craftygal porch - Interview with Trudy of Trudy Made Hats

If you were to ask around Rochester, NY about crafty gals, I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard the name Trudy Feikert a few dozen times. She has a reputation for being involved in or associated with everything and everyone hip and crafty in this town. But most of all, she’s known for the amazing hats she makes.

Trudy Made Hats have been sold to musicians such as Orbital, South American superstar Xuxa (pronounced shoo-sha), and BT (also known as Brian Transeau) who’s best known for remixing Tori Amos’ song "Blue Skies." Her hats are sold in New York City at stores like Patricia Fields and Hotel Venus. They’re also popular in New Orleans with the Mardi Gras crowd, and on the Renaissance Fair circuits.

Trudy credits her mom with getting her interested in crocheting, but says she was always making crazy art projects, both in and out of school. In fifth grade she attended an art program for gifted students at Oswego State, and went on to get her BFA in Metal & Jewelry Design from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). But while she was there, she found herself inexplicably drawn to the Textiles department. "I used to spy through the window at the textiles classes the whole time." So she spent a lot of time in that area as well, but overall, she didn’t find college to be the most ideal place for creating. "College was a good experience, because it did teach me good craftsmanship skills — I can tell if something’s well made — but when it comes down to it you have to have a passion for it. You have to be driven to finish a project and get it to a point where you want to present it to somebody and you know that it represents you; that item has your name on it."

She goes on to say that her pieces weren’t necessarily well received in that environment, though. "I found at college that because I made stuff that was fun, I wasn’t taken as seriously. People didn’t respect me as much as my fellow students who were making depressing things… with undertones of evil, remorse, or sadness. Everyone wondered why my stuff didn’t have any ‘content,’ like happy wasn’t a way to be.""But," Trudy says, "a lot of [becoming successful] is being in the right place at the right time." She reminisces about her first big break: "I was making these crowns out of metal my senior year. People would ask me what I was doing and I would say, ‘I don’t know, I’m just making them.’ Then I entered this wig competition at a club. To get into it, I took one of my metal crowns and attached hair to it and ended up winning 2^nd place. That’s what made me think I could sell them in other places.

"So I was shoe shopping on 8^th Street, when I saw this store... It was this big club-kid, Japan-fashion place, with all kinds of fake-fur everything, and I was like ‘This is the place!’ I don’t care about the stupid Craft Council Show I just did in Baltimore with the snooty buyers walk around in their black outfits and their ugly art glasses on. Screw that! I want drag queens to wear my hats, or whoever. It’s like there’s these two worlds — the fashion world and the crafts world, and I don’t really want to be part of either of them. So I saw this store and I thought ‘Oh my god, this is the place!’ and I went in and talked to the guy and said ‘This may sound crazy but I make these crowns…’ but he understood and said ‘Next time you’re in town, come in with some.’"

"Getting my stuff in that store right away inspired me because it wasn’t really metalsmithing and yet it was, but it was kind of textiles — so it was more my own thing… I mean, you can make new things out of metal but a lot of it’s just bracelets and earrings. But I found I was always making things that would be easier to make out of textiles anyway, so I just surrendered and stopped worrying about metalsmithing and started making hats."

When asked where she thinks her business is heading now, she says she thinks of opening up a studio to sell her hats — possibly even making jewelry on the side because it’s more lucrative, but that would stay secondary. What Trudy is more sure of, is where she’s not going.

"I don’t ever want to have to pay someone to make my hats for me. I want to be the only one making my hats. For you to put your name on something, you should’ve made it — and I don’t care if your name is Tommy Hilfiger or something else. I’m sure someday someone will steal my ideas and make them in a factory but that’s not what I want to do… and it’ll bum me out when it happens. I had a fashion designer once tell me I was an idiot for not mass-producing my hats, because she could see the dollar signs. I mean, it would be nice, but I don’t want someone to say ‘Make 50 of those.’ If someone wants a custom color I can do that, but there are very few things that I would make a production item out of. That’s just the way I feel."

The length of the creation process varies depending on what materials are used, the size of the yarn and the hook — but Trudy estimates that each hat averages about 3 to 5 hours to make. Some of the more complex ones, with lots of loops or added touches like feathers, tend to take longer. She’s back-ordered right now and admits to feeling a lot of guilt and pressure. She also has concerns about taking care of herself in order to keep producing. "My hands get worn out… If I do too many hats I can feel it in my hands, so I know I’ve got limits."

And while she won’t be hiring people to actually make her hats for her, she does dream of hiring an art rep. She thinks a lot of art folks suffer from self-esteem problems due to selling their own stuff. "It’s easier when someone’s selling it for you, so you’re detached from any negative comments people make about your stuff, or the price. You don’t hear people ask if you can come down on the price and assume you’re stuff isn’t worth that much. It’s hard to represent yourself."

But for now, Trudy is enjoying what she does and looking for new opportunities for her craft. "I’d like to just custom-make hats for people and make them happy." And what greater goal for crafting can there be?