'Sad but joyful': Karyn Gingras reflects on making Gord Downie's Man Machine Poem hats

The woman who "crowned" Gord Downie on the Tragically Hip's recentMan Machine Poemtour says working with the artist and frontman was a powerful emotional experience and one she'll never forget.

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Millions of Canadianswatched in awe as Downie took the stage at each of the concert stops decked out in theatricalDavid-Bowie-esquemetallic leathers and a series ofwhimsical, feathered hats.

Karyn Gingras, a Toronto-based milliner originally from Sault Ste. Marie, worked with Downie to make those hats.

She said he wanted themto be nod to Bob Dylan on thealbum cover for Desire.She embellished the six creations with an array of vintage curio and feathers.

"Some of [the embellishments]are things I've gathered through my 28 years of working in millinery, a lotof them are pheasant feathers. Some of themcame from game hunters in northern Ontario. I had some porcupine quills that I had come across."

"[The stuff on the hats was]very much like the music, which shouts out to almost everywhere, from Saskatchewan to the Sault to Toronto, and everything in between," she said.

'I am crowning this man's head'

Gingras said Downieseemedgenuinely interested in the creative process of hat-making with her and for her,there was something poetic in adorning his head.

Downierecently revealed he's living with brain cancer.

"[It was] heart-wrenching but great, and you know sad, but joyful," Gingras said. "There was this amazing juxtapose. Emotionally I was up and down, like feeling great joy and really proud of the work, and other times just feeling like, 'Oh, here I am crowning this man's head,' who, for many, many Canadians,they interchange the word 'Gord' and 'God' very easily."

"It was a tremendous honour to be the hands that put the crown together."