The Felt Hat
Magic happens when I turn wool from sheep into something beautiful and functional. It is a quiet kind of alchemy — like turning lead into gold, grass becomes fiber, fiber becomes felt. A careful collaboration between animal, land, and maker— a circle completed.
I make felt hats differently. I do not adhere to the age-old tradition of relying on wooden block hat forms to determine the shapes of my hats. Instead, I employ a method of making felt flat fabric medium. I then create hats from my innovative and original patterns. My Inspiration lies in the transformation from two dimensional fabric felt into a hand shaped three dimensional hat with both form and function.
“Being connected to the land, with a deep commitment to sustainability, is to be connected with both the seen and unseen aspects of ourselves.“
– Koa Kalish
I carefully select fleeces for their optimal performance, experimenting with different blends of sheep breeds and alpaca. Variations in color, texture, and density contribute not only to aesthetic richness but also to strength, structure, and long-term wearability of the hat. The ability to move materials from my bioregional landscape to hat—from animal to artifact —is both a celebration and a recognition. It gives me great joy, all of which I want to share with you.
The intimate and complex relationship between animal, plant, soil, and shepherd and what we ultimately wear as our “second skin” compels a community of engagement. As grower, processor, maker, and consumer, we work together to build a diverse, regenerative, resilient textile supply ecosystem. This symbiotic miracle empowers us to make socially and environmentally responsible choices in what we wear. The felt hats I create are an homage to the animals that produce the materials, and to the regionally based natural fiber system.
Let it not go unsaid, put one on,
and you'll never want to take it off!
