Sarah Dawnay – England

Wake up and smell the roses

Description

Equilibrium

A state of rest or balance due to the equal action of opposing forces.

My inspiration is mental health and depression, but with a message of hope. There is always hope, the sun will come up and there will be roses.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”
― Alphonse Karr

The hat balances in equilibrium, it sits on the wearers head perfectly. The tilt of the teardrop is counterbalanced by the weight of the roses, and stabilised by an invisible base made from the same colours as the underside of the saucer. I was only satisfied with the balance when the hat sat comfortably without any additional attachment.

The first thing you notice is the painting of the sunrise. The sun coming up after a dark night.

The midnight blue that hangs down represents the night and the depth of depression, but nestling barely visible amongst the layers is gold leaf lettering spelling out ‘hope.’

Above this the golden sun (represented by gold leather) is dawning with beautiful orange and pink tones, enhanced by the lurex threads in the sinamay.

The cascading and fanned layers of teardrops are carefully painted so the colours seamlessly phase from the graduated sunrise shades lurex sinamay to the contrast of the plain navy and pink of the underside, invisibly stitched to give a stark line between the light and dark. The tips of the teardrops are individually shaped to emphasise the fan, giving the hat the more dreamlike quality of the mental realms.

Equilibrium requires two opposing forces, the hat has a tonal balance between with light and dark, textural contrast between the sinamay and the smooth gold leather and not forgetting the thorns amidst the roses.

Materials

• Sinamay: Pink, navy and gold lurex ecru
• PVA based straw stiffener
• Silk to back the sinamay for the French style roses
• Fine gold leather
• Stripped ostrich feathers quills
• Spring wire for the base cap (firm to create a good base)
• Fine wire for the flower stamens
• Crystal beads for the flower stamens
• Light millinery wire for the brim to create the gentle fan (dyed to match with indelible pens).
• Rit powder dyes
• Hair band
• Needle and thread
• Clear glue (minimal)

Techniques

• The sunrise was painted on the sinamay, then three additional layers were painted to grade the colours.
• The navy and pink sinamay were sewn together.
• All the layers were blocked.
• The layers were shaped then the edges of two pieces were rolled and wired together making a total of three teardrop shapes.
• The gold leather sun was blocked to shape.
• A base disc of navy and pink was made and blocked, shaped, wired and edged with bias sinamay.
• The centre of the top layer was cut and the leather sun sewn in place.
• Four types of Sinamay Roses:
  – Sinamay backed with silk, individually painted cut and shaped then assembled around crystals on wires.
  – Bias sinamay dip dyed and rolled.
  – Plain sinamay semi circles were cut and doubled to create bias petals and assembled.
  – Small petals were double dip dyed to create small rose buds.
• The feather quills were curled and sinamay thorns curled and glued.
• The layers assembled then the flowers and thorns positioned and all sewn in place.
• The word ‘hope’ is written in gold leaf.