Another hugely successful Sunday Session was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended. Juliane Gorman who recently moved to Dublin from America delighted us with her hat demonstration. Juliane makes hats, lots of them. Every colour and whimsical shape under the sun. The word whimsical certainly sums up her creative array of samples she brought for us to see and try on. 

Juliane described to us how the different methods of laying out the fibres affected the final shape of each hat and doesn’t even use hat blocks! There’s grid laying, bullseye laying and circular clockwise and anti clockwise laying. Each hat generally has four layers with each layer a different colour. Though she admitted that is purely for her to keep track with which layer she’s working on in case she gets distracted. You know the usual – collecting kids, putting on a wash, collecting kids, putting on a wash, collecting ……

Juliane brought 2 unfinished berets to show the various stages of her process. One was half laid out the other pre felted and ready for final felting. Both were huge, approx 45-50 cm diameter

The kettle was boiled,  the water sprayed and the rolling began. We, at the back of the room were amazed at how gently she was rolling and still it shrank beautifully.

The second piece needed another layer of fibre and the “ icing “ layer as Juliane calls it. That’s the decorating part. The nice bit! But we ran out of time to see it completed. 

To conclude, everyone was so inspired that it was agreed that we’d love to do a hands on workshop. So whether Juliane knows it or not we’ll be booking her in for the autumn! 

Thanks Juliane for a great morning.