A Heaven In A Wild Flower

Shandana de la Rivière

United Kingdom

• Feather Peony Project by Amy Fowler (In particular the half filled flower images on page 11 of HATalk Issue 155.)

The negative space in the middle of Amy Fowler’s half filled peony on page 11 of HATalk Issue 155, gave rise to the idea of a flower that could open and close. Using that as a starting point, I started experimenting, creating a blooming flower with only card, paper and some strings. My aim was to contribute something truly innovative and meaningful to millinery. I delved into research in order to understand mechanical movements and structures, followed by some 3D modelling of a basic mechanism and design that I could show to experts in the field. This next phase included several Zoom and WhatsApp discussions with mechanical, mechatronics, and robotics engineers in my circle of family and friends, which led to engineering the final mechanism. At the same time, I was working digitally to come up with the right petal shape, weight, and size for my high tech flower. For the flower, I chose my signature materials - resins/polymers. Parallel to all this, I was also working on the hat base.

Before everything was put together, the construction was sent to Germany to have it programmed professionally. It was sent back with an Arduino board installed and an app that lets you control various settings on the phone. All finished off with strategic placement of poetry.

The end result is a symbiosis of multiple fields and skills such as engineering, robotics, programming, materials science, laser cutting, 3D printing, painting, sculpture, along with traditional millinery techniques like creating a custom hat block, stiffening and blocking fur felt, sewing wire, lining, and petersham ribbon.

The flower with a single row of petals with an LED light in the middle depicts the inspiration from the images mentioned before.

Best thing - the hat is very comfortable to wear.

• Fur Felt Peachbloom
• Custom print peachbloom polyester fabric for lining. The branches on the lining symbolises roots underneath the flower at the top of the hat base.
• Spring Wire
• Petersham Ribbon
• Metal
• Silicone
• Servo Motor
• Electronics
• Wood
• Batteries
• Arduino Board
• LED light
• Epoxy Resin
• PolyAspartic
• Mica Powder
• Holographic Pigments
• Vinyl
• UV Protection Glaze

• Carboard prototyping the opening and closing flower mechanism.
• 3D modelling of the design and mechanism in Fusion360
• More prototyping with clay, wood
• Constructing jig, levers, bearings etc, using a Dremel tool.
• Installing servo motors and soldering electronics
• Creating a custom hat block shape by modifying an existing button block, using, fabric, cling film, aluminium foil and Fossshape.
• Blocking fur felt.
• Sewing wire, lining, Petersham ribbon
• Painting
• Sculpting
• Have the mechanism programmed using an Arduino board (outsourced)
• Digital drawing of flower petals in Adobe Illustrator
• Laser cutting
• 3D printing
• Mouldmaking
• Epoxy resin and Polyaspartic casting