Welcome to new readers 

-The second year. Changes, and a bold choice of doing my research in another language than Norwegian.

I have decided to use English as the main language for the project instead of Norwegian, so I wish to present myself and the project once again. Although English is not my first language, I am doing this to make the work more accessible and collaboration easier. I wish to emphasise that my research and the work I am doing are from the perspective of a maker working in the specific conditions of hat makers and milliners in present-day Norway. 

My name is Stine Rudi Standal, I grew up in Ålesund at the west cost of Norway. Today I live and work in Oslo. In addition to being a scholarship fellow, I am a theatrical milliner. In the years I am working with the scholarship project, I am glad to be able to combine this with my theatrical milliner position and do the research from the new hat studio I work in, while I create hats and headpieces for the Norwegian National Theatre’s performances. My studio is located at the National Theatre’s production location for scenography, storage, rehearsal studio etc. This is outside of the main house that people in general identify as The National Theatre. We built the hat studio less than a year ago, I will try to touch upon this in a later post. 

When I started the project in September 2021, my ambition was to further specialize in some straw techniques. Although straw still is a part of my project, a more general mapping of materials is a necessary first step for me as a craftsperson. This has led me to focus the research on the history and use of historical and present-day materials. I also wish to gain a better understanding of the fibres and the dyeing of materials through my scholarship practice. 

I am currently finding, for me, a new language to talk about my craft. In my work so far, much of what I have formulated in writing has been short texts in social media with other professionals as the main target group, or orally with collaborators, costume colleagues and designers for stage and film productions. It will therefore be an interesting learning experience to communicate to a wider group of craft-interested readers. The aim of this blog is for you, the reader, to get insight into my project, my research, and hopefully the craft of hat making in general. I hope it will be an exciting journey for you to follow. 

Thank you for reading. Please reach out or comment if you have any interesting information regarding this subject, or a tip on articles or literature that may inform my work going forward.