Keryn Nicholson: Hatter / Runner / Baller / New Forever Sister

nicholsonhatcompany.com
@nicholsonhatco

The scene:
We are in The Old Tobacco House, which is Keryn’s studio and shop. It is a dream - like hanging out in a gem of history, a literal gold mine. It turns out that Keryn and I have been making our way toward each other’s lives and the stars have aligned. I am honored to say that by the end of this interview, I was inducted into the Nicholson clan, and the rest is history in the making. Join us for a delightful rambling exchange of a budding sisterhood.

Highlights:
+ The Old Tobacco House (where there is zero tobacco)
+ We love you Brooke Luallen!
+ Building custom hats
+ “Full classic Western-styled hats for the hard-wearing individual”
+ Cowboys and Ranchers are very particular about their hats
+ Using equipment from bygone eras
+ Dad’s Stetson Open Road hat is how it all started
+ Brandon Wise we love you! (Hatter in Venice, CA that we both know well)
+ Starting in a garage down an alley on the wrong side of the tracks
+ Trusting your intuition and KNOWING in your gut
+ Taking pride in and keeping your last name
+ Entering a very male-dominated field
+ Liking not belonging and proving yourself
+ We have the same favorite restaurant and we went to the same high school - in a small town!
+ Resilience, adaptability, not scaring easily
+ Being introverted and setting boundaries on people interactions
+ Learning your own tools for your personal success and contentment
+ Learning when to not be too self-reliant and ask for help
+ Researching your craft daily and always aiming for mastery
+ Bringing a lost craft back
+ A local friend, Graham, makes her wooden hat forms
+ A local plant dyer, Brooke Luallen (see our interview) dyes her hats
+ A local silversmith makes her hat pins
+ Shout-out to Wedding Dress Designers Brittany and Ashley at Daughters of Simone
+ Ultramarathons and timed trail runs
+ Making time for physical and mental self-care
+ PeaceCorps in Ethiopia as a Community HIV/AIDS educator
+ Grad school in London: NGO and International Relations
+ Thesis in bio-intensive and small-scale farming
+ Finding a creative outlet: sourcing vintage for resale
+ Hatting for 5 years, 3 years exclusively
+ Hard-core researching your craft
+ Secret local BYOB rodeos
+ Hat rules: never put your cowboy hat on the bed
+ Trust your gut and instincts, don’t listen to naysayers
+ Why to not apprentice: develop your own signature
+ The differences from a big-box store hat
+ Mutual respect and camaraderie amongst hatters
+ Not feeling “masterful enough” to take on an apprentice
+ Dear Harry Ayala, you sir are a baller! (see our interview)
+ Using social media tools to share your gift with the world
+ Sharing my personal hats: a hat reading, if you will
+ Hats represent the blood, sweat and tears of people’s lives

A taste:
“It has memory, like muscle memory. The felt literally has memory. The first time you pounce or sand the hat and the first shape you give it, after it’s blocked on an old block, it never forgets.”

Favorite saying: