Drat, Blogspot!

Have a post all ready except for the photo and Blogspot will not let me load the photo! So never fear--back tomorrow (this isn't one of those nights where I just forget).

A Fashion Triumverate

Here it is:
Lisa Fonssagrives Penn in Balanciaga photographed by Irving Penn. Doesn't get much better than that. I worship her--always have--perfect beauty, fascinating woman.

CD

Like I said, they can't all be masterpieces. This is hat base, cheap scarf, and bright blue AOL CD on top. Nothing profound. This was briefly called Head Wound.

Drunken Garden

This was to be a variation on the Garden Party Hat. But on some of the flowers I removed the wire stems so that they flopped listlessly over.

Tissot

Sargent is a better artist in many ways (and I based my wedding gown on Madame X), but Tissot is the best to use as a source. I did a paper project of Midsummer's Night Dream where the Greeks were in Tissot gowns and the fairies were in trompe l'oeil.

Rakish Raffia

The hat is one I've worn. It's a sleeve from a medieval coat with one end gathered up. The raffia I had left from a window dressing job and they just seemed to go together.

Another person I'd love to be, or at least know

Isabella Blow

(and no, I did not mean for that to rhyme).

Ombre Ribbon

This one doesn't have a name because it's in progress. It's made of woven wired ribbons shaped to form the crown and stiffened with a spray on fabric stiffener.

Cushion Your Fall

I've been saving this one. This was the showpiece from "Far Away." The main character has to make it on stage and then it has to be in the parade, so there were four versions of this--three in various stages of development for her to work on and this one. It is, obviously, a top hat base, with three small handmade silk pillows stitched on top. The green fabric is patterned in leaves and I used it for the apron that her aunt wears in the first scene when she's a child. It's stiffened with iron on interfacing and the edge is cut to follow the shape of the leaves. This was a completely planned hat (see the early for designed vs. found), but when it was done I still felt it needed something. At the time I was working during the day as a visual merchandiser for a fabric store and I ran through the aisles looking for something to embellish it. The four points are knitting needles of translucent plastic in various gauges. The title comes from a certain style of ladies riding helmet (the top hat would have been lined in metal to protect during falls) that were worn with a sweep of netting tied round the band often creating the bell shape echoed above. Obviously one would like to fall on pillows and not knitting needles.

Skunk Cabbage Rose

There's a word game sometimes called "First/Last" where you have the first word of a two word phrase and the second word of another two word phrase and you have to find the missing word that would fulfill both phrases--skunk cabbage/cabbage rose. I'm not actually sure what skunk cabbage looks like but this seemed appropriate, looking like I think it would smell (art is about impression). It's a yarn scarf from a craft store on a foam ring with a velvet flower on it. I'd almost forgotten this one, but I liked it a lot and I'm sorry I didn't save it.

Foam

I sort of imagined the shape and the ombre edging and sketched it for the director who liked it so then I had to make it. In a better material it could be quite successful.

Ammo and Glass

I went back and forth on calling this one Army Dreamers after the Kate Bush song or Ammo and Glass. I did convince the sound designer to use Experiment IV as the ending music (credit music? exit music?) for the lines, "They told us/what they wanted/was a sound that could kill someone/from a distance/so we go ahead/and the metres are over in the red," thus getting in my Kate tribute. It's a plastic bowl, plant fronds (and fake fiddle heads--a creepy plant to me), glass stones and a bias strip cut from some other project. Again, a hard hat to wear in the show, but then so are real army helmets (wore one in a show, almost concussed myself every night). In the end the title is an homage to Wizard and Glass by Stephen King, part of the Dark Tower set. A glass helmet would be very foolish, yes? Sometimes though, on the right actor all I could think of was Arte Johnson in Laugh In, peering from around the bushes, "Vewy Intewesting." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how my mind works.

Trash Day

Not all could be masterpieces. This has doll parts on it, and I almost didn't put it in the show, but oddly enough, the director thought it was fantastic and made the pregnant cast member wear it every night. Creepy

Safe as Houses

This was sort of a combination of planned and found. I knew I wanted to build a tower on a hat base--I just wasn't sure what I would build it out of. SPONGE! Just like cards, only easier to glue.

Fairy Ring

Boa wrapped on wire. An alum of my college made and sold hats that were fabric wrapped wire under the name "This Mortal Coil." This is my variation. I have this one. I'm hoping for an occasion to wear it.

The queen

Nothing more to be said...

Silk Purse

Horrible I know but this is made of pig's ears that they sell in pet stores. I'm not sure who was lucky enough to wear it. I had to store it on a high shelf because my dog kept thinking it was for him (I don't feed him pig's ears regularly--he just knew). I knew I wanted something frighteningly organic for one of the hats and this was it.

The Hun

I'm back from my vacation--much to write back at Novel Eye but no time to write it.

This hat started with another of those fantastic boas on a cheap straw hat with a dollar Christmas tree topper on it. The shape reminds me of the helmets worn by the Mongolian armies.

In honor of my trip

I'm off tomorrow morning to San Francisco to see the man in the picture above in concert. Posting will be suspended until I return over the weekend.

Nanny McPhee

Watched this this evening and thought this was a lovely hat even though it's on an awful character brilliantly played beneath the prosthetics by Angela Lansbury.

Pox

I have a morbid mind. A friend had given me a bag of these beads and the red hat cost a dollar I think and I thought they looked like pustules. There you go...