Three new Cape Cod-inspired hats with polka dot patterns are debuting soon at MAGGIE MAE DESIGNS®.
Just in time to celebrate the Autumn Equinox!
But there is something very different about these three designs that sets them apart from the rest of the Polka Dot Hat Collection.
These three vanguard styles are far more than just polka dot inspirations.
They are polka dot creations directly inspired by Cape Cod flora and fauna!
In a previous blog, I shared how years ago I discovered the world of wildlife photography while we were caring for my aging mother. Being out with the wild ones in their world became my sanctuary. Suddenly I was in a place apart; rejuvenated by all the beauty surrounding me.
When I returned to hatmaking full time again last year, everything was different. Because I was different.
I could no longer simply create new hats each season for all the special occasions. Or to satisfy the Pantone color charts. If I was going to continue making hats they would have to mean something. Be inspired by something that was personally important to me.
So I started asking myself, As a fiber artist, what feels meaningful to me? What inspires me?
The answer was a simple one – Cape Cod.
My passion for the natural world of Cape Cod that I have always known and that fuels my photography was the same inspiration I now needed to tap into for creating my hats as well.
Talk about a sea change coming for this Cape Cod milliner! 😉
In the meantime, I got the idea for an interim collection of polka dot hats. A stepping stone project that would give me the time I needed to experiment. I needed time to play with some new millinery techniques that I would need for the Cape Cod hats.
Yet as is often the way, the creative path can sometimes take an unexpected turn.
That turn came when I decided to take my new polka dot hats down to the sea to photograph them. Surrounded by the crashing waves, the swaying dune grass, the Willets calling and the white-tailed deer bounding through the dunes, I began to see polka dots everywhere. This time, in the very flora and fauna of Cape Cod!
Grabbing my sketch pad, I roughed out an idea for a cranberry fascinator. I could just picture those round crimson berries in the deserted cranberry bog in back of our Cape Cod home when I was growing up.
Then, a fascinator with seafoam bubble “dots”, like the ones I see as the tide’s coming in along the saltmarsh.
Next came a design for a Spotted Sandpiper with its chocolate speckled belly as it teetered along jetties and the edges of the saltmarsh.
I had known that a big change was coming at MAGGIE MAE DESIGNS, but it had most certainly come sooner than expected. I needed to get going on these first three styles — so I could get started on the tidal wave of new ones coming along right behind them!
In the coming days as I share these three Cape-themed chapeaux, I’ll be highlighting the story of their interconnection as well. Let’s just say that the relationships between these three particular hats… go much deeper than their polka dots!
And to think that the original polka dot hat idea kickstarted it all! This stepping stone collection, quite literally has connected-the-dots for me as an artist. And led me right to where I needed to be, all along…
Happy Autumn Equinox to one and all!
I would love to hear from you. To share your thoughts, simply click on the journal title at the top of this page to join our conversation! ~ Sally Faith Steinmann
