Judges Announced for the Hatstruck Elegant, Fun Couture Hats Competition!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, usually I make a hat before I post but laziness has taken over, and once again, I'm posting one of my old hats.  I think I made this hat maybe five or six years ago, more or less.  It's a leather purse top hat trimmed with a leather flower.  The removable top has a mirror inside for checking makeup.  That year I also won Best in Show for a black cloche.  I reblocked the cloche into another shape a couple of months ago, and it's still on the block.  For this hat I won Most Innovative, also.  Anyway let's get to the important stuff.

This is a little emotional for me because months ago when I was thinking about putting a competition together I had at least two people I wanted to be judges.  One I knew "had my back" as always, and the other, although I wanted her to be one of my judges, I felt as if I was imposing on her; she too has been so supportive over the past several years.  I didn't want to ask her and put her in a position of declining my judge request.   Even after I asked and she accepted I still felt the need to protect her, asking her if she really wanted to do this.   I would have more than understand if she had declined.  Plus I didn't know if she, a world famous milliner, would really want to be associated with being a judge for a contest given by an unknown lady that practices millinery as a hobby. 

Harper's Bazaar Arabia/Ruven Afanador

So in alphabetical order, my first judge (she) is Anya Caliendo.  By-the-way, the link is to her blog, the best millinery blog on the Web.  If you are into couture millinery and fashion, chances are that you know Anya's work.  If you've been on another planet and you haven't seen her work, view a partial collection I've pulled up in a Pinterest search!  Anya's hats have graced the covers of many magazines, one of the latest being Harper's Bazaar July 2014 issue where Rihanna is shown on  its cover wearing one of her hats.  Anya interned under the great milliner Stephen Jones.

Twice Anya has brought tears to my eyes: when  she accepted my judge request, and when  she sent me an invitation to Fashion Week in New York.  I'm so sorry I couldn't  make it.  I think I'm so touched because, not only is she a wonderful person, but she is a confident, caring, and sharing person.  This is hard to find amongst many milliners, sorry to say.

My next judge is Mrs. Essie Edward.  Those of you that follow my blog know Mrs. Edwards as one of my millinery instructors.  Mrs. Edwards has well over 60 years of millinery experience.  She worked for the school district her in Southern California for over 40 years.  She is an excellent seamstress and milliner and just an all-around beautiful person.


As far as being a good judge, well let's just say that she is more flexible than I am and much more fashionable also.  She taught me how to be more flexible in my dealings with millinery, while maintaining the highest of quality in my work.

My final judge is Shurie Southcott.  When I sent out a hint Shurie immediately volunteered, and I thought wow!  My response came because Shurie is into couture steam punk millinery.  I had seen some extremely beautiful steam punk hats made in another contest by other milliners that were above exceptional--the hats were extremely well made, the trim was exquisite, and the designs were awesome--not too far out, right in my "sweets spot."  None of those hats even placed.  So Shurie will complement this team.  I really wanted a team made up of milliners that would represent as many tastes as possible. 

Shurie teaches millinery and she also works at Clockworks Couture here in Southern California.  Actually, it was a book I ran across in the bookstore written by Clockworks (the owner) that led to my understanding of Steam Punk millinery and clothing.  Naturally, I purchased the book.  Shurie is also published in another book.  One last thing, Shurie and I had the same millinery instructor, at least I took a block carving class from her mentor and instructor, the late Jill Pfeiffer, perhaps a decade or so earlier.

Thank you so much ladies, and let it be known that I deeply appreciate and admire all of you.

Another Prize for the Hatstruck Millinery Competition!

Remember the millinery competition I'm hosting on this site?  Well here is another prize (junk) that I've pulled out, and I'm more than happy to get rid of it.  No, it's not my doll hat block.  No it's not the doll in the background.  One of my friends gave this medical doll to my granddaughter along with a medical bag that came with it.  The doll's head lights up to a bright red when she "has a fever."  We'll my granddaughter saw that and must have figured that it was a devil doll!  She ran away screaming, so I hid it behind the head.  Yes, the prize is the mannequin head display.

I purchased the head from an antique shop because the shop had nothing related to millinery in it that I could purchase at the time.  It's just not a good idea to go into a store hungry (to purchase something); I don't care what type of store it is!  Anyway, I've seen these heads popup on Ebay from time to time, and although some sellers make up some type of story for the purpose of  generating a good sale, no one actually knows where they originated from.  They are vintage; they are hand painted; and they are made of some type of light-weight composition material.  Some believe that the mannequin heads were once department store displays.  This one happens to be more detailed and in better shape than most I've seen, having only a small blemish over the mouth, and having a more detailed painted face.

