An Inspired Calamity

As I leaned away from hatmaking at the end of 2022, I received a request for a tea cozy. But the request wasn’t for ‘just any tea cozy”… T.N. wanted a handcrafted cozy to compliment her CalamityWare.

So my next commission began. My first step was to study this specific pattern and draw elements from it. I wanted to create a piece that was inspired by, rather than a copy of, the work of Don Moyer (the creator of CalamityWare). I turned to my Chinese art reference library, where I discovered that many of the elements in the “Things Could Be Worse” series were taken from those found in classical Chinese gardens. Typically, a pagoda, a bridge, a willow tree and other plants which were stylized for both the original CalamityWare and the project it inspired.

The first panel that I designed featured a pagoda that sits on the shore of a lotus pond in Hebei province. I chose this pagoda because it would allow me to do some dimensional applique. I patterned the bridge after the Jade Girdle Bridge on Kumming Lake near Beijing. I am compelled to sneak in historical references into nearly everything I do…

Granada Shopcat assisted with the storyboards that I used to position the major elements. Storyboarding was also helpful in making the landscape continuous around the entire cozy.

The work begins. The roof of this pagoda was a blue herringbone wool, though I was only able to get the lower center roof panel to ‘stick out’ dimensionally from the background material. The fence is two layers of wool that I fused together and accordion pleated to achieve the dimension you see here. Metal studs form the detail on the fence panels.

The foo-dog and the carp are my own additions. The figure on the bridge is a Mandarin in robe and winged scholar’s hat, but he came out looking more like a beagle, so I added a snout. Each flying monkey is unique in detailing and wearing a red fez because I ran out of shades of blue.

You can see the texture of the embroidery here, as the second panel hangs in my window:

The first two panels are complete.

The next two panels would be slightly less detailed versions of the first two. A Mandarin Duck points towards a swarm of flying monkeys depicted on the other side of the cozy. This little character was particularly fun, because I found a square sequin to use as his mandarin patch. And of course, he’s wearing a Lao Hat.

I now realize I have made a critical miscalculation in my design, and find that the fourth panel will make a cozy big enough to house a Dutch Oven. So I reconfigure the embroidery to make the scene flow over three panels instead of four, and line the three completed panels with insulated grocery delivery bags. I turn to designing the pagoda roof. The paper prototype only took me 3 tries, which was pretty good.

I cut the roof from a yoga mat because it simulated the texture of tile work. T.N. had requested that I include Chinese blue porcelain beads for detailing, but I didn’t factor in the weight of the beads along the roof ridges, which crushed the body of the cozy. So I built little wire rafters that extend to all the way to the base of the cozy (which is also wired to keep the round shape). My theory was that it would support the roof and keep the embroidered panels from buckling. I also discover that the wired ridges contorted the roof into a somewhat Dr. Seuss-like attitude. So I just went with it.

At this point, I received a gift in the mail from T.N. – my very own set of CalamityWare bowls! Shown here is the completed tea cozy with its handle made from found objects, and bells and beads suspended from the roof rafters. The collection made for a fun photo shoot.

I always photograph my work before I ship it. After over an hour of looking for the gizmo I had purchased to secure my smartphone to my tripod, I gave up and took these shots on my regular camera. I also took a video but it is sideways so I won’t post that unless I can figure out how to correct the orientation. The finished cozy was of a size that required me to build a box to ship it in. But ultimately this one-of-a-kind piece went out, months later, to a very happy and patient customer.

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