Fiona Neylan

Fiona Neylan is a milliner, who has also recently got back into art and watercolours.

"I have been doing hats, and doing up hats, since 2008," she said. "My grandmother was a milliner and had a shop in Henley-on-Thames and my mother an aunt worked in there and took it over. They also used to do up hats so I learnt a bit growing up.

"It was something that was part of my life but I never thought I would do hats because I went off and studied fine art and sculpture at art college.

"It was later on when I had children that I found a box of old hats, but they were beautiful quality, old vintage felt hats, but they hadn't been shaped, and that sparked my interest. I looked into how to shape hats and went on a couple of courses. I found all that really interesting and I started making my own hats."

www.instagram.com/fionaneylan

Fiona has also rediscovered her love of drawing and painting, which visitors will also be able to see if they visit the studio during Dorset Art Weeks.

She added: "I felt I haven't had enough time to do it because I have been doing hats for quite a while. I felt I needed to branch out and do more drawing and painting and I have started doing watercolours now and I want to tie it in and bring watercolours into my hats."

Fiona buys in some of her hats and enjoys decorating them and also has a range of bags, scarves and dresses to compliment the hats.

"I can make hats from scratch but there's a lot of work involved and I've done quite a lot over the years, so at the moment I am enjoying decorating them.

"I try and have a variety of hats - special occasion hats, wedding hats, sun hats, everyday hats, rain hats, berets, straw hats, Panamas."