good news for milliners from a related textile arts field
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon checking out the quilt show and vendors market at the 2011 North Carolina Quilt Symposium. Quilting is a hobby interest of mine, long time readers of this blog will recall that I have covered past symposiums in here and reviewed quilt exhibits and museums as well. I think though, even if I did not myself quilt, I would still attend these museums and exhibitions and symposia for the same reasons that I follow the fashion industry, textile science industry, fiber/surface design arts, etc.-you never know what you may come across that can be used in your own area of arts!
And so, not only did they have an enormous exhibition hall full of beautifully made quilts, but I discovered some vendors whose contact information and products I picked up for my own nefarious millinery devices...
Hand-dyed wools by Karen Poetzinger of Karen's Colors
The first vendor whose products strike me as being full of potential for millinery work was a woman operating under the name of Karen's Colors. She was selling a variety of different hand-dyed wool in various colorways. At the quilt symposium, she was marketing it towards rug hooking and wool appliqué quilters. It occurred to me though that because she was using a dye process that felted the fabric, the dyed woolens could be used for millinery ornaments and garnitures on blocked felt hats. Granted, I'm capable of dyeing woolens in my dye studio and producing this type of fabric myself, but many milliners and crafts artisans either don't have access, time, or inclination to dye wool themselves, so I mention Karen's dyed wools here as a resource. She does not sell her work on a broad scale; her business card says “by appointment only,” so if you are interested in some of her hand-dyed wools for hat decor, e-mail her off her site.
Local craft boutique Ornamentea also had a booth, with lots of interesting beads and metalworking supplies and felting supplies. I had not heard of them, and I'm always excited to find another local vendor of products that I tend to use. It's also pretty cool that they offer classes in a range of different handcrafts.
Oatmeal flat felt yardage from Annie's Keepsakes
The discovery that I am most excited about was the vendor Annie's Keepsakes, a one-woman business devoted to the art of needle felting. She had on display a range of products from National Nonwovens' WoolFelt(tm) product line which is currently marketed to milliners by Judith M Millinery, but which I have found to be too thin a product to really do well as a blocking medium beyond the most delicate of applications, or in the creation of 1940s-style flat felt construction hat styles. Hat Supply carries a better product (“flat fur felt”), but it comes in precut pieces too small for some of the more elaborate designs one might hope to use it for, and the price is quite dear--$50 for a single piece 30” X 11.5”.
And that's what made me most excited about the booth for Annie's Keepsakes: she had bolts of 100% wool felt fabric of a good, heavy thickness, selling at $19.99 per yard, at 37" wide! Just look in the above picture of the piece I bought, how thick it is! The bolts were stamped with the manufacturer name National Nonwovens, the same company that produces the WoolFelt(tm) product line, so I know this is not some leftover job lot of millinery felt from half a century ago, and I assume it's something that's generally available. She had bolts of the exact same colors which are shown in little swatches on the flat fur felt page of Hat Supply's website (as well as a couple others), so it is possible that it is the same product. Or, maybe it's just a coincidence, given the drastic price difference and Hat Supply's statement that their manufacturer had gone out of business.
Looking on the Annie's Keepsakes website (clearly a one-woman business), she doesn't list this product in her wool felt section. However, if I am able to fiddle around with the sample quarter-yard I purchased and it does what I expect it will do, I plan to purchase from her by e-mailing and asking about the continuing availability of the product. She had a lot of flat construction hats on display in her booth, mostly berets and pillboxes and soft structures of the crown-brim variety, so presumably she would welcome expanding her business to the greater millinery market, including those of us who block felt.
And, I didn't take a huge number of pictures this year, but here are just a couple of quilts I really liked.
“The Oath” by Patricia Powers, a studio art quilt by a woman who is both a doctor and a quilter. The lab coat is hers, covered with both printed and quilted quotes from the Hippocratic oath.
