First Works of 2021

And so a New Year begins, feeling very much like the old year. But hope springs eternal that vaccines will be available soon, and we will leave our collective pandemic isolation behind us soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve been slower at hat making than usual, which I chalk up to winter doldrums and, well, you know, pretty much everything else that’s been going on. Here are some custom orders I’ve shipped out over the last few weeks.

February marks twelve years since I first started traveling, and bringing home the designs that have inspired many of my hats. In the absence of new travel, I started releasing my travel journals as Director’s Cuts, updated with extended text and additional (and larger) photos. You can read about my first intercontinental trip – Venice during Carnival – at my “Italy” page at Daveno Travels. That trip inspired the blue silk hat in the top right corner of this hat gallery; it remains one of my most popular offerngs.

My mail today included a gift from a friend … a hand sewn, hand embroidered chatelaine to corral my sewing tools and keep them handy (literally!). Dayna titled it “Homage to My Hatter” and it is a thing of beauty as well as utility. She chose the color palette inspired by a photo of me in the Sahara. The phoenix and carp have symbolic meaning for me, and she put three clouds between the two animals so my head would always be in the clouds. On the inside is a special inscription – a moniker given to me by a customer whose kuffe I reconstructed after his dog destroyed it.

Thank You Dayna! This is the face of one very happy hatmaker!