her nay?

It was worth the few minutes' wait, because Carol came bearing gifts! At an auction she bought a trove of vintage "whimsies" (or cocktail hats of the 1950's and 1960s) and a lovely brown felt hat I can remodel. How kind of her! The fine vintage veiling on some of them is bound to get reused on a new creation in due course. In the meantime, they can join my collection of little black vintage hats on display in my studio.


As if that wasn't enough, Carol wasn't done. Her eagle eye spotted amongst the garage sale remnants a pretty little tin which I also scored, and which will store something soon enough. I am quite the sucker for pretty little tins. Carol intuited this somehow. She is an artist. She knows things. I tried to resist (that cleaning kick I wrote about last time), but it was futile. The tin is mine! Mineminemine.

I take in a cap, Carol gives me lots of cool stuff. All this bounty for something that's all part of the service -- a hat that fits. Thanks, Carol!







Wednesday 9 September 2015

Photographs and Memories

Now that I'm all grown up (officially, anyway) back-to-school time always triggers two reactions in me. The first one -- I'm not gonna lie -- is relief that I, myself, am not going back to school. (I love learning! I really do. But I prefer choosing how and when and where and what, thank you.)

The second reaction is a strong impulse to clean, purge, and organize. Consequently, my shoe collection has just undergone a ruthless cull, and the rest of my wardrobe is quaking with fear. So is the mountain of fabric scraps I've accumulated over the years, remnants of hat-making and other sewing projects.

(You want a pile of fabric scraps? You can have it. Contact me and come and get 'em.)

A recent beneficiary of my seasonal categorization craze is my photos. At St. Lawrence Market, craft sales and my home studio over the years, I've taken lots of pictures of customers and visitors wearing my hats, bands and fascinators. The photos been seen here before, post by post, but now I've created a Client Gallery on Photobucket, with categorized sub-albums:

All Dressed Up
Chez Moi
Fascinators and Bands
For the Guys
Summer Hats
Winter Hats

I like the Story view best. It's an attractive way to see a bunch at a time, and still zero in where you like.

It's been a lovely exercise, triggering lots of happy memories of all those shows and visits, of the many people I've had the pleasure to meet, and who have done me the honour of becoming clients and customers, some repeatedly! I'm so lucky.

Wondering how my hats, etc. look on actual human heads? Wonder now more! How wonderful.