Meanwhile, the busy 2013 committee were on a brief hat break…

Clockwise from top left: Rob Malpas, Elizabeth Friend, Roger Snook, Liz Paine, Brian Atkinson, Christine Bussell, Monica Snook, Derek Bussell, Lynne Atkinson, Sandy Malpas.

The first thing I did in making this hat is drawing up the sketch.  Afterwards I moulded a base in bean shape and proceed by cutting bias from black and ivory sinamay.  The pleating aspect is the most important, difficult and creative part in making the spiral bean.  I have to lay the sinamay bias on top of each other, one after the other.  The lengths of the bias are not always equal because of the uneven shape of the bean.  So the bias needs to be very long and the cutting is only done when the bias has been attached to the bean.  The work is done by rolling up black and ivory bias to construct a maze shape design fixed in the middle of the bean with 2 spiral quills on top.

My inspiration for this design is derived from my slogan for 2012 spring summer collection, which is Pleat, Pleat and Pleat.  I have done many pleated works this season.  Most of my designs from ready to wear, to cut and sew and a larger part of my fascinators have pleating work incorporated into them.

First Prize £500 sponsored by Snooks the Hatters

The position of Bridport as the gateway town to the world famous heritage site of the Jurassic coast was the inspiration for this hat.  A play on the word fossilise, the hat shows an image of a section through an ammonite accented by a beautiful pair of eyes from a tiger, now itself an endangered species, recognizing both the fragility and solidity of existence.

The base of the hat was blocked on a wooden button with two layers of buckram and then covered in tarlatan.  The images were printed on to cotton lawn by ironing the cotton lawn on to freezer paper and then passing it through a conventional colour printer.  The cotton lawn was then bonded to grey silk using bondaweb.  The bow is stiffened using a vilene interfacing.  The button was finished with petersham ribbon and a simple headband.
 
Second Prize £250 sponsored by Bridge House Hotel

My blocked silk frog hat has been inspired by Monet’s water lily garden paintings, especially the repeated design of the free hand machine embroidery on the veiling.  This moves around freely and can change its appearance making it look mysterious and nebulous like the atmosphere evoked in the paintings.  A handcrafted silk dupion frog sits on the sandwashed silk foundation base of the hat, which is a water lily leaf with shaping at the centre back, making this an art to wear 3D sculpture.  Beads used to make swivel eyes can be turned.  They change in different lights and tiny seed beads depict water drops.  To go along with Monet’s medium, paint has been added to highlight the frog’s beauty and to cover the petal porcelain water lily flower to give a realistic look.  Embroidery has been used to enhance the frog.  Green is my favourite colour and goes well with most other colours, as well as being abundant in nature.  Frogs are a favourite theme of mine, so why not create a frog hat!

Since 2011 I have been an Associate Member of the Oxfordshire Craft Guild and I live in Oxford city. After finishing a BA in Fashion Design and noticing that hats are back in fashion my interest in the subject has been rekindled with excitement.

Third Prize £125 sponsored by Mr John Lang, Ontario, Canada 

1st Prize of £100 went to Theo Langton for his rams horn helmet.

2nd Prize of £50 went to Louise Braddock for her Colmer’s Hill headgear

Both prizes sponsored by The Susquehana Hat Company.

(click on the images for a larger view).

£50 Prize for Best Boy’s Hat went to Llewelyn Davies for his Planet hat.
and
£50 Prize for Best Girl’s Hat went to Iola Carter Knibbs for her Cat in the Hat hat.

Both prizes sponsored by Nantes Solicitors.

(Click on the images for a larger view).