We’ve made two fabulous custom top hats in the last couple of weeks. The first featured a tree design with a blue all-seeing eye and tiny horns. The flared shape gives it a dapper flair. We painted it in our new favorite color combo: deep smokey black and silver. Because of the eye and the fact that it’s an oak tree with tiny acorn accents, I’m calling it the Druid top hat.
The second one is a variation on a Diver Dan hat made for a steampunk cosplayer for last year’s DragonCon. This time we went fully into the Jules Verne “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” stylings. It’s got 2 brassy looking portholes, barnacle encrustations, a giant squid and a pipe organ! We call it the Captian Nemo, of course. Have you seen the 1954 Disney movie? James Mason as the good Captain, plays the classic spooky Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor on an ornate golden pipe organ. Paul had a lot of fun sculpting those little pipes and getting the flare just right.
These hats have a wool base and despite their size weigh 2 pounds or less. We love making top hats because there is so much surface to decorate and the folks that order them tend to be super creative and theatrical.
Here’s to more custom top hats in 2015!