Thursday, June 11, 2009

HATpy HATpenstance

Wouldn't you know, just after I posted about my love of hats, another of my favorite hat loving persons sent me a note to say "hi" (okay, actually I emailed her first to let her know I had a new blog, but the coincidence thing makes a better story, right? :) ). You might not know her, unless you are lucky enough to live in wild and crazy Charleston, where the men are men and the women are all wild :), but she is truly the Queen HATpy Hat Bee of that rip-roaring town. She's none other than the lovely Archie Burkel (http://www.hatladies.org)

Here's a picture of her, so you can see what I mean:



Okay, so let me tell you a little bit about her and then I'll tie that in with, of course, one of my dolls later :)

Lady Archie (you can call her that--I do) is the most marvelous of characters there ever is, was, or ever will be. She is truly one-of-a-kind. She's one heck of a good writer, a beautiful lady who has done everything under the sun, and who spends a great deal of her time commandeering other like-minded, hat loving, hat wearing gals around the Charleston area (and beyond most likely) in all sorts of big headline volunteer activities. She's been in the news, she's been in parades, she's posed nearly naked in pools and done countless other things all to support her main cause, which is basically just to make the world a better, more lovely place to live, and to give others the confidence to jump in the game with her. Oh, and did I mention, she wears hats like nobody else can!



Okay, so how this ties in with dolls...

Several years back, Lady Archie and I had been having a lovely chat session back and forth via the internet, and she just happened to be having an upcoming fund raiser. I agreed to make a doll for her fundraiser and also thought it best to make an actual Archie doll for her, because she is such a good model. How fun that was! I took some pictures of her off her site and set to work. She gave me suggestions (black, white or maybe pink only, daaahling) and I did my best to copy her. Of course she is far more lovely than I could ever portray in manipulated cloth, but I was happy with the final doll and sent it to her. Here's what I came up with:



Anyway, please check out her site, feel inspired, wear a hat or 2, and keep on cranking out the good stuff! Oh, and a final thought -- Lady Archie claims to have dived out of a hot air balloon head first. What I want to know is, how did she keep her hat on?! Hats off to YOU, Archie!

1 comment:

  1. im a male and i live in nyc and i looked everywhere for a bucket hat ( the hat that gilligan wears) and (fisherman) i looked in gap old navy aero ae and other stores but cannot find one i want a simple one color bucket hat thats a perfect fit not to big where can i find one thank you have an amazing day :)
    Cooler than a wig

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