Renaissance Center offers 2-day hat making workshop

Release Date: 1/27/2005. Expired: 3/18/2005

Jan Wutkowski keeps the art of hat-making alive through classes and workshops all over the United States. She became hooked on the craft in 1995 while living in Australia and studied hat making at the Melbourne School of Millinery.

“My hats represent the finest in handcrafted millinery, based on old-world techniques all but lost since the 1960s,” Wutkowski says. “A desire to pass on these techniques influenced me to answer the call from those interested in learning the intricate skills needed to make handmade hats.”

Wutkowski returns to The Renaissance Center in Dickson March 18-19 for a two-day workshop focusing on blocking and free-forming hats using sinamay and silk straw. The number of participants is limited to allow more individual instruction and slots are filling up quickly. The workshop will be 9 a.m.-4 p.m. both days and tuition is $165.

“Jan’s previous workshop at The Renaissance Center proved to be very popular and filled up well in advance,” said Bob Kucher, senior director of Visual Arts. “We expect this workshop will be no different and urge anyone who is interested to register quickly.”

Wutkowski’s June 2004 workshop in Dickson dealt with fabric-covered buckram and sewn braid millinery and drew people interested in making their own hats as well as some who work in theatrical costuming.

In the 2005 workshop, exotic yet easy-to-manipulate millinery materials will be used with a variety of demonstrated skills. The material can be blocked on a hatblock for a more traditional shape, or styled free form by hand for more artistic and abstract shapes.

Sinamay is made of 100 percent abaca fiber, making it easily moldable and shapeable, according to Wutkowski. It can be dyed for many color options and is a very popular material for making hats.

Silk straw is made of 100 percent raw silk on the weft and 100 percent abaca fiber on the waft, she explained. The cloth is very evenly and tightly woven and is soft and luxurious to the touch, as well as having a beautiful sheen imparted by the silk.

Wutkowski offers a variety of millinery workshops across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean each year. In addition to the traditional hat-making skills she learned at the Melbourne School of Millinery and various workshops, Wutkowski has combined many other handwork arts into her workshops, including French hand sewing, ribbon work, embroidery, beadwork and crochet.

The March 18-19 workshop will include demonstrations on cutting, stitching, rolling and wiring of the different straws. Students will create at least two different hats. In addition to the tuition, a $35 materials fee is payable to Wutkowski on the first day of the workshop.

For more information on Wutkowski and her workshops, visit her Web site at www.hatshatshats.com. For more information on the March 18-19 millinery workshop at The Renaissance Center, contact Kucher at (615)740-5565 or . To register for the workshop, call (615)740-5533.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Visual Arts Workshops page for more about the workshops.

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