Hat Block Course

July 2012

I have been attending Morley College courses for the last year or so studying millinery and jewellery making.  I signed up for a summer school class in block making.   When working with felt or sinnamay you quite often mould these materials over a wooden block to create the shape of the hat.  For felt you use steam to soften the felt hood and the stretch it over the desired shape and pin it in position and wait for it to dry out.  Wooden blocks are, unfortunately, very expensive as it's a very specialised skill to craft a hat block using special wood that pins can push in to.  The course was to show us how to carve hat blocks using a dense polystyrene which is then cut and sanded into a recognisable shape.

The course was lots of fun though we all looked like we had escaped from a crime scene in our plastic boiler suits!  16 people all sanding polystyrene meant lots of mess like being in a snow globe.  It was a very productive 4 days, after initially trying to wrap ones head round working in 3D and getting a feel for the materials.  I can definitely say by the end of 4 days with the intense sanding and carving my arm and neck were ready to fall off!  The result was definitely worth it though as I now have a lovely selection of blocks to use to expand my future designs.