Thistle Cottage Studio/ETSY

THISTLE COTTAGE STUDIO is a beehive of creativity! I am an apparel/costume designer/milliner/teacher. TCS is a working and teaching studio. I offer classes to adults and children in many textile arts. My work has been recognized by the RI State Council on the Arts and Humanities (2002)

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Orsini~Medici Couture Millinery for Thistle Cottage Studio


Thistle Cottage Studio

July 1, 2012 § 11 Comments
hen a couple of years ago I was looking for some fabulous flowers to dress up one of my hats I immediately turned to search for something that would be in support of fellow Etsysians. I discovered a shop with creations that completely surpassed my expectation.
Prepare to be absolutely mesmerized by the beautiful hats adorned with exquisite accoutrements designed and created with an old world expertise and quality surpassed by none!
July 1, 2012
It is with great pleasure and admiration that I introduce you to Elsie of Thistle Cottage Studio
At what age did you realize you are an Artist?  
That was at about age 5.  When my Auntie Ruth put me down for a nap, I was having none of it!! I emptied a box of Kleenex on the bed, and made 250 pink ladies in ball gowns by pinching and twisting the centers of each tissue! She stood in amazement when she saw the spectacle. It must have looked like an aerial view of a ballroom playing a Strauss waltz!!
What inspires your creative passion?                                                                 Beauty.  Fabric. Fashion and Millinery history. Knowing the origin of my mothers historic DNA!!!
Tell us what you love best about your art and how it fills your life.
First I would have to say that it has seen me through the very worst of times!!  I’ve realized that even though you can lose everything, your spirit and creativity can still function out of a suitcase, and in a very small space!!  What has deepened the experience of living this incredible gift of creativity, is knowing that my maternal grandfather’s ancestors were the Orsini’s who married into the Medici family, and together created a dynasty that ruled Tuscany for 400 years, and much of Rome. Their patronage supported the art of the Italian Renaissance.
This is exciting knowledge of what makes me who I am and fuels my passion now.  Knowing that the very DNA that my mother bestowed upon me is brimming with the legacy of an incredible history that I may never be able to fully absorb!!!
What are your favorite medium with which to create?
Textiles, and all things related.
Tell us about the creative process that helped you finalize your shop name and brand?
Well, it has taken something of a parallel road. What began as Thistle Cottage Studio in 1997, as my second  brick and mortar design shop, evolved to a teaching and design studio, by appointment only. 
My first brick and mortar shop, Samsara Designs (1987-1995) was a high end, women’s retail and custom design boutique located in a very affluent shopping district in Wayland Square, (Providence, RI), not far from RISD and Brown University.
I began designing cut and sew/dressmaker hats in that shop, as well as my own clothing designs, jewelry, and accessories. I also did some buying at the boutique shows in NYC, the last two years the shop was open.
So, Thistle Cottage Studio was the name I chose as my Etsy shop nearly four years ago, this November.  As my obsession for millinery gains steam, as it has in the last four years,  my hats have taken on a life of their own.  I contemplated opening a second Etsy shop, and still toss and turn with that decision, but the name of that eventual shop has already spawned the brand of my millinery lines.  
I had a light bulb moment one day, and the realization finally crystallized, that it should be in honor of my mother’s talent, and historic DNA that she has passed on to me.  Orsini~Medici Couture Millinery is not only a brand, but an identity, with no small notoriety, and its’ history steeped in centuries of Renaissance art!!
A byline of the brand would be “The Renaissance of Millinery”. I have research our families coat of arms back to the Renaissance, and the two little bears, are the family totem, as Orsini in Italian means little bear.  I could not resist the temptation to add the top hats on them!!! What’s cuter than bears in top hats?
What made you decide to turn your art into saleable products? 
That’s an easy one!!  It’s all I really want to do! Make art, and make a living doing what I’m best at, and love most! Since I came into millinery late in life, I figure I’d better hurry and make as many hats as I possibly can in the time I have left on this earth!! Oh, that I had another lifetime to pursue it!!! I only wish that I had discovered my love of it 40 years ago.  
But, I guess all things are as they should be, and with 40 years of sewing and design experience behind me, and 20 of those years, intermittently in the theater, millinery has been an easy transition.  I have only just learned to block felt and straw in the last 2 years!  I seem to have taken to it like a fish to water, and it’s been so much fun!!! I still have great emotional difficulty parting with each hat that sells!!

