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Hat making

The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

 

Hat making

 

The making of all types of hats using straw, felt and fabrics by an organised series of processes. These include, but are not limited to felt hats such as trilbies and fedoras, straw hats, fabric hats such as caps and deerstalkers, and uniform hats.

This category is distinct from millinery which includes bespoke, occasion wear, haute couture and theatrical hats, although we acknowledge that there will be areas of overlapping skills. A milliner would usually make one-off or small runs of hats. See also millinery, straw hat plaiting, hat block making, and bowed felt hat making.

 

Status Endangered
Historic area of significance
  • Felt hats – Luton
  • Silk hats – Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Bristol and Warwickshire
  • Straw hats – Luton, Dunstable, St Albans
  • Fabric – East End of London, Luton
Area currently practised UK, but still centred around Luton
Origin in the UK
Current no. of professionals (main income) 11-20 companies making hats. Number of individual makers not known.
Current no. of professionals (sideline to main income)
Current no. of trainees
Current total no. serious amateur makers
Current total no. of leisure makers

 

History

Felt hats – This is the oldest of the organised hat making industries and is also the only type of felt that was traditionally made in the UK. Felt hat making as we know it today is believed to have started around 1500, before then they were largely imported from Italy and France.

The Company of Feltmakers was established in 1604. Originally they were responsible for making the hoods but gradually became involved with the making of hats. The industry of felt hood making and felt hat making was centred in London until the mid 1700s when both trades located in Manchester, gradually spreading into Stockport, Denton and Cheshire. Bristol was another important centre.

Felt hat making became a factory-based commercial enterprise and was the first hat industry to be organised into a recognised trade. There are two main types of felt used to make hats: fur-felt and wool. Fur felt was often made from beaver and/or rabbit. The final product was a felt hood, now known as a hood, cone, flare or capeline.

Felt making was also a cottage industry with small businesses established outside of cities. There is some evidence to suggest that the Feltmakers Guild tried to suppress these small enterprises in favour of the more industrialised approach.

The majority of felt hats in the UK are now made in the last few remaining hat factories using imported felt hoods.

Felt hats made from handmade felt – This relates to the making of functional, hardwearing felt hats from raw materials (wool or fur) using a pre-industrial felt making process (bow carding) that is quite specific to the felt hat making trade. Although this craft was practiced throughout Western Europe and the Americas, historically, Britain was globally recognised for its superior craftsmanship and exported its hats worldwide.

‘Contemporary’ feltmakers make hats using a different process which, although facilitates great creative freedom in both design and colour, does not produce the dense, smooth felt traditionally associated with functional hats.

Felt hood making is now commercially extinct in the United Kingdom. There is one felt hat maker that we are aware of, Rachel Frost, who makes felt hoods and hats using the traditional method of bow carding. Today, most hat makers and milliners use imported felt hoods for their work.

See bowed felt hat making for more information.

Straw hats – These can be dated back to the 1600s in an organised form of production, but probably predate this. Straw is a generic term covering many plant materials which were constructed into hats by either weaving or plaiting. Both forms existed as British industries. A woven straw hat only requires shaping over a block
while a hat constructed from plait involves more stages. The plait has to be wound onto a ‘plait winder’ then stitched either by hand or machine. See straw hat sewing.

Contemporary makers tend to use either ready-made straw hoods (flares or
capelines) which require stiffening, blocking and trimming, or sheets of sinamay
fabric (woven Abaca fibres) which may be cut to pattern shapes, or blocked then
trimmed. See straw plaiting and straw hat sewing for more information.

Fabric hats – Originally these were associated with both hat makers and dress makers. The fabric was placed over a base of straw or over a stiff fabric, or over commercially made millinery wire frames. As the commercial hat industry grew fabric hats were made in large numbers principally in the East End of London. The trade
came to Luton in the early 1900s. One of the most famous fabric hats was the iconic silk top hat. It’s manufacture was associated with Stockport. Many bicorne and tricorne hats were also made of fabric.
Within hat manufacturing there is no longer any ‘mass’ production of fabric hats, except for sinamay/abaca (an open weave fabric made from natural fibres) which is used to produce long runs of single designs.

Many contemporary makers do still make fabric hats over a base or over wire. This type of work is also found in theatrical millinery.

Fabric hats – These were traditionally less commercial and were associated with both hat makers and dress makers. Within hat manufacturing there is no longer any ‘mass’ production of fabric hats, except for sinamay/abaca (an open weave fabric made from natural fibres) which is used to produce long runs of single designs.