I have never used this head because I felt that it just did not fit with the type of hats I make.  If you win, it's possible that it could be yours for the taking.  Just don't tell me later  that a famous person made it, and that you're selling it for a million dollars; I just don't want to know. OK, so you don't want it either?  Well sell the thing on Ebay.  I want the space for another display I'm eying!

It just ran across my mind that I'm not giving you much of an incentive to enter my competition--a five section hat block, a vintage hat display..."she has to come up with better junk than that for me to enter."  Well, I'll dig deeper, but I doubt it; stay tuned.

Remember:

• You can only enter one (1) hat.
• You must be a follower of this blog.  Click on the follow button in the right-hand column and follow the instructions.  See image to your right.
• You must inter under your full name--not a screen name.
• No Anonymous entries will be excepted.
• This is an international competition.  I will pay for and ship to the address given, but you are responsible for any problems that you may encounter on your side.
• Please read additional instructions here:  http://hatstruck.blogspot.com/2014/06/millinery-competition-elegant-fun.html in one of my earlier blog posts.

Interested in entering another competition?

Please check out the Mad Hatters Society Group on Facebook.  You may enter up to three (3) hats there.  Plus it's a fantastict group!  They are located at:  https://www.facebook.com/groups ./madhatterssociety/



#HatstruckCoutureMillinery, #Hatstruck, #LeeDuncanMilliner, #MillineryCompetition, #MillineryContest, #HatContest, #HatCompetition

Prizes for the Hatstruck Millinery Competition

I'm so excited about this Hatstruck millinery competition and the task of brainstorming the prizes I'll be awarding its winners; one of the prizes being a five section hat block.  I have an idea which hat block, or should I say I probably know which one I will be rewarding.  Can you guess which one?  It's the one I absolutely don't like.  Well it's winner can always sell it on Ebay.

As always when I get rid of one of my millinery items, I regret it somewhere down the road.  Now let me find more junk around here I can get rid of.  More to come;  you will be surprised.

For contest details, please visit my last blog post.

Millinery Competition--Elegant, Fun Couture Hats, 2014 Guidelines and Rules

High all!  Below are the refined rules and guidelines for one of the best millinery contests ever--at least in my head.  We will have crazy fun and wonderful prizes will be awarded to the winners.  Please read these rules and guidelines carefully.  If you have questions, please post them in the "Comments" section of this post. 

Totally unrelated....!  I couldn't resist Photoshopping another one of my hats onto First Lady Michelle Obama's head (see image below).  Since I doubt that she will ever be seen in a hat, other than when she is gardening, why not just have fun playing paper doll with a lovely First Lady.  I've done this before, and I really had fun doing it.  In order to give full credit to the image and the article that I copied it from, the story and original image can be found here.  If she sees this image and likes it, I would suggest that she give Anya Caliendo (my choice), Philip Treacy, or Stephen Jones a call.  Oh well, I can dream can't I.  OK, back to the business at hand, the millinery competition.


The Theme:  Elegant, Fun Couture Hats

 Who Qualifies to Enter the Contest: You must be a member of this site.  No Anonymous entries will be accepted.  Your screen name must be accompanied by your full name, if different, when your hat is submitted.  In other words, if you do not want anyone to know who you are, please do not enter.  After the contest, you may unfollow this blog site...but stick around if you like it.  I would be more than happy to have you.  Finally, THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEST.

Mandel Ngan/Getty

Competition Dates:  Submissions accepted June 5 to August 15, 2014.  Deadline for submittals,  August 15, 11:59, Pacific time (West Coast, USA).

Number of Hats Accepted for Submission:  One (1).

Guidelines for Finished Hat:  The Hat must be made by the contestant, using any materials and techniques of her/his choice.

Images:  There must be at least four to five images submitted--front, back, side(s), and inside; unless the hat can be seen in its entirety with fewer images.

The hat must be made between June 5 and August 15.

Judges:  So far there are four (4) judges (maybe more to come).  These will be announced shortly.

The Prizes:  Millinery supplies (felts, straws, a hat block, hat stretchers, books, millinery trim, a cash prize, etc.).

Distribution of Prizes:  Best in Competition will pick his/her prize first; Second in Competition gets second pick.  Remaining prizes will be distributed as described in my previous post.
  
