About this Event
Here is your opportunity to learn a new craft with a RAFFIA HAT WORKSHOP. Saturday 13 & 27 May, from 10.00-16.00 on BOTH days - this is a two session course. Raffia is a beautiful material to work with, very flexible, therefore very forgiving and very welcoming of complete beginners. You will leave the workshop with a natural raffia hat, from one of three style choices and importantly in your size.....and had some fun and laughter while making it. This is a great opportunity to discover a new craft and work with a new material.
The raffia hat CRAFT WORKSHOP is run over 2 days. The usual format is for the days to be same time/place each week, so you will be with the same group of raffia students. Feel free to join the group alone, or to come along with friends. The workshop is always a friendly, welcoming environnment - with the emphasis on enjoying yourself while you are learning and making.
What can you expect at the workshop?
You will learn about raffia and its origin
How it can be dyed (you work only in natural raffia in the workshop)
The plaiting technique - right- and left-handed learners are welcome
Keeping your plait going - a hat is approximately 8m of plait
Trimming your plait
Sewing your plait to the hat block (in your size)
Finishing your hat in your chosen style
Pressing your hat
Decorating your hat with either a raffia trim or perhaps a favourite scarf or piece of ribbon
Durability of your hat - very durable - your hat can be packed, can get wet, be re-shaped and is ready to go for another good number of years.
Where is this workshop held?
Seeded, 5 Clarendon Road, Southsea, Portsmouth PO5 2DU
What 3 words location: ///eagles.email.happy
What does the cost include?
All the raffia needed to make your hat, plus the use of a sized hat block for the workshop. Additional raffia and hat blocks can be purchased if you would like to make more raffia hats.
ABOUT ME: I have a large head i.e. non-industry standard, and this is one of the things that brought me to raffia. The other thing was a lovely Australian who taught me, and others, how to make raffia hats in 1993. I was hooked, and I continued to create and teach through the 90s - at a guess I have taught over 200 people to make raffia hats/bags. I now enjoy making a nice range of raffia items, which is why I now do bags and some interior items too. The hat I am wearing in the photos I made in 1993, and to be honest the hat has worn better than me....
After a break for other work and to raise my son I returned to raffia afresh in 2019 - allthingsraffia was created. I design, dye and make all the hats and bags myself. I also run workshops at key venues across the South of England as well as running private workshops for groups of friends.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Seeded, 5 Clarendon Road, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
GBP 100.00