What has being a small business entrepreneur taught you?
That I am my own best commodity.  That my work has integrity, respect, value, and beauty, and that people are willing to spend their hard earned money to own a piece, or more of it.  There is no better feeling than that! I have had the pleasure of knowing and working for such memorable clients as Dale Chihuly, master glass artist/teacher, whose work is collected by major museums worldwide; Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Paula Vogel, educator; Dr. Joan Countryman, who was instrumental in assisting Oprah Winfrey to start up the Leadership Academy in S. Africa; Master mime and theater arts teacher, the late Tony Montanaro, who studied with Marcel Marceau, and Etienne DeCroux.
If you blog, what does your blog offer your followers?
I do have a blog, but do not post with any regularity   I write when I have something I think people will be interested in reading, or when I have information that needs to be publicized, like the classes I teach in my studio.
What else would you like us to know about YOU?
That I am in love with what I do, and hopefully that shows in the quality of the pieces I make.  I’m never happier than when I’m immersed in the creative process! It is my drug of choice!! Also, that I teach apparel/costume design, pattern drafting, fashion sketching, and millinery to adults and children as young as 7 years old.  My youngest millinery student is just 9 years old, and she is working on a portfolio of Barbie outfits, including one she just finished with a tiny straw hat, which she learned to block over a wooden spool of thread!
I don’t have any children, but just adore them!!  They’re so much fun, and are little sponges, ready and able to absorb anything on the first try! I constantly ask them to “teach me how to do that!!”
Please provide a question you would like to be asked and the answer.
Who is your favorite designer?
Erte’, who is attributed as the Father of Art Deco.  An incredible genius, who walked three feet off the ground, above the rest of us!
Other ways to connect with Elsie: Etsy Shop- Facebook-  Pinterest-  Twitter-Blog
To view a slideshow of hats please visit hatacademy.com and Elsie Collins 
A final comment
Not only did I find the flowers I ordered from Thistle Cottage Studio to be in the style of haute couture, but the finish work reminded me of a piece designed and sewn by Coco Channel…To be worn with panache and cachet!
Happy Birthday Elsie!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Renaissance of Millinery is Alive and Well!!


The Renaissance of Millinery is Alive and Well!

