httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dOXYlXmzJ4
Gracie Castle
Reporter
Senior Katie Melland has taken a different approach to her AP art assignments. Instead of following the norm, Katie decided to make hats and wigs for her main focus.
From the beginning of her art career, Katie has been interested in exploring different themes and projects. According to Katie, she has been doing art, especially painting and drawing, for as long as she can remember.
Katie wasn’t always interested in making hats. However, when the school didn’t offer AP 2D, which focuses on drawing and painting, she opted to take AP 3D, which concentrates on sculpting. “My background is really in painting and drawing and just overall 2D art, and when I found out that the school didn’t offer 2D design in terms of drawing and painting I was kind of disappointed, but I ended up loving AP 3D,” she said. “I intend to work a lot in sculpture in the future.”
The beginning of her successful project started with a small task. “[AP 3D teacher Lisa Floryshak] Windman had this one assignment where we had to make a paper hat using one sheet of paper,” she said. “I just ended up having so much fun with it because it incorporated a historical element along with a fashion element.”
Katie’s first hat was based off of Marie Antoinette. “[Making the hat] was just so much fun because Marie Antoinette was very extravagant, so it allowed me to make these crazy tall hats with tons of feathers,” she said. “I got to curl paper and flat iron it – manipulate it in so many different ways to communicate what I wanted to communicate. From then on, I just fell in love with the idea of making paper hats and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Katie has continued to base her designs off of history and fashion because she said it gives her room for creativity. “It gives me a lot of options – I can incorporate a lot of colors and textures, and reference so many different things while still being under the same category,” she said. “With fashion, it allows you to be crazy in whatever you do and gives me so many sources to work from.”
Although Katie said she has enjoyed working on this project, she said it is still hard work. “[The project] provided a really great design challenge; with a hat it not only has to be visually cohesive and beautiful, it [also]has to be functional,” she said. “A lot of engineering goes into it: Can you actually wear this hat? Will it fall off your head? And that’s just really fun. Hats by nature are interactive. It’s fun that people can not only look at it but they can also wear it. It adds a whole other dimension to the pieces.”
Katie makes her hats in a similar way to making a paper mache bowl. “I usually start with a paper mache base in which I’ll paper mache a balloon and then pile the paper over it,” she said. “Sometimes, if I want more of a hat that is less on your head or maybe a wig, I’ll just go straight to paper but, generally, it’s relative to the hat.”
One such hat was her Joan of Arc inspired piece. “It has her real shield crest and the path of paper chain kind of references chain mail like what the knights used to wear,” she said. “It definitely was an engineering challenge to have a shield be on your head. It was really enjoyable to do but also a serious challenge.”
Katie is still deciding what the final outcome of her hats will be. “I was hoping that perhaps if the history teachers wanted one or two they can have them in their classroom,” she said. “I’m too attached to sell them so if anything I would donate them.”
While she does not plan to make hats as a profession, Katie believes the skills she is learning will be beneficial to her later in life. “I definitely believe the skills I’m acquiring while making these hats, like the crafting and drafting and planning ideas, can be applied to a ton of different projects in the future,” she said. “I’m definitely taking this as a learning experience.”
