Oyster Bay - 1st April 2001
Johannes Michelsens hats are collected by craft and hat collectors across the U.S.
Johannes was a builder and couldn't find anyone who did good work. When he built his first house, he hired someone to build a staircase, and it was horrible. He decided to do the work himself and started building staircases. He also did some cabinets, front doors and entrances -- mainly architectural specialties like a carved wooden pineapple above a doorway. Other builders would see the work and ask him to do work for them.
The idea for making hats came from a joke. Johannes used to wear a regular Western felt hat. When it wore out he joked about making a wooden hat that would never wear out. In 1990, a fellow woodturner was getting married and invited him to his wedding the theme of which was the American West. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to turn a wooden hat.
That first hat was poor by his current standards. He made about 100 of them before he got tuned in to a hat's aesthetics, and the small differences that make a hat perfect.
Johannes also makes Mini Hats, wall racks, hat stands and mirrors. Each full-size hat yields a ring of wood from the outside which he uses to make the mirrors, and a cone-shaped piece of wood from the inside that make the Mini Hats. They have a final thickness of less than one sixteenth of an inch and a brim size of five to seven inches.
If that isn't enough, he also makes Micro Hats, which fit on the thumb.
Johannes Michelson Visited Australia in March/April 2001. During his visit, he performed a number of demonstrations of hat making. Two visits were arranged for the Sydney Woodturning Guild, one at Western Region on Saturday, 31st March and at Southern Region on Sunday 1st April.
Members lucky enough to secure seats were treated to a full day of the most wonderful display of our craft it would be possible to imagine. Not only did Johannes provide a detailed account of how he makes hats but along the way explained tips and 'tricks of the trade'. No one left the demonstration without learning something new.
For more information about Johannes, visit his web site at http://www.woodhat.com/
The following photographs were taken at the Southern Region demonstration. Click on an image for a larger view.
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