Hats for LOVE

We all want to love and be loved. Christmas is a good time to reflect on that. So what does this mean?

For me, LOVE means not getting caught up in short bursts of excitement and adrenaline. I’m not talking about the feeling of love that ebbs and flows. Nor am I talking about the act of love (nooooo not lovemaking either)! By the act of love I mean practical love. 

I remind myself of questions like: what motivates,  inspires, drives and is healthy for me in my daily life? In my case, needless to say, it is HATS and the many people I meet and connect with through hats.

I am also inspired and challenged by the profound and intellectual considerations of others in my life. I feel driven by an internal restlessness to leave a positive mark on the world and leave it in a better place for havng been here.

I am motivated by a creative mind and a strong desire to be a better self than I was yesterday.

Those are only some examples of what I call LOVE and loving others. The challenge for me is to let my brain rest – otherwise I overdo things!

I love myself by not drinking alcohol, and exercising as often as I can. I practice compassion and work hard to understand others’ suffering so that I develop a real empathy for them and their lives.

Each time I have to make a choice, I try to ask a simple question: ‘Does what I am about to do come from my heart?’ If the answer is NO, I usually find I am motivated by egotistical things which are driven by my mind and often hide under my ‘hats’ to be discovered.

 

Once I shine the light on what is hidden I find there is much to be done for people, much to be given to people and much to be learned from people. 

With this in mind, I wish for you all, from the bottom of my heart, a very merry Christmas,  happy Chanukah, and may your 2013 be filled with new adventures,  joy and passion for hats, materials and life itself.

 

Spiritual Hats

We wear many hats through out our day and we are many things to many people.

Often we identify so strongly with a hat that we think we ‘are’ the hats. I believe this is not so. We have choices in anything we do in life; we have choices to put hats on and to take hats of.

Sometime we want to wear someone else’s hat even so that hat does not quit fit, but it seams to look good to us so we want it.

More often or not we suffer through wearing hats, which look good rather than feel good. We buy things because we think it will make our lives better.

Many of us find that making things contains satisfaction, we touch something within us which makes us feel good on a level we sometimes cannot explain or understand.

Making Sense of Loss and Suffering

For those who are grieving serious losses or adversity I bring concept in Dr. Frankl`s work to mind, who wrote,

D = S – M → Despair equals suffering without meaning

When we make things we have meaning, we connect with people, it gives us a purpose. Producing art, losing oneself in the ‘doing’ the ‘NOW’ touches the Self deep inside.

I use hats as my spiritual practice every day. Hats for me are a metaphor and I ever so often check what I keep ‘under’ my hat. I try not to talk ‘through’ my hat and I express gratitude daily for my ‘HATS’ in my life.

As I go through my day I reflect on my hats and use them to aid my day.

So what are some of those hats?

Gratitude hat: Helps me remember to write a letter to someone who made a difference in my life, whom I never properly thanked. Letters may even be to people who are already dead. I look for the good things, which happen in my day when I sit and drink a coffee

Serving Hat: I find that when I feel needy for things I put on my serving hat and find something to do that will benefit others. We all like to have a good listener, or receive a warm touch.

The sad grieving Hat: All losses involve grief. I as many others have lost much and I had to learn to be willing to cry, honor, and let go a little bit each day. Not holding on to the sadness and loss was and is a practice. Embracing and nurturing the love and memories instead is a practice too. Be a witness and companion to someone else who is grieving can be a great gift.

Hat of Forgiveness: Forgiveness is a hard one because we all often think we are RIGHT. This might be so but holding on to resentments, is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” (Author unknown).

Prayer and meditation Hat: I have heard that Prayer is speaking with God, and Meditation is listening. Taking time to quiet my mind and connecting with my innermost self grows my capacity to live in a peaceful, grounded, and loving place……………..

May you find the hats, which truly fit and suit you, as it is your head they are on and not on someone else.

Have a hatty day

Waltraud

Hats for Vegans

Hat making material for Vegans

The other day I saw a post on the Internet where a person asked:’ Which feathers are vegan?’

Lots of people commented on her post saying things like, if the bird does not die the feathers are vegan or there are vegans which do use animal products etc.

It made me reflect on what does vegan actual mean? In our day and age I think it is very wise we start asking questions like this lady as we seam to become very much a “I want in NOW’ society and it seams we loose touch with how and why things exist.

The dictionary says, qoute’a vegetarian who omits all animal products from the diet.It is lifestyle in which you don’t use, wear, or consume animal products.’

My late sister in law was a very strict vegan who did exactly that but she could not stay away from chocolate.

So how does a vegan who chooses to be strict make hats?

Well there are many products they could use

1. Sinamay, Jin Sin, straws are made from plant fibres
2. laces,veiling,braids can be derived from polyesters and natural plant fibres
3. Felt is tricky as they are all animal hair ( sheep do not die when getting the fleece,but fur felt uses dead rabbits)
4. feathers come from birds,most of them farmed and die. Some birds loose their feathers naturally as in Peacocks,pheasants,many birds malt and loose feathers like Guinea fouls. One can make feather look a like with Sinamay or from fabrics like cotton
5. leathers can be subsidised through imitation leathers which are very good these days
6. Fur can be a cruel business indeed. Often the animals get farmed in cruel conditions. They often are getting exposed in open cages in wind tunnels to further their growth of fur with no escape for shelter which would not happen in nature.
7. Astrakhan is unborn lamb ( personally I could not work with material like that, vegan or not vegan)

NOTE:

There is such a thing called ‘Peace silk’, the worm eats its way through the cocoon and does not get killed in boiling water. Make no mistake this silk can not be spun and not be produced into fabrics other than silk caps which are used in the hand felting industry a lot.

Hats are the ar…

Hats are the art of the HeArT      Waltraud Reiner

Australia is a big place this is for sure…..as the km tick over and the landscape not changes a great deal I arrive in the north.

So far I have done about 4000km and we are not half way yet.

I have been here a few days now. Worked in Springvale near Katherine for the Bathula arts camp and went out to Timber creek to run a class for indigenous people who wanted to learn silk flower making so they do not use flowers which dye for their funerals.

Teaching out in the open with little resources is very much different than teaching in a classroom. Sometimes the wind is down and sometimes it blows pedals all over the place. Places like this are a great opportunity for me to practise patients and acceptance.

You can see images and follow the journey on

http://www.hatmobile.com.au

Mount Barker in South Australia

I left Melbourne on Friday the 13th for Adelaide where we ran a hat making class.

As a matter of fact it was in Mt Barker were the class happened. The Adelaide hills are very pretty and it was very cold indeed. The Hatmobile brought me safely to the venue even so it was Friday 13.

Greer was our host ad she did a great job to bring us all together. She even got the mayoress there ( or is she a mayor?)

Hatmobile

Hatmobile

It has been a very long time since my last entrée.

Now I am back. Sometimes it seems that social media is taking us over and there is not enough time in the day to look after everything and do it well.

I would like to introduce you today to the “Hatmobile”. The aim of the Hatmobile is to drive around Australia and promote hat making to people and show of Australia to people who have not seen it the way I see it.

Should you decide to follow me and the hatmobile you will see the country through my eyes .