Posted 10:00 AM April 10, 2012

There's a tempest brewing not in a teacup, but in a cloche hat!! It's a quiet revolution determined to bring back the popularity of wearing hats around the world!! " A hat on every head, everyday", is the motto being heard by professional, semi-professional, and up and coming milliners from all corners of the globe!! It's a revival of a nearly lost art, with untold employment opportunities in all related industries.
European countries like England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, and as far away as Japan, and Australia, are frontrunners in the perpetuation of the hat. One only needs to think of the elegant insouciance of the Duchess of Cambridge, and her regal carriage of any chapeau she chooses to perch on her lovely head! Designers like Philip Treacy, and Stephen Jones have become household names in England. Who can forget Treacy's outrageous statement piece worn by Princess Beatrice to the Royal Wedding, or his fabulous acorn hat worn by Sarah Jessica Parker on the red carpet in London? Even the iconic luggage and handbag design label of Louis Vuitton of Paris, staged a spectacular runway show this spring, complete with a steamer train chugging down the center of the runway!! A steady stream of models stepped off the train, each with their own impeccably attired porter, carrying their LV baggage, and very avant garde, oversized hats atop each head!! It was nothing short of spectacular!! Check it out on YouTube!!
Not just for aristocrats anymore, the hat is a transforming element of fashion, that up until the 1960's, was a necessary finishing detail to any outift!! America, on the other hand, in my humble opinion, has become fashionably lazy in its' attitude towards the hat. Resorting to it for practical purposes of sun protection, and warmth in cold weather, and it goes without saying, the obligitory, uniform, utiltiarian baseball cap. Apart from these, the hat has become a superfluous accessory, accused mostly of creating a dreaded malady called "hat hair"!! Fortunately, American designers like Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, and Calvin Klein have incorporated the hat into their runway collections, further raisng the awareness of hats as a statement piece! Designers, like my favorites Louise Green, Jill Courtmanche, Suzanne Newman, and Amy Hamilton, are busily creating new collections each season, selling across the country, and creating bespoke hats for discerning clients, including hats for the races. The trickle down theory seems to be working, as we see mass market chains like T.J. Maxx, Target and Kohl's, offering adorable fedoras, fascinators, and trilbys for their spring accessory lines. And just a brief word about fascinators! They are the perfect accessory for those who claim that they are not "hat people", which is an imagined persona, perpetuated by those who have yet to come to terms with the attention they will receive, or have yet to find the right hat for their particular shaped face!! I prefer to think of them as the "cupcake" of hats, and would be the perfect appetizer for those just getting their feet, pardon me, heads wet with the idea of putting something fun and fashionable on it!!
Thank heaven for the Kentucky Derby and the races at Saratoga, otherwise the hat in America would be nearly extinct!! Church hats are also still very much alive and well, and of a breed all its' own in parts of the country. And, lest we forget the Red Hat Society, whose members relish in oversized hats, with mountains of feathers, and a limited palette of red and purple. Be that as it may, they are still official cheerleaders of the wearing of hats, albiet with wreckless abandon!! When I am old, I shall wear purple (and red) sparingly, and not necessarily together!!
Online hat magazines like HatTalk and HatLife, are great resources for raising millinery conciousness, as is the millinery group I belong to, The Mad Hatters Society on Facebook, and also sponsors millinery contests. We have just completed our first ever hat making contest on MHS, and are still awaiting the results of the winner. It is being judged by the editor of HatTalk magazine! Will keep you posted! I have recently entered one with HatTalk magazine out of England in celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. It is a worldwide competition open to anyone who makes hats. The lucky winner will win a week long millinery workshop with the well known milliner, Dillon Wallwork in the south of France, at the historical Chateau Dumas!! My fingers are crossed!! Voting starts on May 4th!! Please dont' forget to vote for my Heliotrope Hat, pictured above in lavender, with the faux feathers (ALL hand frayed!!). Please copy and paste to your browser. Here's the link:
http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/ad303bf75543d4dcb37639d8c89bfdc7/520

Speaking of workshops, Thistle Cottage Studio will host its' second series, Millinery Workshops Marathon in the months of June through August. We will be teaching basic millinery skills for beginners and intermediate students. All classes will be held for two days, on Saturdays and Sundays, starting in June. Please call for exact dates, as they will depend on the incoming students' convenience. We will try to be as flexible and accomodating to your schedule as possible!! Those traveling to RI from out of state, will be supplied with a researched list of affordable accomodations. A full brunch both days will be served. The workshops will begin with "Building a Buckram and Wire Framed Hat". Students may design a period or contemporary hat or fascinator. Basic millinery supplies like buckram, stiffener, elastic, and millinery wire will be included in the tuition. Decorative materials such as fabric, trimmings, brooches, and
feathers, will be provided by the student. Tuition for this workshop, including full brunch for both days, and basic materials is $300.00. More information on elective materials, at the time of registration will be discussed with each incoming student. Space is limited for each workshop, so we recommend registering as early as possible to secure your space. Our studio is small and intimate, and can accomodate 4 students comfortably, per workshop. We are working on possibly renting a larger space in the same location, but that will be announced at a later date.

The second workshop will focus on working in sinamay (straw). Purchased by the meter, sinamay is a flat, lightweight straw fabric, which comes stiffened or not. We prefer working with it pre-stiffened. When lightly sprayed with water, sinamay will soften, and can be blocked over wooden hat blocks. This workshop will focus on fascinators and the classic cloche shape. Free form blocking of sinamay will also be touched upon. Materials will be included in the cost of this workshop. Both workshops will be repeated throughout the summer, as demand requires. Tuition for both days, incuding materials and full brunch is $300.00.
Further workshops for Fall/Winter 2012 are in the works again, with the return of milliner, Jasmin Zorlu, who gave her freefrom blocking workshop last December. We'll keep you posted as those dates firm up.
Those wishing to purchase hat supplies of their own choosing, may try one of my favorites suppliers, www.hatsupply.com, and tell them Elsie sent you. Sandra Leko is a wonderful, and helpful shop owner, and a master milliner too!! These workshops will also be publicized on her blog.

