Elisabeth Koch – China

Category: Modern

Description

I love collecting things, never knowing what’s going to happen to them. Sometimes I’ll keep them for years before using them in a hat. I had these long stiff, but slightly bendable reeds for a very long time. When my floor fan broke, I kept the protective cover as it reminded me of a hat, but I stayed in my studio for a very long time indeed. Then I decided to “weave” the reeds through the holes in the fan cover. After trying a few ways, I decided on this one. I pushed the reeds through the fan holes, making sure they stick out evenly on all sides. The reeds were dyed black with ink in a striped fashion. I also painted the side of the plastic fan cover with permanent black paint and gold spray paint, in the same striped fashion. Happy with the look, I added elastic so that the wearer can keep the hat on their head with elastic going down at the back of the neck.

Materials

• natural reeds
• black ink
• gold spray paint
• black permanent paint
• a plastic cover of a fan
• elastic

Techniques

• blocking (wooden hat block)
• drawing the pattern
• cutting (metal ruler, scalpel)
• sewing by hand
• gluing