Uniform hats and riding hats – These are now made in one or two companies in the UK including Patey, Try & Lilly, Cooper Stevens and Herbert Johnson.

There are many individual milliners making pattern-piece caps and hats.

 

Techniques

Felt hood making techniques – In the beginning the processes were mainly hand processes, but with the development and growth of the felt hat industry, the processes became mechanised to speed production to satisfy the demand for hats.

  • Unpacking the wool/fur
  • Blending – previously bowing
  • Carding
  • Forming
  • Hardening
  • Settling
  • Bumping
  • Bleaching/dyeing
  • Planking
  • Stiffening
  • Blocking
  • Finishing – polishing and dusting

The hood was then sold to a hat manufacturer or to an independent milliner to transform into a hat. Some companies did make hats from the hoods they produced.

Making a felt hat from a hood – The making of a hat involves a range of techniques, which will vary according to the type of hat being made. This falls into the Millinery category and also into larger scale hat manufacturing.

  • Steaming/softening
  • Stiffening
  • Blocking
  • Trimming

Straw hat making techniques – The process for a factory-based operation and millinery studio are very similar. The process will vary slightly according to the design, but main difference occurs within blocking. A long production run of hats requires the use of an aluminium block and blocking or pressing machine, while a milliner making a single or just a few hats will block by hand on a wooden block.

The following sequence of processes can be undertaken as a factory process or by a milliner.

For hats made from straw capelines (sisal or sinamay/pinok pok/abaca:

  • The straw is blocked wet over a wooden or aluminium block.
  • The straw shape is stiffened before removing from the block.
  • Once removed from the block, the shape is wired, edged, lined, and has a petersham ribbon sewn into the head-fitting (if applicable)
  • Trimming can involve a wide range of skills and materials such as fabric flowers, feathers, beading, and other constructed trimmings from millinery and other materials
  • Finishing – included sewing in the label, attaching elastic or comb, and setting the head-fitting on a poupée, or block (if applicable).

For hats made from straw plait:

  • The plait (handmade) or braid (usually man-made) is checked, wound onto a plait winder, lengths of plait or braid may be joined to create longer lengths.
  • Sewing – the process involves matching the hat to the design hat block. Note, within the factory setting the block was usually, but not exclusively, made from plaster or composite material. The sewing can be done by hand or on a specially adapted sewing chain-stitch machine.
  • Stiffening
  • Partial drying
  • Blocking – either by hand or on a blocking machine or press if this is part of a large run of hats. This relates to hat block making.
  • Trimming – within the trimming section there are various jobs, lining, sewing in the headband, adding labels. Adding the decorative trimmings of artificial fabric flowers, ribbons, feathers, etc. This relates to millinery.

Local forms

n/a

 

Sub-crafts

 

Issues affecting the viability of the craft

  • Market issues: Effects of Brexit affecting their European market, creating problems for larger scale production and individual makers.
  • Market issues: Rising prices for materials/supplies, creating problems for larger scale production and individual makers.
  • Business issues: Ageing business premises and rising rents. Also rising energy costs are having a negative effect on all businesses. The industry requires Government assistance for the 3rd and 4th generation factories operating from historic buildings, where they are still producing hats. There neeeds to be greater awareness and willingness by local government to identify and support heritage crafts within their area.
  • Training issues: Perceived lack of interest for apprenticeships/training. There has been a large growth of online and face-to-face training often only providing basic skills. There are threats to college-based courses due to increased costs and apprenticeships are still rare. To raise skills levels there needs to be a greater push to developing opportunities for training to a higher level. The two main providers of accredited advanced millinery training (Morley College’s HNC qualification and RCA MA course) are both under
    threat. The RCA is not currently employing a millinery technician, prioritising design over technical skills. Students working on millinery have to gain their skills outside of the RCA. Morley is not currently able to offer tier 4 visas to overseas students, thereby greatly diminishing student numbers. Domestic
    student recruitment has been diminished through increased fees and reduced opportunities for beginners and intermediate courses. The awarding body City &; Guilds is in the process of withdrawing their accredited level 2 and level 3 millinery qualifications, further reducing the opportunities for accredited
    millinery courses.

Support organisations

Craftspeople currently known

Individual craftspeople:

Businesses employing two or more makers:

For a list of bespoke milliners including film and theatre see Millinery

Other information

Historically the craft of hat making has taken place in a factory of large workshop. Hat making can also include hats made at an artisan level by individuals who use the same or similar processes.

