Monday, January 2, 2012

Little Black Riding Cap

What'cha think of my new riding hat?! My man finally made me one of his cool leather hats! I super LOVE how it turned out!! The shape is perfect!



You'll have to excuse me while I catch my breath. Whew! Just returned from a brisk horse ride and photo shoot in the spooky woods... NOT!



We took these pics right in our yard. Looks convincing, though, right? I can just see me sitting up in the saddle as we stroll down a eerie windy path with owls hooting. One of the few times when there's a benefit to living in the sticks. :)



We made this hat, a tankard cover (for mom) and a top hat (for him) all out a piece of black leather we got at the local flea market when we bought a couple felt cowboy hats. All for under $20!! We may just have enough for yet another small hat, too! That hatband was a chain belt we recently found secondhand. I had just enough left to make a matching choker necklace (not pictured). I will be posting about the other hats very soon.



I was playing around with my makeup and photoshop for this quick shoot. Was going for a dark mysterious ghostly pale look. I think looking just plain lost in the woods is what I might've ended up with. ;) I really hate editing photos on the laptop. The monitor messes with my eyes. Didn't notice how overexposed the faces were until I got them over to a different monitor. I looked much different on the other. Grumble, grumble...



Anyway, love the hat, and it's been fun working on it together. I got to help design my hat. He doesn't know it yet, but I had the forethought to draw up the pattern in Adobe Illustrator while it was flat so that he can make me and my friends more in every color. Hee hee! I also have cardboard prototype half assembled that I may go ahead and finish out. I'm less inclined to now that this one is wearable. :)



Did I mention, of course, this one's not quite finished, yet. Never is. I'm still tinkering with the embellishing. I had planned on adding a large silver ornament to the front and back and some feather on the middle front. I'd also thought about coloring the contrasting raw edges so they don't stand out so much. But, I'm worried about overdoing it or screwing it up. Any thoughts?

Until next post, hope your new year is an improvement upon the last!

4 comments:

Leah said...

Great hat and great photo!

Julia said...

I love that hat! It ölooks amazing. It´s ok to look pale after a long, stressing ride in the woods :D

mieljolie said...

Especially with all the spooky sounds and shadows, right?! ;)

Seriously, that's what I get for being so fair and wearing mostly lack. The camera must have thought I was the light source.

Good News! We went to the leather store who was having a sale and picked up some more leather. So, just the last couple days he's already made us a couple more of these hats. (One's for mom.) Still have to decorate them, then I'll show them off. We're thinking of trying some tooling.

Mieljolie

Erika said...

Oh the hat is awesome and your pictures are lovely. I can't wait to see more of them. The shape reminds me a little of the Civil War Military hats.