“Japanese I” by Deborah Whitehorne and Neyla Bond. I love the big pictorial inserts in this one, and all the indigo.
“Married on St. Patrick's Day” by K. Guinn, N. Jones, C. Herrmann, a group quilt which won my own personal prize of “Quilt I most want to make my bed with.”
And so, not only did they have an enormous exhibition hall full of beautifully made quilts, but I discovered some vendors whose contact information and products I picked up for my own nefarious millinery devices...
Hand-dyed wools by Karen Poetzinger of Karen's Colors
The first vendor whose products strike me as being full of potential for millinery work was a woman operating under the name of Karen's Colors. She was selling a variety of different hand-dyed wool in various colorways. At the quilt symposium, she was marketing it towards rug hooking and wool appliqué quilters. It occurred to me though that because she was using a dye process that felted the fabric, the dyed woolens could be used for millinery ornaments and garnitures on blocked felt hats. Granted, I'm capable of dyeing woolens in my dye studio and producing this type of fabric myself, but many milliners and crafts artisans either don't have access, time, or inclination to dye wool themselves, so I mention Karen's dyed wools here as a resource. She does not sell her work on a broad scale; her business card says “by appointment only,” so if you are interested in some of her hand-dyed wools for hat decor, e-mail her off her site.
Local craft boutique Ornamentea also had a booth, with lots of interesting beads and metalworking supplies and felting supplies. I had not heard of them, and I'm always excited to find another local vendor of products that I tend to use. It's also pretty cool that they offer classes in a range of different handcrafts.
Oatmeal flat felt yardage from Annie's Keepsakes
The discovery that I am most excited about was the vendor Annie's Keepsakes, a one-woman business devoted to the art of needle felting. She had on display a range of products from National Nonwovens' WoolFelt(tm) product line which is currently marketed to milliners by Judith M Millinery, but which I have found to be too thin a product to really do well as a blocking medium beyond the most delicate of applications, or in the creation of 1940s-style flat felt construction hat styles. Hat Supply carries a better product (“flat fur felt”), but it comes in precut pieces too small for some of the more elaborate designs one might hope to use it for, and the price is quite dear--$50 for a single piece 30” X 11.5”.
And that's what made me most excited about the booth for Annie's Keepsakes: she had bolts of 100% wool felt fabric of a good, heavy thickness, selling at $19.99 per yard, at 37" wide! Just look in the above picture of the piece I bought, how thick it is! The bolts were stamped with the manufacturer name National Nonwovens, the same company that produces the WoolFelt(tm) product line, so I know this is not some leftover job lot of millinery felt from half a century ago, and I assume it's something that's generally available. She had bolts of the exact same colors which are shown in little swatches on the flat fur felt page of Hat Supply's website (as well as a couple others), so it is possible that it is the same product. Or, maybe it's just a coincidence, given the drastic price difference and Hat Supply's statement that their manufacturer had gone out of business.
Looking on the Annie's Keepsakes website (clearly a one-woman business), she doesn't list this product in her wool felt section. However, if I am able to fiddle around with the sample quarter-yard I purchased and it does what I expect it will do, I plan to purchase from her by e-mailing and asking about the continuing availability of the product. She had a lot of flat construction hats on display in her booth, mostly berets and pillboxes and soft structures of the crown-brim variety, so presumably she would welcome expanding her business to the greater millinery market, including those of us who block felt.
And, I didn't take a huge number of pictures this year, but here are just a couple of quilts I really liked.
“The Oath” by Patricia Powers, a studio art quilt by a woman who is both a doctor and a quilter. The lab coat is hers, covered with both printed and quilted quotes from the Hippocratic oath.
“Japanese I” by Deborah Whitehorne and Neyla Bond. I love the big pictorial inserts in this one, and all the indigo.
“Married on St. Patrick's Day” by K. Guinn, N. Jones, C. Herrmann, a group quilt which won my own personal prize of “Quilt I most want to make my bed with.”