Winning Categories:  Best in Competition (highest score), Second in Competition (second highest scorer), Best Overall Design, Workmanship, Originality, Color, Presentation, Best Interpretation of Theme, Most Wearable, Honorable Mention, Judge's Choice (each judge will have her/his choice).

 Scoring--range 1 to 10 in each category (multiplied by point value):  Workmanship, 2 points; Design 1.5 points; all other categories 1 point.  The winners will be those having the highest scores.  If there is a tie between highest scorers (score after adding up all categories), those will be sent back to the judges for selection of the best from the highest scores.  Again, winners will only be chosen based on their scores, ALL SCORING BEING INDEPENDENT--JUDGE BY JUDGE.  The highest score after judges' scores have been added up and combined, will yield the winners; the TOP winners must score high in workmanship.
 
Hat Details:  If you are uncomfortable submitting construction details for your hat, that's quite acceptable.   However, outer details--basic materials used--should be submitted with your hat for description purposes.
. 
Where to Store Images?  I have created a group, Hatstruck Couture Millinery, on Facebook where  the images will be stored.  If you are not a Facebook member, please email the images to me at lduncan@hatstruck.com and I will post the images for you; however I would prefer that you post them to the group.

Note the image to your right, there are two references to photos.  Please note the correct location CIRCLED IN RED where you should store your images.

The "Photos" heading circled in the image, at the top of the Facebook Hatstruck Couture Millinery group page is the correct location to post your images. 

Click on "Photos" and create an album for your images.  Label your album as follows:

Hatstruck Couture Millinery 2014
Elegant, Fun Couture Millinery Competition

Your Name,

The Name of Your Hat (if any)

Hat Description

Have Fun!

Hatstruck Couture Millinery, Millinery Competition--Elegant, Fun Couture Hats, 2014

OK, I'm back.  In my last post I mentioned that I was going to conduct a millinery competition.  I must admit that all of the details have not been finalized, but the important thing is that there will be a competition and that there will be winners and fantastic prizes, most of the junk, sorry I mean prizes will be things that many milliners would love to have.  I'm just over flowing and I've decided to do a self intervention; I'm sure this will end when something else strikes my fancy.  Since I'm trying to generate some excitement around here, at least for a second, this will not be your conventional contest.  I hope you've noticed that I'm not a very conventional person.  This is my fantasy competition, except that you can't erase individual likes and dislikes, something that, no matter what, is still a part of decision making.

I couldn't post without a hat, and I didn't want to go into my hat archive, so I've started making the hat at your right.  It has not been completed yet, but I'll write more about it in another post.  Now to the competition stuff.

The Theme:  Elegant, Fun Couture Hats
Please, this is serious.  Only submit serious hats.  I have a board on Pinterest labeled "Millinery:  Fun Couture Hats.  There I pin hats that I feel are fun and unique and/or hats that I study and learn from, as I do on all of my boards.  Your idea of a fun couture hat may be different.  Please take a look.

Competition Dates:  June 5 to August 15, 2014
The deadline to submit your hats is 12:00 a.m., Pacific Standard Time--the States' West Coast--August 15, 2014.

Number of Hats to Submit
You are only allowed to submit one hat.  I feel that the load of more than one hat is just too much for the judges to deal with, at least for me that is.  Sorry, but at least you can make that one hat your best hat ever.

•  The hat must be made between June 5 and August 15 (like I can monitor that :) )

The Prizes
The prizes will consist of a variety of millinery supplies (straws, felts, hat stretchers, trim, etc.), an ugly, sorry, I mean a lovely five piece sectional hat block, books, etc., and a little cash if I have any, seriously, if I have any.

Distribution of Prizes
The Best in Competition will choose the prize of her/his choice first.  The Second in Competition will choose her/his choice second.  Prizes for the remaining winners will be written on paper and pulled from a bucket.  I said I was unconventional, didn't I?  One time I won the highest place in a competition, but I would have loved to have received the second place prize.  Also, I once won at a lower level but I felt that the prize I received was better; so, why not let the highest winners pick the prizes of their choice.

The Judges and Judging--To Be Announced at Later Date
There will be from three to five judges; I will be one of them.  Why three to five?  Because I'm biased as to what I like, and I really would like to have judges of varying tastes.  A score card will be distributed to the judges, and each category can be given a one to 10 rating, with workmanship weighted to two.  So it would be possible to get a score of 10 in each category, except in workmanship with a possible rating of up to 20.

