Hats off to Diane Sutherland

ANNOTTO BAY, St Mary:

Not all straw hats are created equal, and the creative process involved in transforming palm fronds into products - such as the very popular Jippa Jappa, among other kinds of headgear - is very labour intensive, requiring a creative eye and dexterity of hand that Diane Sutherland has long mastered.

The resident of Glengoffe, St Catherine, travelled to the St Mary Agri Expo to peddle her wares on Easter Monday, where she took time to explain the tedious procedure, which starts with gathering the raw material from the bushes. Then it gets very interesting, involving cooking. Yes, cooking, as Sutherland explained.

She told The Gleaner: "You cook it like you cooking your food, with salt to get it white, and you have to preserve it."

Preservation

Great care must be taken during this preservation step to ensure that the 'green' palm is not spoilt. According to the veteran craft maker, great care must be taken to ensure that the blades of straw, which are placed outdoors to be cured by the sunlight, do not get wet, or they will mildew and spoil.

About a week later, when the straw has dried properly and it has been separated into the requisite width, the process begins by making the 'button' in the middle and weaving outward. After the plaiting is completed, the hat is then bleached with rock sulphur to ensure uniform whitening and placed on a mould for the shape to set.

Still, there is some way to go. The raffia designs that involve sewing a pattern on to the hat is the final stage.

For Sutherland, creating craft items from palm and other plant material has been a familiar way of life, something she has been doing for "30-odd years", having started while in school. In fact, it was the earnings from this skill which her parents used to school her.

The St Catherine resident, who sells at the Kingston Craft Market, also sells bankra baskets, but admits that someone else makes these. This process starts with gathering Rose Apple saplings for constructing the frame into which the straw is woven after it has set.

Along with her husband, whose wood carvings are also part of her inventory, Sutherland is proud to be keeping this creative traditional art form alive. She boasted that all the Jippa Jappa hats worn by students of the Westwood High School in Trelawny originate from Glengoffe.

She believes that if more Jamaicans knew about all the hard work involved in preparing the raw material - the heavy losses sometimes suffered during the curing process - they would be more appreciative of the true value of craft items and might not be so quick to cry down the prices.