I am so delighted to announce I have been awarded a QEST Scholarship for Millinery. I am honoured to be part of the incredible group of talented craftspeople.

Firstly I will be learning historical and theatrical hat making with the renowned Sophie Lambe @reel.millinery who has made some of my favourite hats in film, including several for the recent @emmafilm directed by @autumndewilde 

Secondly, with the unbelievably talented @annetomlinflowers , I will be learning several flower making skills (that’s right she made the flowers in the first picture!) both at @westdeancollege and one to one.

And finally with master milliner @ianbennettmillinery I will learn his incredible skills and techniques with feathers, plus how to make my own blocks, from cardboard and carving styrofoam! 

Along with my fellow 2022 Scholars I will also embark on the incredible mentoring scheme run by @cockpitstudios which will be invaluable, I really cannot wait! 

She has arrived! The amazing Josephine Baker at Berlin’s fantastic Madame Tussaud’s! This was a dream costume project, I loved every minute of this make, I had never made anything like this before and am so thrilled with the results.

^{Copyright Merlin Magic Making 2022}

Here is an example of the endless possibilities available when it comes to making hats when you let your creativity flow.

For these hats firstly I made the hat block which is the base shape all these hats are formed on. I did this by adjusting a sharp brim block which I then made into this Ascot style dish shape.

From there I created these four hats over the time I was working at John Boyds. As you can see they are all very different, using a variety of materials, colour combinations and trimmings, and I’m sure there are hundreds more styles waiting to be made!

One of my favourite things to do in millinery is working organically with materials to create something totally unique. I got that sense of excitement when coming up with this way of using sinamay, sculpting it by hand to make beautiful and flattering shapes, and they are so light to wear too!