 

References

Related publications:

  • Cullen, Oriole and Jones, Stephen, Hats an Anthology
  • Laver, James, A Concise History of Costume
  • McDowell, Colin, Hats – Status, Style and Glamour
  • Ginsburg, Madeline, The Hat
  • Hopkins, Alan and Vanessa, Headwear c.1700-1955
  • Hopkins, Susie, A Century of Hats
  • Hughes, Clair, Hats
  • Wilcox, Turner, The Mode of Hats and Headdresses
  • Philip Treacy: Hat Designer by Philip Treacy and Marion Hume
  • Bentinck Judy, Designing and Making Hats & Headpieces
  • Cant Sarah, Hats!: Classic Hats and Headpieces in Fabric, Felt and Straw
  • Henriksen Karen, Fashion Hats (Design & Make)
  • Lomax Sarah & Skinner Rachel, Millinery The Art of Hat Making
  • Beale Sophie: Contemporary Millinery: Hat Design & Construction
  • Veronica Main, Swiss Straw Work: Techniques of a fashion industry

Sporran making

The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

 

Sporran making

 

The making of sporrans from a range of materials including leather, fur, metal and horsehair.

This craft uses products derived from animals – please read our ethical sourcing statement.

 

Status Critically endangered
Historic area of significance Scotland
Area currently practised Scotland
Origin in the UK 12th Century
Current no. of professionals (main income) 6-10
Current no. of professionals (sideline to main income)
unknown
Current no. of trainees 0
Current total no. serious amateur makers
11-20
Current total no. of leisure makers

 

History

The sporran (gaelic for purse) originated as a leather bag worn around the waist which served as a bag/pocket to carry oats. These days it is used for cash/keys/card and anything else you’d usually keep in your pocket.

Sporrans are worn at weddings and significant celebrations, St Andrews Day and Hogmanay. They are closely associated with Highland culture and Gaelic culture.

Military sporrans are traditionally made from goat hair and horse hair. They are still widely used in pipe bands and for ceremonial purposes in the UK and Canadian military.

 

Techniques

Sporran making shares a number of skills with other crafts disciplines such as leather working. However, the combination of skills and the use of materials such as horsehair make sporran making a highly skilled craft.

 

Local forms

There are three main types of sporran, although they now come in a wide variety of designs:

  • Day sporrans – leather pouches with simple adornments, they often have three or more tassels and tooled designs.
  • Dress sporrans – larger than day sporrans and often highly ornate with silver, pewter or chrome cantles and fur or hair tassels.
  • Horsehair sporrans – worn as part of regimental attire for the pipers or the drummers. A traditional horsehair pouch extends just below the belt to just below the hem of the kilt.

 

Sub-crafts

Issues affecting the viability of the craft

  • Training issues: Lack of training opportunities
  • Raw materials: Difficulty accessing materials on a small scale in Scotland
  • Skills issues: The basic skills of sporran making, such as leather working, are easily accessible but the higher level skills of working with horsehair, skins and mixed materials are specialist and can only be learnt on the job with a skilled sporran maker.
  • Competition from overseas markets: Many sporrans are now made more cheaply overseas for the home and tourist markets leading to a decline in the market for Scottish made sporrans. In 2021 the Government contract for making sporrans for the Scottish Regiments was awarded to a company who will source sporrans made overseas.
  • Supply chain issues: there are increasing gaps in the supply chain for materials and components. For example, some makers are having to cast metal parts that would have previously been bought in.

 

Support organisations

 

Craftspeople currently known

Individual craftspeople:

 

Other information

 

 

References

Sporran maker given marching orders, Mike Wade, The Times, June 05 2021

 

Silver spinning

The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

 

Silver spinning

 

The process of shaping flat silver disc into a hollow item using a lathe to spin the disc whilst shaping it over a wooden nylon, aluminium or steel former, known as a spinning chuck.  See also metal spinning and silversmithing.

 

Status Critically endangered
Historic area of significance Sheffield, Birmingham
Area currently practised Sheffield, Surrey, Kent, Birmingham
Origin in the UK
Current no. of professionals (main income) 8
Current no. of professionals (sideline to main income)
6
Current no. of trainees 0
Current total no. serious amateur makers
Current total no. of leisure makers

 

History

Spinning produces three-dimensional hollow-ware items such as trophies, vessels and cups. Items can be made to varying scales, in quantity, in a uniform and quick way. Spinners also produce and maintain the associated tools, machinery, formers and chucks used to produce spun vessels.

