Jarmila Cechova – Czech Republic

Sea waves

Description

When I found out that this year’s theme is EQUILIBRIUM, I knew that I had to participate. Because the millinery profession is all about the balance for me. Making the hats and headpieces is considered as an anachronistic job. Some people think that hats belong to the past or maybe on the heads of the Royals. We are using the traditional techniques which are hundreds of years old. On the other hand we are trying to create something timeless for modern women and men. So this is about equilibrium between old and new.

I often make hats for extraordinary life moments like baptisms, weddings, anniversaries and I would like to decorate them a lot, because I have feeling that this events are worth of that. But I know, that I have to find balance between looking over decorated and looking austere. So this is equilibrium between kitsch and something boring.

For this competition I’ve decided to find inspiration in nature. Because our natural environment is based on stability and harmony. I tried to grasp the forces in the sea, where the waves are fighting against each other but together they are part of something immense. So I made this hat stitching every single strip of straw individually to find the right equilibrium between height and width, between gravitation and something boisterous. Like the equilibrium in the sea.

Materials

• straw base
• sewing material
• metal headband
• ribbon (for wraping the headband)

Techniques

• hand sewing
• blocking
• gluing (the ribbon on the headband)