Please contact Thistle Cottage Studio at 401-231-4343, if you plan to attend, or have any questions about these workshops. No prior experience making hats is necessary.
All hats pictured are the work of Elsie Collins for Orsini~Medici Couture Millinery.
Please stop in and see all of the collections at www.orsinimedici1951.etsy.com.
We happily ship internationally.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Thistle Cottage Studio Hosts Jasmin Zorlu's Hatblocking Workshop

Thistle Cottage Studio Hosts Jasmin Zorlu's Hatblocking Workshop

A to-do checklist a mile long, and the adrenalin was pumping with excitement and anticipation, for the weekend of Jasmin Zorlu's arrival, and the two day Freeform Hatblocking Workshop, which was held at
Thistle Cottage Studio, in North Providence, RI, this past weekend (Dec. 3rd&4th). Once again, our studio was buzzing with creative energy, and four students, including myself, were anxiously looking forward to learning a new hat blocking technique with a master milliner of 20 years.
We were so very lucky to have had Jasmin come to Rhode Island to teach this workshop. She is considering moving here or, to NYC soon, from San Francisco. Born in Germany, to a Turkish father, and an American mother, Jasmin has been a globetrotter since birth, having grown up and lived her adolecent years in Japan, Turkey and Iceland. She has learned and honed her craft from teachers at FIT in NYC, and mentors from all over the world along the way. She is off again in January, to teach another workshop in Australia.
In attendance including myself, were Michelle Norkum, from Maryland, who works as a milliner at Andrea's Hat Shop in D.C., our own MOE member Jaya, of Green Trunk Designs, from Carmel, NY, and Kate Ferguson, a local polymer clay artist. Each participant found overnight lodgings at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence, a beautiful Victorian B&B in Woonsocket, RI, and a special thanks goes to my good friend Chris Auxier, for extending her hospitality to Jasmin. Everyone was treated both days to a full brunch with corn muffins, bagels, gluten free toast, apple pastries, cream cheese, wild blueberry jam, handmade butter from Maine, hardboiled organic free range eggs, coffee and an assortment of teas, yogurt, and a gorgeous fresh fruit bowl. No one went hungry, including Jaya's very patient husband Tim, who went spent his time sight seeing, and working on his laptop in a comfy wingback chair, in the display room.
Jasmin began the workshop by having the group members introduce themselves, and then went over a detailed supplies list, and a demonstration of the technique. Her portable steamer was set up on one cutting table, and TCS's professional Jiffy steamer was set up near the other table. Two students comfortably shared each of the tables and steamers, as the project progressed. The blocking and pinning, sculpting and stretching of fur velour on wooden hatblocks went easily, as the steam turned the fabric to butter! Hats sat on the blocks to dry overnight when the day one was done. Day two, was spent with Jasmin demonstrating the invisible sewing technique to hold the folds of the hat in place, making the hat able to withstand years of wear. Students hand stitched the rest of the afternoon, and were also given a demo on how to steam and stretch one side of the hat sizing band, or petersham ribbon as it is known in the industry. This is done so that the ribbon molds to the shape of the hat, and does not ripple or wrinkle around the interior. A lining was recommended, and most of the students will put their linings in when they return home. The results were amazingly individual and diverse!! Now the dilemma is, to embellish or not?
More workshops are in the planning stages, and Jasmin is welcome anytime to repeat her workshops at TCS!! Students who were unable to make it this time, have already requested one in the spring. I will be doing a spring workshop in cut and sew hats with buckram and wire frames, using various stiffeners that I've been experimenting with this year, and one on making fascinators.
Anyone interested in millinery workshops, fashion design/sewing, pattern drafting, or fashion sketching, please give the studio a call at 401-231-4343. Please remember to leave your name and number clearly if you get our machine!! And don't forget to stop by and check out our Etsy shops for that special one of a kind holiday gift, with TCS at orsinimedici1951.etsy.com, Green Trunk Designs.etsy.com, and the MOE team on Etsy too!!
Buying handmade is good for the economy, as you are supporting Made in America, and handmade is also good for the environment!!

