Lincon Artist Profile: Mary Pattavina

By Rachel Sullivan

When Lincoln entrepreneur Mary Pattavina graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in studio art in 2003, she ignored her creative voice like so many before her, choosing instead to take on a more practical job at an insurance agency. To an artistic person such as herself, the job was stifling. 

To supplement her need to create, Pattavina began making hats and other crafts in her spare time. After a year and a half at the insurance agency, she quit her job, earned her masters in apparel design and started creating her unique headwear full time. 

Pattavina is a milliner; or, in more recognizable 21st century terms, someone who makes hats, fascinators and other hair do-dads. A fascinator is headgear that is smaller than a hat and attaches to the hair with a clip or comb. As for do-dads, they are comprised of a variety of things. 

“Do-dads is more of an umbrella term, really,” Pattavina said. “They’re headbands or ribbons, or anything that doesn’t fall into the category of fascinator.”       

While Pattavina runs a business where she constructshandmade headwear, it does not fall into a strictly traditional business category. Her store and all her products are found principally online, a trade known as e-tailing. She runs and designs her own Web site, www.prettygoodthings.com, alongside social networking sites Etsy, Facebook, Flickr, Blogspot and Twitter, all in an effort to promote her business strictly online.      

Her studio is in a sunny, small corner room in the back of her home. It is crammed to the brim with materials, fabric pieces, threads and fragments of unfinished projects. Although it may appear messy to the casual observer, everything is organized into categories. Even the stacks of fabrics are organized by color. Multihued Tibetan prayer flags hang above her workspace alongside Elvis posters, vintage advertisements and stickers bearing Pattavina’s brand name, Pretty Good Things. 

The self-taught Web designer’s Web site style reflects the ideal aesthetic for her target market: charismatic, playful, energetic and feminine. She values independence, all things handmade and authenticity. The mission statement of her art is “highlighting your awesomeness.”

“The target market for any designer is a projection of what you want to be,”  Pattavina said. “It’s like a brighter, shinier version of you.”

Her headwear designs often focus around nature. “Nature hands you inspiration on a platter,” she said. Indeed, nature’s influence can be seen throughout Pattavina’s line with motifs like flowers, butterflies, feathers, vine-like ribbons and even a fascinator featuring a flocked toy deer. 

Traditional headgear plays a role in her designs as well. Many of the bases and basic forms are drawn from tradition, but their appearances are often dramatically different, featuring wild forms, a more modern color palette and dramatic elements. For example, the bun-bun fascinator features a fist-sized satin, herringbone or boucle bulb offset by hand-dyed duck feathers. The traditional elements can still be recognized, but the design is all Pattavina. 

She discovers many of her preferred materials through trial and error and impulse buys at the craft store. Often, she will find items that look interesting and build a design around them, a method that brought about the creation of one of her most popular pieces, the “Oh Deer” headband fascinator. 

On a whim, she bought a few fuzzy deer toys from a toy supplier. She then attached one to a piece crafted from a repurposed cashmere sweater and fashioned it into a headband. The design has since evolved into a deer dressed as a ballet dancer, and Pattavina hopes to give it even more roles.  

If Pattavina has a design in mind, she picks fabric based on integrity. At times, she’ll pick up fabric simply because she likes the pattern, texture or color. Lately, she has been working with repurposed materials, including fabric she recycles from Goodwill buys or her own wardrobe.

Her pieces range from low-key feminine flower clips torestored vintage hats to sculptural squids and include everything in between. She often hears that her designs are too outlandish for a Nebraska audience, an opinion she is quick to dismiss.

“People tell me they love the design, but say, ‘I could never wear that,’” Pattavina said. Instead, she encourages people to give the hats a try before they convince themselves they couldn’t pull off the look. “It might feel weird at first, but it feels pretty good.” 

In the future, Pattavina said that she would like to make more “silly hats,” with more diorama-esque scenes like with the “Oh Deer” fascinator. In addition to her staple pieces, she also hopes to create more artistic pieces, less for wearing and more for making an artistic statement in the home. She has made a few of these pieces so far and her background in sculpture is strongly evident in them.

Pattavina also does custom work, what she calls “Custom Me headpieces.” Clients must fill out a questionnaire so she can get an idea of each individual’s personality and provide a photo for visual inspiration. She then comes up with three different designs and the client chooses his or her favorite.

Pattavina said, “The Custom Me pieces are a great way for the client to have design input and really feel they are a part of the whole process. Their personality inspires the design and I personally find this method of design ideation and creation a fun challenge.” Anyone interested in a Custom Me headpiece can e-mail Pattavina under “Contact” at prettygoodthings.com. 

Though it’s been a long road, Mary Pattavina is loving the artisan life, paving her own way and figuring everything out as she goes. In the “About Me” section of her Web site, she lays out her artistic beliefs, the heart and soul of prettygoodthings.com:  

“I believe you are awesome. 

I believe style is all about letting your own unique awesomeness within shine. 

I believe style is about having fun and being confident with who you are and what you wear. 

I believe you can wear a crazy hat out on the town or in the privacy of your own home while you answer emails or vacuum the living room floor.”

It’s a tale come true for any artist hoping to live a purely artist’s life -- a difficult road that has been worth the trouble. As Mary says on her Web site,“Once upon a time, I didn't listen to my true self because I was worried about the "shoulds" of life and was afraid to take a risk or two. I was miserable. Now I make hats, fascinators and hair do-dads. It's pretty awesome. Oh, and guess what? I am happier than ever.

”Pattavina’s work can be found on her Etsy shop, at local stores Stella and The Black Market, and, of course, on her Web site, prettygoodthings.com. 

Comments

[Ember]

Mary's hats are awesome!

[nolan]

i got a custom fascinator for my girlfriend for christmas, and i'm pretty sure that's why she fell in love with me.