Join the Alberta Craft Gallery in celebrating our newest SPOTLIGHT exhibition by Margaret Hall

“Summer Floral’s”

This collection of summer hats and headpieces highlights traditional millinery techniques in vintage and modern hat styles with a contemporary aesthetic. Summer is a time to celebrate all that is floral and light with a colour palette of white and pinks and reds.

About the Artist:

Margaret has always been aware of the importance of hats whilst not appreciating the required school pork pie hat and the obligatory church hat of her childhood, in adulthood her appreciation of the skill and beauty of a well crafted headpiece to complement a special outfit has grown. When she inherited her Mothers hat block, her journey into hat fabrication began.

An opportunity to delve deeper into the craft of millinery came in 2020 when she enrolled in the ‘Justine Bradley-Hill Millinery School’ and studied with Justine for 2 years. The course opened her eyes to the depth and breadth of traditional millinery techniques. She is now developing further her skills and designs and offers unique individually handcrafted pieces for your enjoyment.

Margaret has explored hat shapes from the early 20th century in addition to contemporary styles. Some of the vintage styled hats she makes have been influenced by recent visits to the Red Deer Museum’s collection of hats and to museum exhibits in Yorkshire and London. She has included 2 headpieces that are reproductions of headpieces in the collection of the Red Deer Museum and art gallery. She is looking forward to more explorations of the hat styles and techniques in that collection to further develop her skills and knowledge of past techniques.

Our SPOTLIGHT exhibit highlights work by new Alberta Craft Council members and members producing experimental work.