Happy Holidays from Thistle Cottage Studio!!
Hats off to you!!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Freeform Hatblocking Workshop at Thistle Cottage Studio

Freeform Hatblocking Workshop at Thistle Cottage Studio

HAT MAKING CLASSES COMING UP



Jasmin Zorlu, a San Francisco-based milliner, is in New York City until the end of December and will be teaching three different Hat Making Workshops (one in North Providence, Rhode Island).

1) Freeform Hat Blocking in New York City and North Providence (8 hour workshop).

Learn how to make an Art Deco style cloche, fedora, or cocktail hat that fits your style perfectly. Using steam and your fingers, manipulate a pre-formed fur felt cone on a standard balsa hat block and then hand-stitch it.

This class is perfect for beginners who have no sewing experience. Watch a YouTube video introducing you to the technique at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nj0bBbkBA8

A. Monday, November 28th and Tuesday November 29th from 6-10pm in New York City (must attend both days)

B. Saturday, December 3rd and Sunday, December 4th from 11am-3pm in North Providence, Rhode Island (must attend both days)

2) Cocktail Hat Making with Horsehair (Crinoline) in New York City (3 1/2 hour workshop).

"Are you ready for the parties, art openings and exciting events this holiday season? Create a Cocktail Hat or Fascinator with synthetic horsehair and feathers in a short and sweet 3 1/2 hours. All eyes will be drawn to you when you walk into the room! Great class for beginners with no experience in hand-sewing.

A. Tuesday, November 22nd from 6:30pm-10pm

View links to past students' work and Register here: http://jasminzorlu.com/workshops.html or call Jasmin Zorlu at (415) 730.4666

Join Jasmin Zorlu at a millinery studio in the East Village of Manhattan

Her tutorial video has been viewed 17,000 times since February – Kudos to Zorlu.
Tammy L Deck of TLD Design Center&Gallery; has the following classes coming up:

Wednesday, November 16
2pm to 5:30pm
Felting Skills: Beginner Level - Felt&Mixed Media Flowers with Tammy Deck

Thursday, November 17
9:30am to 3pm
Hat Making: Manipulating Wool with Jenny Pfanenstiel

Tammy L Deck ~ ArtWear
26 E Quincy St. - Westmont, IL
Phone: 630.963.9573

http://www.tlddesigns.com/TLD.hatmakingclasses.html OR CALL the studio @ 401-231-4343

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Thistle Cottage Studio's Artistic Director: Elsie Collins

Thistle Cottage Studio Blog

Thistle Cottage Studio's Artistic Director: Elsie Collins

Allow me to introduce myself. I apologise for not posting this biography a lot sooner. It just occurred to me that potential students who might be looking for a place to privately study apparel design or millinery skills, would like to know as much as possible about who they may be studying with. In addition to what you are about to read, I'd also like to add that, Thistle Cottage Studio, each year, grooms its' age eliglble students (11-14 yrs. old), to compete in the Providence Performing Arts Summer Arts Scholarship competition. We are just now starting to enroll eligible students, and offering fashion sketching and sewing classes, in preparation for next March (2012) deadline for entry. To date, we have had four winners in three years!! This summer, TCS hosted our first Upward Bound student, Airine Alves, who was recommended to us by Rhode Island Colleges' UB Program. We hope this will become an annual tradition!
In another direction, as I am becoming more and more immersed in the art of millinery, and discovering new skills with handblocking wool and straw, we will be offering basic millinery classes, and will be hosting workshops in our studio with the very talented master milliner, Jasmin Zorlu (from San Francisco), this November and December. Those interested in workshops and classes may call 401-231-4343 as soon as possible, as space is limited.
So without further ado, here is my biography, as seen in my online Etsy shop, (www.orsinimedici1951.etsy.com) and a few of my latest hat creations.
I would be delighted to hear your comments!


