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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Steampunk: Top Hat

This isn't completely finished yet...but pretty close.:)









With the goggles...which really set it off:



And here's the brooch I was working on to put on the hat....I want to get a small clock to attach to this, but otherwise the brooch itself is finished:

And here I'm showing the brooch against the hat....it's going to be up in the middle of the lacing...






And some random pics:







Steampunk: Flint Lock Pistol Photoshoot

I know I posted this as finished the other night, but I took some good pics of it today:




Steampunk: Choker -FINISHED

So far I've got 3 of 5 of my Steampunk costume projects finished....pretty good.:D



Steampunk: Goggles -FINISHED

As far as I'm concerned, these goggles are now finished.....at least, for the time being.:D



I'm 'really' pleased with these -they look fantastic and I'm so thrilled.:D

Lots of detail pics to follow:











Steampunk: Top Hat WIP -part 5

I seem to do my best work late at night, so lastnight I did quite a bit more work on my hat and I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out...






I took pics at various steps of the hat-makeover:



-I picked up a black leather purse from Goodwill and cut up one of the panels to make these straps. And for the nail heads, I used some small brass nails I found in the jewelry section at Hobby Lobby. I used some small jewelry wire cutters and cut the stalk from the stud-head so I could just glue these down smoothly.   E6000 glue was great for this.


-I drew out the pattern for the straps on some brown packaging paper and then using a white gel pen, I traced that pattern onto the leather. The gel ink came off easily with some light rubbing and water.

I honestly was having my doubts about the hat up to this point...once the straps were in place, I was certainly feeling better about how the hat was turning out. The blue of the corset piece, unfortunately, doesn't show up as dominantly in real life as it does here in these photos with the flash. The brown sticks out more than the blue.

-
-I'm still undecided about this decorative piece above the lacing...but it's already glued on, so it's staying.

I wanted to add feathers to the hat...so I was playing around with the idea of doing the feathers alone or adding the brooch to it:

-I like the brooch with the feathers like this, but realized that it's not a good idea on the side of the hat since once I put the goggles on the hat, it could potentially rip the brooch right off.
But it is a handsome arrangement like this.











-I really like the addition of the chocolate-brown satin, it kicks the whole hat up a notch and I added in more of the leather clasps.  
-Amazingly...I bought half a yard of this beautiful dark red ribbon a long time ago...I don't even remember when or where anymore, but it was 'just enough' for this corseted piece. I was afraid it wasn't going to go all the way, but it did.:D Serendipity at work!!:D










-I played around with the angle of the feathers for a bit... before making a final decision and gluing them down:






I've still got some work to do on this hat...got a large brooch I'll be putting in the center of the lacing and am debating on trying to sculpt an octopus to attach to it...we'll see on that, otherwise...this is it: