A little bit of press

Looks like I got a little bit of press from the blog Artisans Examiner

Rain, Rain, Rain

It seems like we're never going to see the sun here in Massachusetts again. It ended up pouring on the Sunday of DeCordova's "Art in the Park," even still, people turned out—that's how good the event is. We had some times where the rain would let up a bit but it was a mostly soggy day. Still, I did well. It was so nice to be back helping people with hats. Next to making the hats it's my favorite part of the whole process. I like people. If the jury votes me in again, you'll find me at Art in the Park next year.

Here's a picture of one of my new clients. I have her mother's permission to post her photos. She ended up with the pigtail hat, but was kind enough to model a couple of others for me. Thank you little Miss T.

Denishé at Art in the Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts

This weekend you can find me at the DeCordova Museum's Art-in-the-Park event in Lincoln, Massachusetts. It looks like the weather might cooperate this year. Last year it was a sunny, breeze-less, one-hundred degree day. This is a great event with live music, loads of artists, and lots of crafts for the kiddies—all within the setting of a sculpture park.

I always give a 10% discount if you come to a show wearing one of my hats. This year I'm going to give a 10% discount to people who have read this blog posting. The secret password/phrase will be: "Denise, I'll look good in one of your hats!" This should be said with great enthusiasm, so practice before you get to me. Be warned that if you say it with honest-to-goodness, genuine enthusiasm, I might just hug you.

I've been working like mad whenever my daughter is napping, and I have to say that the pressure of time has actually been really good for me—I don't have time to fool around. I've been more focused, I'm getting much better at working on multiple hats, and I'm figuring out where I'm spending too much time dawdling unnecessarily.

I do hope you'll come out to see me this weekend. Oh, and I promise that I'll get my Web site updated before the summer is through—I probably have more than a hundred hats that haven't been posted yet. What a slacker!


I'm including a couple of photos from the collection of hats I'll be taking with me. They're hardly representative of the breadth of styles of hats that I make, but at least you get a taste.

Mother's Day Commission: Part II

Here is the finished product. This is not the kind of hat I usually make, so it was an interesting project. I can already see the influence it's having on my other work. I love that.

I hope she loves the hat and I hope she has a wonderful Mother's Day. I wish the same to all you mothers out there.

Memere's Hat

My Mother-in-law needs a hat for an event that she's attending. We're sending her this hat along with a pair of vintage gloves. My daughter was willing to be a model.

A Mother's Day Commission: part I

A past customer recently contacted me asking if I would make a hat for her mother. We had been talked about it in the past, but the time had finally come to make it happen. So here's another commission from the Denishé studio.

I was sent examples of the kind of hat Mom would want, and since she already owns a Denishé hat in a shape that she likes, we started from that point. This hat will be bucket-shaped natural/cream-colored parisisal straw and will be trimmed in light blue.

I'm including a sketch, though sketches are vague enough that it can be hard to get the idea. The embellishment is on the side of the hat, so the sketch is profile.

I find that I've been enjoying doing the commissions. I learn something new each time.

A Hat in Bloom: Part II—the finished product

Well the hat is done and has been sent off to await its debut at the garden party. Sources tell me that my client "absolutely loves it." Somehow, positive feedback is more rewarding than the paycheck at the end of the day.

I've said it before and I'll say it again—she's a dream client. They tell me what she's wearing, sometimes send me the dress, and then ask me to make something I think would be appropriate. It is so nice to be given the freedom to create. For any of you fellow artists, I wish you similar clients.

Adelaide Blossom

I made this flower hat for Adelaide back in December. It's just fitting her now, but that's fine—it was a lot of hat for her when she was smaller. And though spring is here, there's still a bit of a chill, so she'll get some good use out of it. Hopefully she'll love hats as much as I do.

A Hat in Bloom: Part I

I know that my postings have been spotty. Being a new mother is amazingly difficult. I guess I knew that before, but there's a difference between knowing and understanding, it and feeling it.

Getting to the studio has been difficult—I've already mentioned that in an older posting. But I have been getting in once in a while. Not as often as I'd like, but at least it's something.

These past few weeks I've been working on a commissioned hat for a Boston garden party. I was shown the dress and asked to come up with something appropriate for it. I'm including the sketch. Hopefully it will be just what my client wants.

So far the hat is in pieces at my studio. It has a buckram foundation, covered in straw, with parisisol and sinamay embellishments.

I'll post again with the finished hat. Let me know what you think—even criticism and suggestions are welcome.

Such a Slacker

I am such a slacker. It's true. I was just looking through the archives of my hats and came across three folders of hats that haven't been posted to my Web site. It's important to keep the site up to date—I know that, but I've discovered that it's just so easy to let them build up. I'm going to try to be better about it. First I have to get these images ready to go to my Web guy.

In the meantime, here are a few of the hats that I found.

Saudades

Saudades is a Portuguese word that people say is difficult to translate. It's like "longing" and at the same time remembering fondly. That's what I'm feeling these past few days. A couple of days ago I was showing some photographs of hats to a relative, and as I went through each photo I remembered each hat with the fondness one reserves for old friends.

It's been more than three months since I've been able to get into the studio. Having a daughter seems to be the greatest joy of my life, but I do miss all that silly little headwear that I was making. Hopefully I'll get back to work soon. Once I can figure out my daughter's sleep schedule I'm sure it will get a lot easier.

I leave you with a few of the pictures that had me paining for my needles and thread.

The ArtSpace Holiday Sale

This year's holiday sale at ArtSpace Maynard has come and gone. I decided to participate in it even though it was happening only five weeks after my c-section. It certainly was hard work and my back and abdomen were sore after the three days. Fortunately my Mother and a couple of friends came at different times to help me out and cover for me while I was nursing. The baby was there with me for some of the time while Dad tried to catch up on his own work. Here are a couple pictures from the sale.

