Object, steamed pine, waxed thread and raffia, 2026
Samurai hats have fascinated me for years, and Ghost of Tsushima, the game I was playing at the time, is full of them. I set out to weave one of my own.
There was no bamboo to be found in the Netherlands, and my only guide was a video that cut away at every important moment. So I copied what I could see and invented the rest: study the master, then make it your own.
The frame is thin pine strips, softened in boiling water and slowly massaged into a circle. Pine breaks easily, and it kept breaking. Waxed bookbinding thread holds it together, and the outside is woven in raffia.
I grew up in Brașov, a city in Transylvania surrounded by pine forest. A Japanese form, rebuilt in the pine I know.
Inside: the steamed pine frame that carries the weave.Tipped over: raffia woven over the pine frame.Front view: the woven dome and the raffia crest.Turned over in the hand, showing the pine frame.Tipped on its side.Thrown down, crest first.Side view with the loose crest.