The name Thistle Cottage Studio comes from a trip I took to the south of Scotland in 1995, and was so charmed by the fact that people name their houses. I adore the U.K., English decor, shabby chic, antiques, vintage textiles, European and particularly Italian Renaissance history, art, art history, mask making, period hats and costumes, period movies and books, Jane Austen, J.W. Waterhouse, mythology, Joseph Campbell, John O'Donohue, poetry, Emily Dickensen, Langston Hughes, film and theater, classical, period and Celtic music, Loreena McKennett, and a more gentile way of life. The name orsinimedici comes as a result of the research I did, while costuming an original opera about the life of Michelangelo, in the summer of '08. In the process, I began to connect myth with reality! I would hear tales in my childhood, of how the Orsini's were once royalty in Italy, and that we had royal blood in our veins. My mother was an Orsini, and my grandfathers' ancestors were the Orsini's who married into the Medici family in Florence in the 1400's. These two dynasties went on to build all of Florence(Fiorenze), and much of Tuscany, making it the center of art and culture in the Renaissance world, and as we know it today. It was also the Orsini-Medici fleet of ships that defeated the invasion of the Port of Venice, by the Ottoman Turks in the 1500's. A tower in the port commemorates the event. The Orsini's were the owners of the now Castello Odescalchi in Bracciano, just northwest of Rome, until the 1700's! It is the same castle that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married in!! There were 3 Orsini Popes, several Cardinals, including Cardinal Orsini, who was poisoned by Alexander Borgia in the 1500's, at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, in his ruthless efforts to gain the throne of the Italian Papacy. Even Mary Queen of Scots shows up in our family tree, as the daughter-in-law of Catherine de Medici, when she was married as a young girl to the Dauphine of France. Learning that my mothers' ancestors were responsible for the patronage of Michelangelo, DaVinci, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bellini, Dante Allegheri, Brunelleschi, and so many more, is something that I may never be able to fully absorb. Now I understand my bones, and why my mother was such a creative genius!! Who needs a PhD, when you have this kind of DNA?!

Credentials:
Rhode Island School of Design/Apparel Design
3 yr. Apprenticeship to an Italian Tailor
1987-95 Owner of Samsara Designs/Retail&Custom; Design, Prov.,RI
2002 RI State Council on the Arts and Humanities Award Grant for my
Exhibition: One Hundred Years of Fashion:1850-1950
(over 200 pieces of authentic designer vintage, and my reproduction clothing, hats, accessories and wall art).

Theatrical Costuming for:
Trinity Repertory Co.(RI), The Walnut St. Theater (Phil.PA), The Shakespearean Theater of Maine at Monmouth, Celebration Mime Ensemble(S.Paris ME), Everett Dance Ensemble, Opera Providence, Opera RI, Looking GlassTheater, Barker Playhouse, CCRI, Bristol Community College, American BioTechnologies TV commercial, and most recently (2011) "Triangle" for Hope High School. This play has recently returned from performing at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, as part of the American High School Theater program, this past August.
I now create merchandise for my ETSY shop, including hand blocked hats, and teach apparel design and textile related courses in my studio, to adults and children as young as seven years old!
I have been sewing since the age of ten, at my mothers side, who was a master dressmaker. I still use and teach on her ca. 1976 Bernina 830 sewing machine!! I'm certain that she is watching over my studio, and is very happy to see her Bernina humming away with little ones learning to sew on it!!

Most Memorable Clients:
*Paula Vogel--Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright/ Professor of Drama (Yale)
*Dale Chihuly--Master glass artist/Artistic Director of the Pilchuck School of Glass (WA)
World reknowned for his breathtaking glass sculptures, Mr. Chihuly's work can be found in permanent collections of many major museums, public gardens, and parks around the world.
*Dr. Joan Countryman--Educator/Head Mistress. Dr. Countryman was called upon, and was instrumental in assisting Oprah Winfrey, to set up the Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg, S. Africa in 2007-08.
*Tony Montanaro --Celebration Mime Ensemble/S. Paris, ME
The late master performer, mime, and teacher, Mr. Montanaro was a student of Marcel Marceau, and Etienne DeCroux.
It was my most profound pleasure to know and work for all of them.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The ANATOMY OF A HAT IN PROGRESS