• Categories:  Workmanship, Originality, Balance (overall appearance), Color (remember that color means more than bright vibrant colors), Presentation, Theme Appropriateness; and standing on it's own, Judge's Choice.

The winners will be those having the highest scores.  If there is a tie between highest scorers, those will be sent back to the judges for further consideration.  Hopefully, with a range of one to ten and two to 20, this will not occur.  Winners will only be chosen based on their scores, ALL SCORING BEING INDEPENDENT.  So, the total highest score after all categories have been added up, will yield the winners.


Winning Categories (Tentative--I may have to work on this.)
 Best in Competition, Second in Competition, Most Innovative, Most Representative of Theme, Workmanship (weighted--this must be high in order to win Best in Competition), Best Overall Design, Individual Judge's Choice (three to five--OH YES!).  I was in a competition once, having three judges, where two judges chose my hat and one felt that another should win Best in Show.  One of the judges kept moving the award from my hat until the other two judges gave in.  Another time one of three judges said that he preferred my hat.  This happens all the times with others.  So this is a chance for each judge to pick her/his choice.


You must be a follower of this site and you must live on this planet; so yes all are welcome to submit a hat no matter where you live in the world.  If you decide to unfollow this site, that is totally up to you.  However, I would love for you to stick around.

You must submit at least four views of your hat and the images must be clear--front, back, side, and underside--unless the design of the hat does not call for four.

Hat Details

If you are uncomfortable submitting construction details for your hat, that's quite acceptable.   However, outer details--fabric used--should be submitted with your hat for description purposes (for example, my hat above:  Feather cocktail hat, supported with vintage crinoline (crin) tubing and headband, trimmed with a red feather--or something like that.

Where to Store Images?
I have created a group, Hatstruck Couture Millinery, on Facebook where most of the images will be stored.  If you are not a FB member, please email the images to me at
lduncan@hatstruck.com; however I would prefer that you post them to the group.

Note on the image to your right that there are two references to photos.  The "Photos" circled in the image is the correct location to post your images.  Click on "Photos" and create an album for your images.  Label your album as follows:

Hatstruck Couture Millinery 2014
Elegant, Fun Couture Millinery Competition," YourNameHere
HatMaterialsHere (outer covering--see above under Hat Details for an explanation).  If these instructions are not clear please leave me a comment on this post.

A Suggestion for Newbies
I figure that all of us are at different levels in our millinery journey.  Some may not possess the workmanship skills, but may have great design skills, or they may be very innovative.  I would love for all to be comfortable submitting a hat.  I must admit that I have a thing for workmanship.  However, in the real world innovation and design may many times win out; actually they are extremely important because workmanship can be mechanical.  But in order to win the Best in Competition, workmanship must be in place.  So if you are new to millinery I would suggest that you don't tackle something that is beyond your skill level.  It would still be possible to make an absolutely beautiful hat, well designed and neat, and still win the big prize, provided that you stick to this suggestion.   Also, I have a another Pinterest board, Millinery: How Other Milliners and Hatters Do It, where I pin many millinery techniques that I find on the Web, some are merely references for my followers, as I don't always agree with some of the techniques and/or workmanship, but you will also find some good things there.  Do some research and practice. 

Good Luck!  I'm sure I will have to revise some of this stuff.

Hatstruck Couture Millinery Brainstorming a Possible Millinery Contest

I've had two site contest giveaways and one sort of silent giveaway.  However, I've never had a millinery contest.  The "sort of" was to be a "silent" giveaway where I was going to do a giveaway to the next person that made a comment on my blog, but the person never picked up the gift (contacted me).  I didn't want to go through having to check all of the memberships; so, without announcement, I tried to go the silent route, unannounced.  I don't even remember the winner's name.  I'll try that again in the future because it did cut down on the work, and eventually there will be a winner that picks up her/his gift.  The first and second images here show the gifts I gave away for my two announced giveaways.

Anyway I need to generate some excitement around here.  In order to keep doing this thing I have to keep myself entertained.  So I thought, "What about a millinery contest?"  I have no idea of its structure yet, but I'm thinking the following:

• Participants have to be a blog member; 
•  Three judges having varying tastes--HINT, HINT, are you interested?;
•  Winning categories, maybe:  (1) Most Innovative; (2) Most Representative of Theme; (3) Workmanship, (4) Best in Contest;
• Prizes:  a box of goodies from me.  I give pretty good gifts, even if I have to say so myself.  My gift box would include, but would not be limited to; straws, leather and suede pieces, jinsin, fur felt, horsehair, hat stretcher, etc.  I would also welcome sponsors--HINT, HINT--in order to give away even more goodies; and
• Other prizes would probably include a little cash or less millinery supplies.

