Emma Atherton – England

The Head and The Heart

Description

This hat represents the balance between the head and the heart and the difficulty we face to find our own equilibrium. I have used a mixture of literal heart blocks and free-flowing intertwining shapes to give the sense of this concept. I wanted to give the whole piece a feeling of just being balance, so when I was building the hat I let the shapes and pieces lead the way. I placed each piece and played around with the design until it stood by itself so it has found its own physical equilibrium, but still gives that ‘will it tip, won’t it’ feel to it.

I created a freeform base to bring the whole piece together in a fluid shape, this hat plays with geometry and fluidity bringing an almost-cartoony element to the design. I love using colour throughout my work and this hat was no exception. I used complementary colours as the mix of the coral and aqua when mixed, perfectly cancel each other out. As well as looking pretty and summery, it gives a bit of a mad-hatter vibe to the piece!

Overall I wanted to give a sense of perfectly balanced chaos, because this is a representation of my own battle between my head and my heart. Chaos is definitely my own personal equilibrium.

Materials

• Vintage Parasisal Straw
• Sinamay
• Metal Comb and Hat Elastic
• Covered Wire
• Petersham
• Sewing Materials

Techniques

• Hand blocking the parasisal straw using a wooden block, finishing with hand sewn wire and petersham ribbon
• Hand blocking sinamay shapes on a wooden block (the lid of a heart-shaped box)
• Freeforming a sinamay base, finishing with wire and a handmade sinamay bias binding
• Creating a mixture of rolled and folded sinamay shapes, these were then attached through hand sewing and wiring to build from the straw base up. These were placed until the hat was able to balance
• Finished with elastic and comb to keep in place