{"id":102,"date":"2016-07-07T20:39:20","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T20:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brentblack.com\/cart\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2016-07-13T22:51:15","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T22:51:15","slug":"tour-tightening-the-panama-hat-brim-edge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/hat-lore-overview\/tour-how-a-panama-hat-is-made\/tour-tightening-the-panama-hat-brim-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Tightening the Brim Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tour_09_01_IMG_4197\"These hands belong to Victoria. She is the wife of Rosendo\u00a0Delgado. I have known her for almost twenty years. She has always been a\u00a0special favorite of mine.<\/p>\n

She is very smart. Very sly. More than anyone else, she goes along with my\u00a0many jokes and pranks. She never hesitates to play a prank on me. Never\u00a0hesitates to hurl insults in my direction. From Victoria, when we are playing,\u00a0they are like Valentines. If I start up with some line of bull, Victoria will\u00a0often go along with me and we will collaborate to spin some goofy yarn, just to\u00a0see if we can persuade the other person to believe us. She was willing to be\u00a0part of a five-person conga line in the streets of Montecristi. Sober.<\/p>\n

Honestly\u2014how many people do you ever know in a lifetime who would do\u00a0that with you? Victoria is a much better dancer than I.<\/p>\n

\n

\"tour_09_02_vicfau_116_1607\"Here she is putting a funny hat on Fausto. I brought the hat. And a camera.\u00a0What a coincidence.<\/p>\n

Fausto was a cortador<\/em>. He is 90-something in these photos. He looked much\u00a0the same at 70-something. There are several photos of Fausto in the next\u00a0section. Like Victoria, Fausto was also a better dancer than I. But I was\u00a0gaining on Fausto after he passed 90. Victoria, not so much.<\/p>\n

\"tour_09_03_faufoo_116_1604\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_09_04_IMG_4179\"The azocadora<\/em> receives the hat after the rematadora\u00a0<\/em>loosely weaves the back\u00a0weave. Then the\u00a0azocadora<\/em> carefully pulls the back weave tight.<\/p>\n

In the photo to the left, look by her left thumb. You can see where the edge\u00a0is wider before she pulls, and narrower after she pulls. Like most things\u00a0related to the hats, this is a lot harder than it looks.<\/p>\n

Below right, Victoria clowns for the camera. She did that on her own. I did\u00a0not suggest it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"tour_09_05_IMG_4210\"\"tour_09_06_IMG_4231\"\"tour_09_07_IMG_4233\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_09_08_IMG_5265\"\"tour_09_09_IMG_5401\"This is Don Clemente. He is an\u00a0azocador<\/em>. I have known him for years. He\u00a0works on almost all of my hats now.<\/p>\n

On most of my hats, the back weave is tightened three times, three complete\u00a0revolutions around the brim edge. Each time around, the back weave is tightened\u00a0a little more. To tighten it all at once would cause the brim edge to pucker\u00a0and distort.<\/p>\n

\n

\"tour_09_10_IMG_5477\"<\/p>\n

\"tour_09_12_IMG_5331\"\"tour_09_11_IMG_5399\"Look how small that is.<\/p>\n

This is slow, patient work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_09_13_IMG_5385\"\"tour_09_14_IMG_5428\"\"tour_09_15_IMG_5511\"<\/p>\n

\n

Above, the azocador<\/em> wets the back weave before he begins\u00a0to tighten it. His experience tells him how long to leave the hat in the pan of water. If the straw is too wet, it becomes too soft and stretchy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_09_16_IMG_5430\"\"tour_09_17_IMG_5442\"\"tour_09_18_IMG_5540\"<\/p>\n

\n

You can easily see that the hat he is working on in the\u00a0photo above right and in all three photos below is a very finely woven hat. It\u00a0is one of Sim\u00f3n\u2019s. Look how it glows as the light shows through.\u00a0It is a jewel. I have it here now. Wish you had it there? Get a home equity\u00a0loan then give me a call.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_09_19_IMG_5682\"\"tour_09_20_IMG_5681\"\"tour_09_21_IMG_5683\"<\/p>\n

\n

The back weave of Sim\u00f3n\u2019s hats, and other\u00a0hats that are very, very fine, is tightened even more carefully and slowly.\u00a0Each of these special hats requires five revolutions, five painstakingly slow\u00a0turns around the outer brim edge, tediously tightening little by\u00a0little.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_09_23_IMG_5641\"<\/p>\n

\"tour_09_24_IMG_5583\"\"tour_09_25_IMG_5632\"<\/div>\n
\"tour_09_26_IMG_5600\"\"tour_09_27_gabaz217b\"<\/div>\n

Compare the two hats above. The hat above right, below\u00a0center and left, is not as finely woven as Sim\u00f3n\u2019s. Few hats\u00a0are.<\/p>\n

\"tour_09_28_IMG_5507\"\"tour_09_29_IMG_5455\"\"tour_09_30_IMG_5661\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"tour_09_31_IMG_5631\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tour_10_teaser\"Next, the cortador trims the brims and other\u00a0long straw.<\/p>\n

Next Page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These hands belong to Victoria. She is the wife of Rosendo\u00a0Delgado. I have known her for almost twenty years. She has always been a\u00a0special favorite of mine. She is very smart. Very sly. More than anyone else, she goes along with my\u00a0many jokes and pranks. She never hesitates to play a prank on me. Never\u00a0hesitates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":1011,"parent":86,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"tour-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-102","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3605,"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions\/3605"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.brentblack.com\/cart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}