Rachel Frost
Rachel is a celebrated Scottish hatmaker and historian, using a variety of traditional craft skills to create both historical hats and original designs. Hatmaking combines Rachel's passions for folk tradition, historical craft and sustainability, inspiring her to use natural materials, foraged plant fibres, natural plant dyes and low-impact technology. She specialises in hand-felting hats using a traditional "hatter's bow", the use of which died out in the 19th Century due to mechanisation. Rachel is currently the only person in Europe using this process.
Rachel's work is highly regarded, with pieces found in collections worldwide. She received the Janet Arnold Award for costume study in 2009 to conduct a study of early felt hats in British collections. Since then she has continued to research the pre- industrial history of felt hat making, and is currently conducting a global study of this little-known craft, which has taken her to Hungary, Turkey and Mexico. Rachel has also been awarded the South of Scotland VACMA award twice for her hat business.
Her hats can be seen on stage and screen, and are in demand by both the fashion and heritage industries.
Rachel's Pieces for Forgotten Fleece Tales
Rachel has created a contemporary sculptural hat, showcasing both historical hatmaking techniques and Rachel's own specially developed felting techniques for creating high-quality felt suited to hats.
This unique piece merges the artistry of traditional hatmaking with contemporary sculptural form, featuring a dense pile of handspun loops in hand-spun, naturally dyed yarn. This traditional method of "thrumming" is a technique historically associated with 16th-Century seamen's hats.
The hat's felted base is made from merino wool mill waste, while the wool thrums and ties are sourced from rachel's own flock of Corriedale/Manx Loaghtan sheep, handspun into chunky yarn and stitched to recreate historic texture. The edge braid is woven on an inkle loom using dead stock yarn from a now-closed borders mill.