Comments | labricoleuse: Willow brim block, part one!

labricoleuse

Willow brim block, part one!

Feb 10, 2010 22:17

The show on deck right now is Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, which affords me the opportunity to do a bunch of great craftwork. There are two hats in particular for the character of Lady Bracknell which i'll be chronicling in detail, as they involve a topic near and dear to the modern milliner's mythos: willow ( Read more... )

hats, millinery, esparterie, playmakers

Comments 19

anonymous February 14 2011, 14:14:09 UTC

This is such a wonderful useful resource that you are providing and you give it absent free of charge. I love seeing web sites that understand the value of providing a quality useful resource for free. It?s the old what goes around comes around program.

anonymous March 19 2011, 16:49:26 UTC

This was a nice article to read, thank you for sharing it.

Willow anonymous July 10 2011, 22:37:04 UTC

Hello,

I love your blog and your talent. I have worked with willow and have a small collection of it, however my vintage and antique willow looks very different from what you are using and calling willow. I am a bit confused as to you saying it is the Holy Grail (which it is) but then using something that does not look to be the genuine willow we milliners are lusting for? I was disappointed since I wanted to see someone working with the real thing.

Re: Willow labricoleuse July 11 2011, 08:35:51 UTC

I would love to see an image of what yours looks like! Mine, i have identified mine as such based upon descriptions and photographs in Denise Dreher's book with its chapter on willow, and from swatch sets i own including a small sample of esparterie from a millinery supplier, but i admit the sheets i have do not have any formal label i can determine. How does your differ?

Re: Willow anonymous July 11 2011, 19:00:37 UTC

Thanks! I can send a photo but don't know how to post it here. My willow is a golden wheat color, a bit wider/thicker slats (if that is the word) with a look more of crosshatched caning, while yours is almost white and resembles a buckram weave. I have it 2 ways, backed with crin (large sheets), and plain with no backing (small sheets). I also have some samples which I culled from a few Paris couture hats made in the 1930's, and some Edwardian and Victorian hats. I am amazed at the way you are using yours. I am afraid to try mine for fear of ruining it! I am going to save mine to use as a hat base by draping and blocking the shape over a wood block and then covering the willow shape with fabric or felting. I did not think to use it for esparterie, but I have made my own blocks using plaster bandages and buckram. I admire you so much, you are much more talented than I! Barbara

Re: Willow anonymous October 23 2011, 08:33:34 UTC

Hello,
Just found your blog, I really enjoyed reading about your sparterie blocking exploits. I'm a milliner form Melbourne, Australia and I haven't seen any sparterie for years - your skinned join made me nostalgic! I love the way it shapes and moves like butter, you can create the subtlest form with sparterie. I worked in theatre for 20 years and loved using it but it's gone now, nothing but a fleeting millinery memory. I made hats for a 1988 production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' with a young Geoffrey Rush as Earnest...happy times!

Best wishes to you, your work is lovely.

Rose Hudson

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