I just figured out that I would drop the second and third places and award gifts only to the winning categories.  Oh, I changed again:  Best in Contest, being also first place and there would be a second place--who knows at this point.  The Best in Contest would be the highest winner, picking up the majority of the category places, one having to be workmanship. 

I figure that all of us are at different levels in our millinery journey.  Some may not possess the workmanship skills, but may have great design (maybe another category) skills, or they may be very innovative.  I would love for all to be comfortable submitting a hat.  I must admit that I have a thing for workmanship.  However, in the real world innovation and design many times win out.  But I have to restate that in order to win the Best in Contest, workmanship has to be in place; this I will definitely not change!.


What do you think?

#Hatstruck #millinery

Google Reader is Going Away! Plus, How I Practice Sewing Straw Braid

Follow My Blog With Bloglovin

Yes, the Google Reader is going away tomorrow, July 1; so if you enjoy reading my blog and use Google Reader for your blog feeds, please follow me on Bloglovin to continue receiving them. 

How I Practice Sewing Straw Braid

The image to your left gives you a glimpse into how I practice sewing straw braid.  Yes I practice, still I practice.  As a matter of fact, I practice (play) more than I actually produce anything.  I call it meditation.

So how does this meditative process start.  I start from scratch.  What I mean is that I screw up the tension (there are two), the presser foot adjustment, the position of the thread (small or large spools); type of thread, and just about everything else I can destroy.  The result, I always wonder why I would do such a thing.  But I learn so much.  A funny thing about learning is that we are always rewarded by the amount of effort we put into learning something.

Since braid is expensive, I make small hats.  I use a thread color that enables me to see and study the stitching.  You know what, sometimes I don't remember what I did to achieve a result, except for that time my finger wanted to incorporate itself into the design, OOOOOSH!  But not really forget because practice is imprinted on our brain, not another person's practice but our own individual practice and exploration. No matter how much public domain (free information) we come across, nothing will impact us more than our own efforts.

If you enlarge the image above, top left, it's easy to see the results of my play.  Notice the spacing of the braid.  What you may not see is the skipped stitches from over/under adjusting the tension and/or varying the pressure foot adjustments.  In the end, things always work out.

Oh, finally, how do you find techniques to practice, by observing others' work, especially the work you like.  If you can't do something, practice until you can.  But remember, when you design your own hat, design your own and don't copy another person's design.

Millinery Classes: Call for Serious Inquiries

Hi all, below is the message I left on my Facebook page concerning possible future classes in July and/or August.  Please only contact me if you know you will do this. I have a vast range of millinery skills that I have acquired over almost 30 years.  I do not enjoy giving "drive-by" classes in which a student walks away with the same skill level he/she walked in with--been there, done that.  You need feedback on your work giving over a period of time, especially beginners!  Location:  Torrance, California, Los Angeles County, good old sunny Southern California!

The hat to your left was constructed using a hand blocked parisisal straw hood and hand-sculptured sewn straw braid for the crown.  The brim was constructed of vintage four-inch straw braid, hand sewn (each row separate, not spiral), and wired and hand weaved where straw is joined at back. 

"I get many class inquiries through my email address and one ever once in a while on the Hatstruck Class site; many times these inquires are just that.  If you are serious about taking a class, I will consider giving one or more in July and/or August.  I don't have a regular schedule because I'm retired from my regular job, and I will never have a full-time job again, no matter how much I love it. 

In order to weed out those wanting to know how much it costs (too expensive I'm told), the cost will be between $180 and $245 (more for machine sewn straw, $575)--two, four hour days, preferably Saturday and Sunday, unless the class does not call for a break ($55 nonrefundable fee for cancellations within a week). 

I will consider doing semi-private couture classes, as my place is small, and I will not do drive-by couture classes for beginners; you will have to do the time--two hours each visit (same price) so that you will have a chance to bring your work back for critique.  I refuse to let you leave if your work looks worse than mine :)

So, if you are in Southern California or would like to travel to take a class, and you are serious, please let me know the class you are interested in taking and I will pool the class depending on what type of class the majority wants to take.  For me, because I do not have a studio, classes are expensive to pull off and I personally don't like hauling so many supplies around [but I will for these group classes if there are enough students], only send an email or message me if you are doing so to commit to a class.  Thanks"