Thistle Cottage Studio Blog

THE ANATOMY OF A HAT IN PROGRESS

Having recently joined The Milliners of Etsy Team/ MOE (etsy.com) a few months ago, I have been so inspired to explore new techniques and materials that I've never used before. In the past, my hat lines have been crocheted, cut and sew dressmaker hats, and period reproduction hats built from my own handmade buckram and wire frames. Every few months or so, our group of about 200 professional and semi-professional milliners from all corners of the globe, hosts a mock Project Runway competition, with a well known milliner as our judge. A winner is chosen, no prizes are awarded, except for the thrill of being acclaimed by a respected milliner. Our first competition was judged by Amy Hamiltion of Granville Millinery, in Granville, Ohio. Her work has been featured in Victoria and O Magazines, as well as many television shows, to briefly name a few accolades. That competition was featured on the front page of Etsy's blog, The Storque. I published that link here, in an earlier blog.
We have recently completed our third competition, with the theme of the Royal Ascot Races this month, in England. We were lucky enough to get the well known British milliner, Mark T. Burke to judge this one. He is known for having studied under the royal family's favorite hatter, Philip Treacy. My recent entry for this project was an elegant black and white, 20 inch wide, semi-sheer silk organza brimmed hat, with a houndstooth motif, handmade flowers and feathers. The crown was formed from buckram and wire on my recently acquired, professional milliners balsa wood hat blocks. I experimented with using non-toxic milliners gelatin, which did a fairly good job of further stiffening the crown, after I steamed and formed the buckram, which has a glue already saturated into the fibers. I decided to add a few more secret ingredients to make it even stiffer. It worked like a charm. I may decide to reveal that secret down the road, so stay tuned!! The brim, however, proved a bit more resisitant to the gelatin. It is tradtionally used on wool felt and straw, which I plan to experiment with this coming fall. This brim was two layers of silk organza, with a layer of netting sandwiched in between for more texture. As I was working on this hat, which was so out of the box for me, I was sure I'd end up eating this one for dinner!!! After listing it for only 10 days, much to my surprise it sold!! So, to solve the dilemma of the not so stiff wide brim, I resorted to a milliners lacquer, that is very toxic, and not so environmentally friendly!!! I have offered up my repentance prayers to Mother Nature!!! The brim was first stiffened with the gelatin, then an additional two coats of lacquer. I tested a sample swatch of this to be sure there would be no adverse reaction of the two stiffeners. The Ascot hat is now drying in my dehumidified garage, and will be packed and shipped to it's new owner in New Jersey tomorrow, to be worn to a wedding.
My next hat, nearly complete, which was inspired by the Oscar winning film, The King's Speech, is a study in sculpture for the head. Based on a 1940's design, in a beautiful shade of heliotrope, the brim is not set onto the crown in the expected way. It is tilted in a more eliptical fashion, giving the hat a sophisticated, assymetrical tilt. Still not quite ready to tackle straw, I have been using a cotton/linen gossamer; a very light, semi-sheer woven material for this hat. Again, my secret recipe for stiffening the crown, did a fine job on this hat too, which by the way, would not have worked on the brim of the Ascot hat. This hat also evolved in its' detail with what I like to call, a "happy accident". As I was thinking about the focal point decoration, I wanted to further the sculptural quality of the design, and began to wire leaf shapes that I would use on the up-turned side of the brim. They were not to my liking, and I began to fray the edges to make them more texturally interesting. By the time I was finished with the first leaf, it looked more like a feather, and the lightbulb in my head went off!! Several more frayed "leaves" later, layered over one another, and sewn to a wired spine, resulted in some very beautiful, even lush ostrich-like, faux feathers. It didn't take long after for me to realise that the "feathers" were not only beautiful, but they would also be functional with their wired spines, in helping to support the upright positioning of the brim!! Happy, happy accident, indeed!!
This hat will be lacquered and finished in a few days, and uploaded to my ETSY shop for sale. It would be the perfect hat to wear to a summer or early fall wedding, formal occasion, or maybe it will bring you luck at the races!!

Hats off to you!!


Pattern or design used: My own design -Elsie Collins/Apparel/Costume Designer/Milliner/Teacher