Hatwork

[kate_schaefer]

Blood Red Roses Hat #1, photograph by Luke McGuff

I've been making hats for a few years now, with increasing seriousness, insofar as one can be serious about something as frivolous as cocktail hats. In the past year, my forays into seriousness have included:

• getting a minimal but elegant website online
• getting a business license
• attempting to sell hats at a house show last December (I sold no hats at that event, but I did sell quite a few scarves and evening wraps)
• committing to show at the same house this coming December
• sending the sales tax I collected to the state
• being on panels at Potlatch and Wiscon about our art and the science and process behind said art with Laurie Toby Edison and Elise Matthesen
• taking orders for two custom hats which I have still to complete but which I have finally begun
• attending hat camp
• joining the Millinery Artisan Guild
• taking an order for one custom hat which I made and delivered within three weeks of the initial query
• offering to make a headdress for my niece's upcoming wedding
• volunteering to make a hat for the Interstitial Arts Foundation's online auction
• getting my hats professionally photographed so I can replace the pictures on the website with more impressive ones (thanks, Luke)

Next up: finishing some more hats and selling them.

(Edited on request to add linkage.)