Through Several Hands

The Panama Straw Hats, as we know are hand woven by the Ecuadorian weavers. That takes months to come to the halt but before the Panama Hats are completely finish from making it has to go through several hands of different artisans. All these artisans contribute a lot in creating the world’s finest Straw Hats.

When the weaving is done, the Panama Straw Hat is passed on to hands of the artisans one by one. There are five hands, which the Panama Straw Hats have to go through. The first is the rematador or rematadora. They do opposite what the weavers do-back weave the Straw Hats. They use some specialized weaving, quite different from the weaving done overall straw hat. The back weave done by the rematador or rematadora are on the brim’s outer edge. For a more finely woven hat, the back weave is also done more finely. Well you have to match the weaves.

After the rematador or rematadora has done their part, the Panama Hat ten goes to the hands of azocador. The azocador’s job is to tighten the back weaves carefully. The back weaves needs to be tightened each time round it goes.

There are always some loose ends of the straws hanging out from the weaving. This is the work to sort out for the cortadors. The cortadors will trim out the long straws and the brims of the Panama Hats. How they do, they will first cut off the straws on the edge to an inch long. Then, the Panama Straw Hat is turned inside out and cut the loose straws off.

When the loose straws are cut off, it is time for pounding the Panama Hats. This is done to soften the Straw Hat. The apaleador handles this job. They use big and hard mallets to pound the Panama Straw Hats. With the pounding, the straw of the Panama Hats becomes softer and flexible. The job is more hard than the pounding as they have to make sure that the Straw Hats are not pound too hard as that would damage the straw or too light as that would make the Straw Hat less softer. While the apaleador pound the Straw Hat, he will keep on dusting sulfur powders.

Meanwhile the Panama Straw Hats will again go on through the hands of the cortador from time to time. The Panama Straw Hats also have to go through the hands of the planchador. The job of the planchador is to iron the hat thoroughly. It is not an easy job to iron the Straw Hats. You need to iron it carefully with great effort to bring out the smoothness. The ironing just as weaving also depends on the artistry to get the best shape.