In the 1950s there were hundreds of spinners, but the trade side of the industry has contracted significantly. Now very few large companies are left; most are one man or two man bands in light industrial units.

 

Techniques

It takes practice and years of experience to learn to spin metal. Spinners understand how different metals behave and become skilled at looking at designs and understanding how best to achieve the required form.

  • Turning
  • Drafting

 

Local forms

n/a

 

Sub-crafts

  • Silver plating – over recent years many platers have closed and in Sheffield and there is only one known silver plater left.

 

Issues affecting the viability of the craft

  • Skills issues: There is a lack of training. There is also an expense of raw materials in training and lack of large orders to create repetition for trainees.
  • Market issues: The loss of large trade companies in centres such as Sheffield, London and Birmingham, combined with cheap imports from Far East are perceived as the biggest issues facing the craft.

 

Support organisations

Craftspeople currently known

Individual craftspeople:

  • Stefan Coe – Surrey
  • Warren Martin – Sheffield
  • Terry & James McCann – Essex
  • Stuart Ray – Kent
  • Carl Longshaw – Birmingham
  • Paul Toland – Birmingham
  • Varis Prieditis, Stuart Ray Ltd – Kent

Part-time craftspeople:

  • Steve Millington – Birmingham, LJ Millington
  • Graham Oldfield
  • Steve Gifford – Sheffield, Camelot
  • Ian Nevin – Sheffield, British Silverware
  • Graham Nye & Son – Walsall, Swatkins
  • David Allison – Sheffield

 

Other information

 

 

References

 

Type founding and manufacture

The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

 

Type founding and manufacture

 

The manufacturing of type in metal and wood for letterpress printing.

 

Status Endangered
Historic area of significance Fleet Street, London
Area currently practised
Origin in the UK 15th Century
Current no. of professionals (main income) Hand casting: 0
Machine casting: 6-10
Current no. of professionals (sideline to main income)
Machine casting: 6-10

Hand casting for education or research purposes: 1-5

Part time wood type makers: 1-5

Wood type: 1

Current no. of trainees 2
Current total no. serious amateur makers
0
Current total no. of leisure makers
0

 

History

Letterpress printing was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. Letterpress printing remained the primary way to print and distribute information until the 20th century, when offset printing was developed, which largely supplanted its role in printing books and newspapers, but letterpress has survived thanks to small presses and artisan printers.

A significant barrier to the continuation of letterpress printing is the increasing scarcity of new type and the breaking up of sets of old type.

 

Techniques

When it was an industrial process, ‘typefounding’ referred specifically to the actual casting of the type; in the present day, it tends to encompass a number of different related disciplines (eg engraving matrices). In a letterpress context, ‘typefounding’ still means the casting of metal type, with the manufacturing of wood type being a separate practice.

Metal printing type can be made in a number of ways:

  • Metal type cast on a Monotype Composition Caster (maximum of 24pt)
  • Metal type cast on a Monotype Super Caster (maximum of 72pt)
  • Metal type cast on a pivotal caster (not currently possible outside museums)
  • Metal type cast in a hand mould (not currently possible outside museums, with one possible exception)

Monotype machines are still being used in some private presses and foundries in the UK. Other typesetting machines, such as Linotype, Intertype and Ludlow machines, cast slugs (single lines of type, rather than single letters), These are used for ‘typesetting’, not ‘typefounding’, as they can’t cast individual pieces of type that other printers can use in their cases.

Associated skills include:

  • Punch cutting – transferring letters from design to physical punch
  • Matrix making – striking the hardened punch into a  bronze or copper blank, and fitting the strike to become a matrix.
  • Direct engraving of matrices using an engraving pantograph

Hand processes – These include the hand processes of making type from punch cutting to type casting. They are practised by very few people in the UK (as a small part of their typefounding work),  but are still practised in France by only a couple of people.

Machine processes – This includes type produced by machine using Monotype equipment. There are a large number of Monotype machines in the UK but many not in use – they are heavy, take up a lot of space and require a long period of training to be used correctly. As with all industrial machinery, they are potentially hazardous when poorly maintained or used incorrectly.

