I forgot to take a "before picture" to show the top edge, I will show a picture of a similar papale to give you an idea of what it might have looked like. But first, in case you are wondering, who is Poncie Ponce?
Poncie Ponce was a Maui born actor in a 1950-60s TV series Hawaiian Eye. He was known for wearing a papale lauhala and carrying his ukulele. When I first started weaving, I heard this name when the kumu were talking about different styles while blocking the haumana's finished papale. Thank goodness for Google and Wikipedia! I don't know the "millinery" term for this type of style, but it's snappy and easy to wear.
Papale pa'ole have been crazy popular lately. I had an order for one but with a higher crown than the usual two inches. Strangely, keeping a straight edge on the ipu was more difficult with a wider band (for the taller crown). The koana shifted a lot and I wouldn't be able to just pull it back into place. My first attempt was >95% straight, only the area where I was "closing" on the ipu was uneven - see in the pictures below:
I thought I could do better, but the second attempt didn't come out as nice. EH thought it looked fine, it's just what happens with handmade crafts, he's always so supportive, I was disappointed. I often do that... I'll make a papale to the customer's specifications. If I'm not completely happy with the result, I make another (and sometimes another) until I am satisfied with the outcome. The customer then gets to see all of them and choose the one they want. They are all usually very nice papale, it's just my personal taste or thought of trying "what if" that motivates this. The second attempt at a straight edge on a taller pa'ole crown was just to see if I could improve my skills. It was cute except for the 80% straight top edge.
Later I remembered seeing a picture of another weaver's pa'ole online, I can't remember who, but it's worth mentioning because folding down the top edge is/was not my original idea. I thought it might work so I tried it on this papale. It appears that though the actual edge was slightly irregular, the row where I creased was straight.
It came out super cute!
At eye level it looks like a regular papale but the wearer gets the full ventilation of a pa'ole. Excellent for holoholo and bad hair days!
