Paper Bag Hats by moses

It was nine years ago, while visiting the Mingei International Museum in Escondido California, that I viewed the collection “Crowning Glory” – Paper Bag Hats by moses. I was absolutely fascinated by his creativity recycling paper bags into extraordinary works of art. For some reason, I’ve had moses’ quirky and haute couture millinery creations on my mind this past week, so I decided to see what images I could find online to share with you, so you can enjoy them for yourself.

“Moses created more than 250 hats from paper bags contributed by merchants in his Hawaiian neighborhood. Made in a project room of the local library during the 1980s, the hats are imaginative, amusing and timeless sculpture.

Moses eventually gave up making hats, he had developed tendinitis or carpel tunnel. Living in a van along the shores of Oahu prompted him to donate these to the Mingei International Museum, Escondido, California.” View Laura Reilly’s Photo Stream of more Paper Bag Hats by Moses.

Read the brief article The Bag Hatter – artistic paper bag hats by Moses by Dona Z. Meilach.

“The Sun Rook hat alone (lower right image) took over 100 paper bags to create.” Jaime Zollars – Paper Forest

It pays to keep searching. I eventually stumbled upon moses’ daughter’s website. Kira Od, an artist and sculptor, has 255 images posted on her site of her father’s paper bag hats. All but thirteen hats were photographed by moses. All of moses’ hat have names. I would love to know the story behind each hat, their names and the local people modeling them, but we are left to using our imagination to create our own stories from his astonishing creations. Click on the photo below to enter Kira’s photo collection of Paper Bag Hats by moses.

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