Talking business.

I don't have much hope for people who treat hat making like arts and craft selling at your local flee market. that is an excellent business and I have heard fruitful things of hand-over-fist money making from time to time. but I see this as holding yourself back. there are so many venues of selling available I simply expect more from people.

cottage industry hat making is its own worst enemy; from over priced - to awkward selling tack ticks

"how loud do I have to say this complicated dose not sell"

I don't shop from the net often (its just not my thing) why is this a fact ????? because anything I want to buy that is different and unique wants information I am not willing to give they all want my phone #, how long I have been living in my current address, for me to sign up for there bullshit flyer etc.

maybe back in the 80s these gorilla selling tactics worked but they are lost on me and many others

spend money to make money
hire someone get a website made don't make it complicated if you don't want to just put a picture you can click and a shopping cart feature
pay the money get PayPal they will handle all your fraud issues with a king of power you cant afford
and don't hold off posting you work to sell.

artist have an issue selling there work I understand giving up something you spent a part of your sole creating is not easy to let go (knowing you will never see it again) but lets be serious hats don't get made for free and if you want to be a hat maker then you must be a hat seller as well.

I like trade shows they can be specific you would not bring the same hat to a wedding show as you would a horror fest (without some modification I hope) and it allows you to feel out your neighbourhood market. for example I will sell 1000 fedoras more then I will sell top hats if I theme them fairy-tale still outsells steam punk.

this is situational; pirates of the Caribbean revitalized the tri-corner hat, Alice in wonderland filled people with the mad hatter 10/6 top hat. everything has its time I don't play to trends unless I find I convenient. tri-corner hats are easy to make but require a real talent to make them something special embroidery techniques, proper seems and lastly the right feather if you find them your muse you can make $1000 per hat with a making cost of only one of two hundred. but you will sell you sole in time to make it.

all hat works have exceptions; given endless material I find it simple to make a fedora hat with all this timing in a day , two if I get fancy with the lining. straw on the other hand is a sow process for me and takes great effort to execute.

Any day now

I want to say I love all hats but that would be a lie. This is not saying that I wont attempt to make or learn any hat but naturally like most people I dislike something I view it as the fall of my craft

for me this is cowboy hats

*yes I own one
*yes I understand why  people own them
*do I want to make one ....... do I want to throw myself from a bridge


perhaps this is extreme in my home town cowboy hats are a real thing and if you are good at them they will make you real money .....I would rather be poor

a cowboy hat is a marvel like any other work they come in all flavor and shapes; some shapes are better for people than others.....of course. I stand firmly on the ground that this venture is for someone else to be fantastic at and for me to watch.

but stranger things have happened I lived to see an action star become a governor. am I willing to say my mind might change on the great "hat of cow"

I think it is directly liked to the flying pig population
which based on my pay cheque is on the rise

There has to be another way

I do a lot of work with paper Mache
I have (in school only) worked with the standard set of hat maker materials
-buckram ($15 per meter)
-straw ($6-$15 per hat)
-felt ($12-$20 per hood)

Of cores all of these items have a high end version and if you really want to pay seal skin hoods are a good way to go.I on the other hand do not have the money to utilize these tool easily; let alone make a mistake with these precious priced items.

Looking for a way around my financial limitation I looked to paper Mache. To save on cost 70% of my fabric is recycled ...."I am not trying to be environmental" it is a lucky happenstance nothing more. Working toward making affordable hats for people using these two materials allows for lower over head.

This dose come with limitations..... would you want a paper Mache fedora?.
Naturally it wouldn't be very comfortable along with that it would show is quality quickly as people pushed it up and down on there head; hats are touched often as we adjust them every time they sit funny and strike our notice; but fascinators don't fallow these rules, they can be built tighter and tougher there is also no size issue.

my first day was a hard sell I had not worked with paper Mache since I was a young teen (principal is simple). I began covering my plastic fedora hat block. this was a purchase from Hat Shapers a great online find offering plastic hat blocks (mostly appropriate for felt/straw work). I didn't cover the whole block about half way with the intention to cut it to the shape I desired. it was a very long night waiting to see how it would work itself out "could I even pull it off the block"

it took some soft and patient work but the next morning I did in fact pull it off :)
there were  some issues; places I didn't make as tuff as others and I had cut the fascinator down to much. pulling out a glue gun I hesitated (glue is not hat making) but sometimes it is part of the show.

I pulled my hat together out of Christmas ribbon and an old cloth napkin.

frankly I was impressed

For the love of hats

  welcome to Canada...land of cows....land of oil...land of cold winters.... land were art go's to die

   I am not saying art dose not exist; but this is the last stop if it happens in Europe we will be waiting 4 years to see it... along with that luxury we will no be receiving the ralph Lauren version Europe once boosted... we will be viewing the sears order by catalog only in all its pastel, surplus, and one size glory .

   Being a fresh hat maker, having worked on and off out of my home and not yet completed more than 6 start to finished hats. it was not a life calling but something that came to me later and i have no complaints. it is not a career taken lightly like all art forms you wont be rich unless luck strikes you.

   I want to make different hats not stage different but something you would be proud to match to an outfit I don't think hats should be expensive unless it has 10 years in it

A lack of Canadian hat makers has created three problems-

#1 everyone thinks if you want a hat you need to "pay me for my time and I don't come cheap".
#2 if you want a hat to be comfortable you need to give me a months salary.
#3 this is Canada hats are for function only and anyone who thinks different makes so much money they can afford to be eccentric .

I intend to keep you up to date on my escapades and show you the rise and fall of all my hat ventures.