Top Hat Workshop

I will be conducting another hat making workshop at the de Young for their Friday Night event on March 13th. I did the same workshop last month and it was really fun. We used wallpaper sample sheets, buttons, ribbons and recycled produce netting. I got a lot of the supplies at SCRAP in San Francisco. Here are some images of my children in the top hat design.





































































The templates and instructions for this project are on my website.
http://www.okadadesign.com/workshop_4_top_hat.htm

Instructions and templates for the flower hat project I will also be teaching:
http://www.okadadesign.com/workshop_5_flowerhat.html

I hope to have a few more hat designs to post soon. Thinking about hats I was reminded of a paper bag hat assignment I created a few years back for elementary school students.

Below is my son in one of the sample hats I created for this project.

























This project was inspired by Outside artist Moses. Images of his work are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurareilly/2897171477/

Other people inspired by his work:
http://amarettogirl.squarespace.com/blog/2008/6/22/the-potential-of-a-brown-paper-bag.html

Hat workshop

On Friday I conducted a hat making workshop at the de Young Museum for their Friday Night event. It was really fun. We used paper from wallpaper sample books to create the hats. There were two versions and I have included here in this blog the templates. Free.

TOP HAT DESIGN:

de Young Museum Artist Reception

Here are a few pictures taken by Lori Paladino for my artist reception at the de Young. Sue Kwon was one of the announcers.

Festival Hats Tapestry (in progress)

My family helps me unwrap some crack seed wrappers for my tapestries. Later, they will help me eat them, too. Most of my wrappers come in the mail from family in Hawaii. The produce netting I use come from friends and family all over. My dad picks up old rice bags in Hawaii when he comes across them and I have friends who bring back flour bags from the Philippines.
























(In progress piece above)

This piece pays homage to the issei (first generation immigrant) Japanese sugar plantation workers of Hawaii. The background pattern is abstracted from plantation work clothes worn by women. I find it inspiring that despite the harsh conditions and their being impersonally identified by a numbered brass disc (bango), the women had the creative energy to express their individual style. On many plantations distinct work clothes emerged: unique hat styles, vairations on sashes, variations on aprons and leggings. The types of fabric used showed a blending of the West and East and a mixing of ideas from other cultures on the plantations.

Sketch of completed piece.
























Hats formed over trash can lid.

More Ginko hats

Here are more of the Ginko Tapestry hats for the de Young Museum Residency.
One of my older hats will be used in a fashion photo shoot this Saturday for a hat calendar for The Asian American Cancer Support Network. The fashion photographer, Tony Maesto, is wonderful and I can't wait to see the images he takes.
http://www.tonymaesto.com/
http://www.aacsn.org/

This Ginko leaf hat is the largest one. It is made of Chinese and Japanese food wrappers, silk, produce netting and Chinese knots (I am learning these knots from a book Stacie Tamaki lent to me. Thanks Stacie!)



























This is the back view of the Large Ginko Leaf Hat. The wires and elastic band will be hidden under hair.
























Here is a medium sized ginko leaf hat.























Here is the smallest ginko leaf hat. It will fit my four year old perfectly.

Ginko Hats

Here is one of the hats for the Ginko Tapestry. I am making three of these in varying sizes.
This is one of the smaller Ginko hats worn by one of my friend's daughter. These hats are made of Chinese preserved plum wrappers, Japanese candy wrappers, silks from Colleen Quen and Chinese knots which I am learning to tie. The hat has an elastic band that slips under the hair to hold in place.

Additional Tapestry designs

Today I worked on these additional tapestry concept designs as well as the list of hats that will separate off of them.



















This above piece is inspired by the bridal butterfly obi tie and the swoops of forms in the gardens.

























This piece above is inspired by an abstract butterfly wing textile in the de Young online collection as well as by hanagasa hair ornaments.

















































This tapestry is inspired by ferns at the de Young, by a textile in de Young online collection as well as by Japanese festival and work hats. I haven't refined completely the hat designs here. Inserted reference fern image above is titled "Tuck and Roll" by Jenna Louise
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennalouise/1474631194/in/set-72157600048717956/





























Here are the cocktail hats that will pull off from the tapestries. 16 in all.
The hat sketch below may be one of the designs used in the round hat tapestry.

Cocktail Hats

I have started creating some new over the top cocktail hats. Here is one that I will incorporate into my Artist in Residence exhibit at the de Young Museum in December as well as use in the fashion show I will be having there with Colleen Quen in January 2009 for the opening of their Friday Night events. This butterfly hat was created with wire, Chinese Chan Pui Mui wrappers, silk remnants from Colleen Quen, crystals, pearls, and mini shoyu bottles.



















Detail of Butterfly Cocktail hat















Emily wanted to get into the pictures, too! Next time maybe I'll let her wear one, but I was in a rush to get this piece documented and move onto my tapestry pieces.