Wood type (larger sized display type) – at present this is:

  • Made by hand (carved)
  • Made with a pantograph router following a guide
  • Manufactured using CNC routing technology with hand finishing
  • Manufactured using laser cutting (from single blocks)
  • Manufactured using laser cutting from composite (Perspex) then bonded to a base
  • Manufactured using 3D printer

 

Local forms

 

 

Sub-crafts

Allied crafts:

 

Issues affecting the viability of the craft

  • It is difficult to make a viable living from letterpress or from type founding as the market is mostly limited to small runs of artisan publications.
  • Typefounding is a very energy-intensive operation, and it’s currently almost prohibitively expensive to cast type.
  • Entry routes are limited and there is little training available.
  • Many letterpress printers are now using photopolymer plates for printing, which replaces the need for metal type.
  • Availability of equipment and keeping the materials, presses and type together and in working order.
  • Monotype Hot Metal (housed at the Type Archive) is no longer operational, following the Science Museum’s decision to close the premises. This means that no new matrices can be made or sold, limiting the typefaces available to printers

 

Support organisations

 

Craftspeople currently known

Individual craftspeople:

Using Monotype

Hand casting

No longer practised commercially but there are some people who are practising for educational or research purposes. These include:

Stan Nelson is a US-based practitioner.

Punchcutting

It is no longer being practised commercially in the UK but is taught by practitioners such as Nelly Gable at the Imprimerie Nationale in France.

Richard Ardagh at New North Press and Nick Gill at Effra Press & Typefoundry have done some punchcutting using the Monotype system of patterns on a Pierpont pantograph.

Woodtype making

International woodtype makers include Ryan Molloy, Dafi Knhune, Guillaume Bétemps, Marko Drpić, Virgin Wood Type and Wood Type Customs.

 

Other information

The Type Archive (London) used to hold all the necessary machinery to create type using Monotype casters. It is now being moved to the Science Museum Group’s facility in Wroughton, and no new matrices or typefaces will be made. Russell Maret recently created Hungry Dutch (a new face inspired by the Fell types) with the Archive’s assistance.

There are accessible overseas resources (note, US type height is the same as the UK). There are active foundries (two or three) there along with individuals. In Europe, Patrick Goosens in Antwerp preserves typefounding. He has acquired the remnants of type foundries from the US and India and is actively restoring them to working states. He is keen to preserve the arts of punchcutting, both hand and with engraving machines.

 

References

  • Archer-Parré, Caroline, and Mussell, James, eds. (due 2021) Letterpress Printing: past, present, future (Peter Lang Ltd)
  • British Letterpress – Type Founders
  • The Type Archive – Collections
  • Ryder, John, Printing for Pleasure (Bodley Head/Private Library Association)
  • Lindley and Maggs, Basic Printing – Letterpress for the Beginner (British Printing Society)
  • Simon, Oliver, Introduction to Typography (Faber & Faber/Penguin)
  • Atelier Press making type on YouTube
  • Fry’s Metal Foundries Ltd (1956) Printing Metals (London: Fry’s Metal Foundries Ltd)
  • Huss, Richard E, (1973) The Development of Printers’ Mechanical Typesetting Methods 1822-1925 (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia)
  • Legros, Lucien Alphonse, and Cameron Grant, John, (1916) Typographical Printing-Surfaces The Technology and Mechanism of their Production (London: Longmans, Green, and Co)
  • Southall, Richard, (2005) Printer’s type in the twentieth century: Manufacturing and design methods (London/Newcastle: The British Library/Oak Knoll Press)
  • United in Isolation Festival 

 

Spectacle making

The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

 

Spectacle making

 

The hand making of glasses or spectacles from a wide range of materials.

 

Status Endangered
Historic area of significance
Area currently practised
Origin in the UK
Current no. of professionals (main income) Estimated 11-20
Current no. of professionals (sideline to main income)
Current no. of trainees
Current total no. serious amateur makers
Current total no. of leisure makers

 

History

Spectacle wearing became widespread in Europe in the 18th and 19th century and were widely manufactured in the UK and across Europe.

In the early 20th century this became even more widespread as glasses were supplied to troops in the First World War and then to the wider population through the NHS. The British spectacle making industry flourished until the abolition of the NHS frame range in 1985 and deregulation of the market at the end of the 1980s. The vast majority of frames and lenses are now made overseas.

Spectacle making went into steep decline in the 1980s, with the exception of a few bespoke frames for the higher end of the market. This has started to increase again in recent years as small, independent makers are starting up. This is encouraging but there is still a risk that skills could be lost.

 

Techniques

Glasses can be made from a wide range of materials including horn, metal, plastic and wood.

 

Local forms

 

 

Sub-crafts

  • Lens making

 

Issues affecting the viability of the craft

  • Market issues – British makers can’t compete with overseas competition

 

Support organisations

 

Craftspeople currently known

Individual craftspeople:

 

Other information

 

 

References