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Company Focus: Jamali Garden, NYC, NY
Jul. 10th, 2008 06:42 amYesterday i took a trip to the Floral District in search of straw cloth for the impending fall millinery class.
In our unit on straw hat construction, we of course discuss traditional blocked straw hat methods, but we also talk about ways of creating hats using buckram style pieced-crown constructions and straw cloth or braid spiraled or woven into shape. I was on the hunt for rolls of woven abaca and sinamay.
Abaca fiber is from banana and related plants, and is a sturdy but flexible fiber woven with fairly thickish "straws"--sinamay is also from the same variety of plants but the fibers are much thinner and can be more fragile. If it helps to think of it this way, abaca is what you might see a sensible sun-hat made from, and sinamay is what you might see a light, airy fancy "church hat" made from. Both can be purchased in hoods and cartwheels for traditional hat-blocking, but also in rolls like cloth--usually the rolls are around 25"-36" wide, and several yards long.
So, i did a quick search online for places in NYC with rolls of abaca and sinamay and found the website of Jamali Garden, which featured rolls of both types of straw for around $15 apiece. Sweet! Jamali also opens at 6:30am, which was convenient (well, in a sense) because i could go before heading into work at 8:30.
Boy, i wish i could begin every day with a stroll through the Floral District! Barrels and paper cones of beautiful flowers filling the streets, which are blockaded with delivery trucks so there's no traffic. The evaporating mist of the flung-wide florist shops makes the dawn air cool, and the place smells amazing, like loam and a thousand-thousand blossoms. I did go directly to Jamali, but i passed several other shops of similar ilk along the way who probably had much the same stock. The thing is though, i wanted to go somewhere i could shop the store, then later shop online for reorders, so Jamali it was.
What a great place! Very small, with long aisles stacked to the ceiling, but a very helpful sales crew and wow, what inspiring stuff! Not only did i get my rolls of straw, but a number of other things for class--feather picks for hat garnitures, tiny sprays of faceted crystals, sinamay ribbon in a couple of colors and styles, and some shells with holes for stitching through. I didn't shop their ribbon too heavily, but they did have a lot of nice velvets and satins in huge rolls for wholesale prices.
I've still got a week's worth of work left on Shrek, but i'm also getting excited about fall--millinery and the upcoming shows back at PlayMakers! Gotta stock up on millinery supplies... :)
In our unit on straw hat construction, we of course discuss traditional blocked straw hat methods, but we also talk about ways of creating hats using buckram style pieced-crown constructions and straw cloth or braid spiraled or woven into shape. I was on the hunt for rolls of woven abaca and sinamay.
Abaca fiber is from banana and related plants, and is a sturdy but flexible fiber woven with fairly thickish "straws"--sinamay is also from the same variety of plants but the fibers are much thinner and can be more fragile. If it helps to think of it this way, abaca is what you might see a sensible sun-hat made from, and sinamay is what you might see a light, airy fancy "church hat" made from. Both can be purchased in hoods and cartwheels for traditional hat-blocking, but also in rolls like cloth--usually the rolls are around 25"-36" wide, and several yards long.
So, i did a quick search online for places in NYC with rolls of abaca and sinamay and found the website of Jamali Garden, which featured rolls of both types of straw for around $15 apiece. Sweet! Jamali also opens at 6:30am, which was convenient (well, in a sense) because i could go before heading into work at 8:30.
Boy, i wish i could begin every day with a stroll through the Floral District! Barrels and paper cones of beautiful flowers filling the streets, which are blockaded with delivery trucks so there's no traffic. The evaporating mist of the flung-wide florist shops makes the dawn air cool, and the place smells amazing, like loam and a thousand-thousand blossoms. I did go directly to Jamali, but i passed several other shops of similar ilk along the way who probably had much the same stock. The thing is though, i wanted to go somewhere i could shop the store, then later shop online for reorders, so Jamali it was.
What a great place! Very small, with long aisles stacked to the ceiling, but a very helpful sales crew and wow, what inspiring stuff! Not only did i get my rolls of straw, but a number of other things for class--feather picks for hat garnitures, tiny sprays of faceted crystals, sinamay ribbon in a couple of colors and styles, and some shells with holes for stitching through. I didn't shop their ribbon too heavily, but they did have a lot of nice velvets and satins in huge rolls for wholesale prices.
I've still got a week's worth of work left on Shrek, but i'm also getting excited about fall--millinery and the upcoming shows back at PlayMakers! Gotta stock up on millinery supplies... :)