Unfortunately, I didn't sell as much as I would have liked. I could blame it on the economy, but I won't. I had been on bed rest for a while before the show—I just hadn't had a chance to make the hats that I know people would have wanted. I sold enough, though.

My Favorite Hat Wearer

I don't care how she wears her hat, this little girl is my absolute favorite!

Please allow me to introduce my sweet little daughter, Adelaide. She was born on November 1st and weighed in at 5lbs, 5.2 oz.—so little. We're all doing really well on this end, but the new scheduling takes some getting used to.

She's already three weeks old. I wanted to tell you all about her sooner, but her decision to eat every three hours has kept me a little busy. It's amazing how I took my free time for granted. Seems that the simplest things take forever to get done.

She seems to be growing so much from day to day—I figured I'd grab this picture while I still could. It would have been amazing to see how easily she fit in the hat three weeks ago.

People say, "Oh, she's going to have the best hats!" The pressure is on! Hopefully I can get back to the studio soon and get to making her something special for that cute little noggin of hers.

A Hat for a Good Witch

I've mentioned in a couple of other postings that I have a client who commissions me to make hats for her. A few weeks back she asked me to make a witch hat for her Halloween costume. As usual, she was the perfect client—she gave me a few small guidelines and told me to do my stuff. I love that.

I was put on bed rest by my obstetrician, so I made the hat while laying on my living room floor. There were millinery supplies everywhere!

Here's a picture of the hat. Sorry that it's not the best quality—I couldn't get to the studio for a better picture.

ArtSpace Open Studios

This weekend is ArtSpace Maynard's annual open studio event. Come on by and see me, my hats, and the Denishé studio.

Unfortunately for me, my doctors have put me on bed rest. So I won't be able to help as much as I'd like to with the hats. Since I don't want to miss Open Studios, I will be sort of lounging in my studio. I will have two lovely assistants there to help me out, though.

There are about 75 artists in the building—lots of art to see. Come visit if you can.

I'm including an image of a hat that I'll be showing at the studio. Come try it on.

True in Blue

I want you to picture this woman wearing her mini top hat in grocery stores in Thailand—that's what she said she would do when she bought it last year before heading off for a year of studying abroad.

Mellington is no small character and if you meet her you'll never forget her. So I was pleased when she got in touch with me last year and was interested in buying a hat. She made stopping at my studio one of her things to do as she headed eastward from Olympia, WA.

Mellington's an artist, too. She's a metalsmith. You can see some of her work on her Web site, but please know that she's been slacking off while she's been traveling and the site is in need of update.

I love it when people really wear their hats. Mellington looks like she belongs in this, don't you think? She puts it on and it becomes part of her.

A Munchkin in a Hat

Well, Levi (my friends'Sara and Doug's baby) got his hat and it fit perfectly. It fit so well in fact, that I think I'm going to have to stretch it a little bit by the time the cold weather comes around. I certainly don't mind that. He looks so cute that it kills me. He's about three months old now.

Thanks for the pictures, Levi. The camera loves you!

Black Cocktail Hat

Okay, so things have slowed down in the Denishé studio, but I'm working hard to get back on track. I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a black cocktail hat. Here's a picture of it. These things always look better on real people, so I hate having to show you a hat on this dummy, but it's easier.

Yes, I still make hats

It's been hard getting back to work. My growing abdomen is a
major distraction. There's lots of nesting going on at our house,
which is making life feel a little chaotic. But my darling husband
is working hard at minimizing my physical and emotional distres,
good guy that he is.

I decided that I just needed to make something to get
me back in the swing of things. And I'm very practical
and goal-oriented, so I wanted whatever I made to
have a destination. A good friend of mine just had
a baby in June, so I decided I'd make him a hand-
felted hat for the fall. I ended up making a couple
because baby heads are tricky little things—some
babies have huge heads and others are so tiny.
And baby's are tough for other reasons—they spend
a lot of time on their backs and they'll just pull things off their heads. So, as I said, I made a couple of hats and I'll probably have a fitting with him.


Other than that, I picked up an old, unfinished project. A black
disk hat—very feminine. It has a bright pink lining and a big black
bow on its surface. Today I'm also going to be applying some long
black stripped quills. It's the kind of hat I'd want to keep, but
that's just not right.

So it looks like I'll be back in the groove soon. Keep your fingers
crossed or something.

My Latest Creation

A few months back my husband and
I got a little surprise. I've waited until the first trimester was
over and all the family were told before posting. Yup, I'm pregnant!
Of course, some of you already know that. Still, I thought it would
be good to let you know what's keeping Denishé hats so busy—and
not with hats. We've had doctor's appointments and ultrasounds and
we've been traveling around trying to tell as many people in person
as possible.

I've got the summer to make hats and grow my belly. My next show will
be Open Studios here at ArtSpace Maynard on October 4th and 5th.
That will probably be my last show for 2008. The baby is due in
November, and as I have some back problems I'll probably have to
take it easy toward the end there. Not sure what will happen in
the spring—I figured I'd play it by ear and see how I'm taking to
this mothering thing. ;-)

Here are the FAQs on the baby thing: We're not finding out the baby's
gender. We don't have any names picked out. When we do come up with a
name we probably won't make it public—everybody's got an opinion and
someone is bound to hate what we choose. People are welcome to send us
name ideas. The baby is due Nov. 20th. Yes, I'll probably end up making
more kid and baby hats as a result of this.

I hope you're having a good summer and wearing lots of straw hats.