Introductory project: Stage 2: Observing qualities: The hat

Close up of the straw hat to show twisted and woven patterns

The hat is made from a synthetic straw material (not sure exactly what this is: shantung, toyo?), which combines a soft feel with a bulky texture on the individual strands that have been woven and twisted to make the hat. There is a twist that has been added to the weave pattern, which creates a pattern of four holes around the twist, which appears in a regular pattern across the fabric of the hat. A plaited strand also goes round the hat between the brim and the crown, with synthetic leaves entwined in it and synthetic flowers over the top of it at the back.

I started to look at the straw hat in more detail, starting with a drawing of the hat in its entirety, using pencil on brown paper, to try to capture the soft but straw-like texture of the hat. Here, I tried to capture the overall shape of the trilby hat, concentrating on its shape and the shadows created by the indents of the crown.

Pencil drawing concentrating on shape and shadows, on brown paper

Here I tried to capture the pattern of the weave in more detail and in different ways, using pencil and erasable felt tip pen on brown paper:

Impressions and detail of the woven structure of the straw hat, pencil and erasable felt tip pen on brown paper

Here, I focused on the brim of the hat and the white synthetic flowers, drawing in pencil on brown paper. I also looked in detail at the frayed edges of the flowers and tried to capture an impression of this:

Detail of the hat brim edge, pencil on brown wrapping paper

Then I changed from pencil to brush pen and tried to work more quickly, capturing the structure of the woven material in different levels of detail, and sometimes focusing equally on the gaps between the strands as much as the strands themselves:

More detail of the woven and twisted structure of the hat, black brush pen on brown wrapping paper

Looking closely at the woven texture of the hat led me to think about different ways of capturing this, and I decided to try some other mark-making tools to play with the idea of the weaving:

Mark-making in response to the structure of the hat, using folded corrugated cardboard as a stamp (top) and silicone spatula (bottom); grey/white and black paint on brown paper

I carried on mark-making, varying the tools and using the raised texture of a folded piece of corrugated cardboard dipped in ready-mix paint:

Mark-making with corrugated cardboard as a stamp, black paint on white paper

Mark-making with corrugated cardboard as a stamp, black paint on white paper (detail)

More mark-making with corrugated cardboard, grey paint on brown paper

This led me to think about doing my own weaving in response to the hat. I used strips of paper used inside packaged parcels, torn into strips and then scrunched together to emulate the texture of the straw hat:

Weaving with recycled packing paper (grey/white)

Then I looked at the twisted part of the fabric of the hat, and tried to work out how this was done - not very successfully:

Twisting using ripped strips of paper napkins

I found high quality paper napkins to be quite a suitable material for this part of the project, as the texture, like that of the synthetic straw yarn used for the hat, had quality of soft feel in the hand, but rigidity when used in construction:

I reused the same strips of paper napkin to weave a small sample, and again found it to be quite suitable, as the fabric-like qualities helped the weaving to stick together, but it was enough like paper to be scrunchable also:

Weaving using strips of paper napkin

Here is a close-up of the weaving showing the paper/fabric qualities of the paper napkin:

Weaving using strips of paper napkin (detail)

Then I tried the same twisting and weaving with different material, this time some strips of recycled paper used for packing out parcels:

Twisting strips of packing paper (grey/white)

I attempted to recreate the pattern of twists and weaving that I observed in the fabric of the hat, creating gaps between strands:

Twisting and weaving with strips of packing paper

From here, I returned to mark-making, in order to try out other ways of capturing the texture of the woven synthetic straw. Here are my made and found mark-making tools:

I returned to using brown paper here, using a variety of mark-making tools to create the woven texture:

Further mark-making with (from left) stiff brush, tip of sponge brush, tip of sponge brush, ends of bamboo skewers taped together, tip of sponge brush; black ink on brown paper.

This led to more mark-making with the sponge brush, on reused grey/white packing paper, trying to echo the woven pattern:

Mark-making with sponge brush on crumpled packing paper

Here, I returned to the foam tipped tool, varying from a regular straightline pattern to a more swirling pattern:

Mark-making with foam tipped tool, basket pattern on left, curved patterns on right , echoing the under and over motion of the straw

More mark-making with foam tipped tool and black ink, on cream cartridge paper:

More mark-making with foam-tipped tool, ranging from curved lines and less regular pattern to straight lines and more regular pattern

For these, I used a small bottle brush dipped into the black ink and made similar patterns:

Mark-making with wire brush, black ink on cream paper

Back to the foam tipped tool here, using freer movements:

mark-making with foam-tipped tool, black ink on cream paper.