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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/dec/24/christmas-hat-millinery-diy-recycling
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| Turn your copy of the Guardian into a stylish Christmas hat | Turn your copy of the Guardian into a stylish Christmas hat |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Sue Carter is a Yorkshire milliner with a handy line in 'reclamation hats' which have all the virtues appropriate to a time of recession. She knows how to make delightful confections out of felt, gauze and other conventional materials, and has the qualifications to prove it. But just now, she prefers a different approach. | Sue Carter is a Yorkshire milliner with a handy line in 'reclamation hats' which have all the virtues appropriate to a time of recession. She knows how to make delightful confections out of felt, gauze and other conventional materials, and has the qualifications to prove it. But just now, she prefers a different approach. |
| The Guardian's Saturday listings Guide, for instance. Anyone working with fabric has a natural eye for dimensions and measurements and Carter saw the potential of the Guide's size straight away. She says: | The Guardian's Saturday listings Guide, for instance. Anyone working with fabric has a natural eye for dimensions and measurements and Carter saw the potential of the Guide's size straight away. She says: |
| I wanted to make some gift boxes out of something cheap and the magazine looked just right. I started folding - first halfway and then making a square - and, hey presto, it was just right. | I wanted to make some gift boxes out of something cheap and the magazine looked just right. I started folding - first halfway and then making a square - and, hey presto, it was just right. |
Here's the result, but boxes were only the start. Hats and fascinators are Carter's main business in her studio at the encouragingly-named Radiant Works in Huddersfield, an engineering factory now used by artists. She started looking at her daily paper with original but cheap party headgear in mind. | Here's the result, but boxes were only the start. Hats and fascinators are Carter's main business in her studio at the encouragingly-named Radiant Works in Huddersfield, an engineering factory now used by artists. She started looking at her daily paper with original but cheap party headgear in mind. |
| An eight-point star created from interlocking Guide pages became a theme, attached with split-pins and other devices to an ever-increasing range of bowl shapes, discs and cones. | An eight-point star created from interlocking Guide pages became a theme, attached with split-pins and other devices to an ever-increasing range of bowl shapes, discs and cones. |
| A bit dunce-y, this one on the left maybe; or does it put you in mind of Harry Potter and wizardry? Carter's different takes led to 1920s angled hats with a slender spire of folded Guardian standing in for the traditional feather. And a whole cluster of stars on either a simple head-shaped base or a delicate support for a fascinator. The sort of thing that Minerva McGonagall might wear to enliven staff meetings at Hogwart's. | A bit dunce-y, this one on the left maybe; or does it put you in mind of Harry Potter and wizardry? Carter's different takes led to 1920s angled hats with a slender spire of folded Guardian standing in for the traditional feather. And a whole cluster of stars on either a simple head-shaped base or a delicate support for a fascinator. The sort of thing that Minerva McGonagall might wear to enliven staff meetings at Hogwart's. |
| Carter reckons that turning Guardians into hats is something that everyone can have a go at - though bear in mind that she has two gold medals from City and Guilds. She went to Buckingham Palace for the award ceremony in one of her button berets, which attracted approving comments from the Duke of Edinburgh. She's also spread the message through initiatives such as North Yorkshire county council's Chose 2 Reuse show in Harrogate last year. | Carter reckons that turning Guardians into hats is something that everyone can have a go at - though bear in mind that she has two gold medals from City and Guilds. She went to Buckingham Palace for the award ceremony in one of her button berets, which attracted approving comments from the Duke of Edinburgh. She's also spread the message through initiatives such as North Yorkshire county council's Chose 2 Reuse show in Harrogate last year. |
| Letting your imagination rip is the key, she says. Her classes at Leeds College of Art and Kirklees College in Huddersfield encourage students to think of all manner of hat-making materials, and a similarly infinite range of patterns and shapes to go with them. One of her own recent collections, shown at Stockport's hat museum the Hat Works, was entirely based on chocolates and other sweeties. | Letting your imagination rip is the key, she says. Her classes at Leeds College of Art and Kirklees College in Huddersfield encourage students to think of all manner of hat-making materials, and a similarly infinite range of patterns and shapes to go with them. One of her own recent collections, shown at Stockport's hat museum the Hat Works, was entirely based on chocolates and other sweeties. |
| Carter's work can next be see at the the Hat Works' Redesigning Fashion exhibition, whose theme - 'make do and mend' hats from the 1940s - chimes nicely with re-using the Guardian and anything else in current austere times. This final picture is of a hat she'll be showing there. | Carter's work can next be see at the the Hat Works' Redesigning Fashion exhibition, whose theme - 'make do and mend' hats from the 1940s - chimes nicely with re-using the Guardian and anything else in current austere times. This final picture is of a hat she'll be showing there. |
| As for us, and you; here's what to do. If you've time over the holiday, take up the Carter challenge and make your own Guardian Christmas hat. Then email the Northerner a picture of the finished masterpiece - to northerner @guardian.co.uk. We'll ask Sue to judge the best for us to use in a picture gallery in the New Year. | As for us, and you; here's what to do. If you've time over the holiday, take up the Carter challenge and make your own Guardian Christmas hat. Then email the Northerner a picture of the finished masterpiece - to northerner @guardian.co.uk. We'll ask Sue to judge the best for us to use in a picture gallery in the New Year. |
| She can be contacted for commissions or other info on suej.carter@virgin.net | She can be contacted for commissions or other info on suej.carter@virgin.net |
| Merry Christmas! | Merry Christmas! |
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