three new blocks!

And by NEW blocks, I mean "custom made by this awesome artisan in the shop at the Seattle Children's Theatre" kindof new. Newly come into the world - just for me -squeaky squawky new. Here they am:

Squee!

From left to right we have:

• A very "I made this up myself" experimental kind of block, which can be sized down by taking off the 5/8" layers at the bottom. These are basically a series of tapered headsize plates. When I remove plates, the hat gets shorter but this style tends to scale down pretty well that way anyway. Each 5/8" layer adds about 1/2" to the circumference. Using the various configurations of this block, I can get various sizes from 21"(Gwenneth size) to 24.5"(Giles size). We'll see if the use of plywood for these plates is workable or not. This multi-block is on a base with two dowels that hold the entire apparatus together - like a spinner with two spindles. I need to sand down the dowels so that the layers can come off more easily, but it is totally working.
• A 23.5", slightly-taller-than-my-current-ones cavalier hat block. This is Thore'-and-everybody-else-who-has-ordered-this-year sized. My largest flat topped block before was 23". (Ok, I've also got this freakishly large 26" block that I made and used one time only for a theatre who needed a hat for this 18th century dude in a periwig, but that hardly counts.) Murphy's law says, of course, that now only people with 22" heads will want cavalier hats. But I'm prepared for that too :)
• A 23.5" tall hat block. Again, I had a 23ish one and a 24ish one, and this has a slightly different profile. (more like one of the extant ones.) Under this block is a spinner with a small enough spindle for the blocks I have. My collection of spinners is now less pathetic, though still not robust.

I can't wait to try these out!

But I haz to to wait. :( Cause I'm preparing to teach a full-day millinery workshop in LA this weekend!)

If ever there was a good reason to have to wait....that's sounds like one to me.

The to-do list is long, but shrinking every day.

Wish me luck :)