I’ve been really pleased with my Steampunk Top Hat so far, but it really needed to have ventilation holes in the front and back as well, not only for Aesthetic Reasons but for airflow.
I had a good friend who does amazing leatherwork make me gear-shaped gaskets for the front and back to add some pinache, and I dyed them the same dark brown as the other gaskets, shown here prior to installation with and without the brass mesh:
I’m really happy with the final results!
My regular steampunk attire hat is just a Top Hat from Wild West Mercantile (go buy from them, they are an awesome company!), but it lacked any steampunk elements…
I originally had an idea to add a fan (I live in the desert, after all) but it hasn’t worked out quite right yet.
First, I cut holes in the sides…
…and cut, punched, and dyed a leather “gasket” to go around it, held in place with decorative brass bolts from Ace (btw, brass bolts are EXPENSIVE! Around $0.40 each!):
Then I found a guy on ebay who sells bronze/brass “insect screen” for a great price (link to his ebay store), and bought some 6″x6″ pieces (on sale for $1.99 each!):
Viola!
For the top, I’d originally wanted to do a fan (now relegated to v2.0), so I’d cut a hole that fit a 40mm fan. I decided that the top needed more than just the wire screen like I did on the side (to protect the top of my head from the sun) and found some nifty decorative screen at Home Depot, and duplicated the same leather gasket and brass bolts look:
Now, the completed hat!
I’m really pleased with the overall look, and its much more steampunk than before, just in time for Phoenix ComicCon this weekend!
There is no way I could have done this without regular input from The Artist Wife, from making templates to helping me mark the right spot for the holes. Thanks, Babe!
(Edit: I realized some of my picture links were broken…fixed!)
Suddenly even more eager to finish up the goggles project, I stopped at Tandy Leather and picked up a package of 1/2″ saddle strap, which is a nice thick but flexible latigo leather in a nice dark red color. Adding a brass buckle and brass smash rivets brought the total to less than $10!
The Arist Wife came up with a great suggestion to replace the ugly ball chain nose piece with some brass compression fittings she had bought for jewelry, and I added the double 5x loupe set I bought to fit using a 90 degree grease zerk which worked perfect!
Then today we went to Wild West Mercantile, a Old (and Modern) West store thats got a great online presence (and good prices!) as well as a huge local storefront!
I found the perfect Top Hat with just the “John Bull” style I wanted for very reasonable ($35).
Without further ado, the completed project: goggles and top hat, for about $55 total! Vivat!
(Click any link for a larger view)
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