Top Hat Project

 I have had a lot of fun with this kit from Faith Pocock Craft Studio. The kit makes up a top hat and is pretty awesome.  However after looking at the hat for a couple of weeks I had still had not figured out what I was going to do with it. I do like my projects to be functional if possible. So anyway finally the hat told me that it wanted  to be not a hat, but a vase.  After that everything fell into place.

   

I assembled the hat and then looked at standing the hat on its head and having the brim up as there was already a hole in the bottom. However I did not like the way it looked so I cut out a hole in the top of the hat. I found a black Tresemme shampoo bottle in my bathroom which fit into the hole in the hat. So after cutting down the shampoo bottle I covered the hole in the bottom of the hat with chipboard. 

To decorate the hat I glued tissue paper to the outside. This provides texture. Then I used modeling paste through a stencil to provide more texture.  I then used clay in moulds to make the pipes, taps and water droplets. I then added some of Faith's MDF cogs along with some small metal cogs.  I used an old chain around the brim and some metal nuts.

Once everything was dry and I was happy with how it all looked I used a spray primer and the sprayed with black spray paint to make sure that the black covered every nook and cranny. I left the paint to cure for a few days to make sure that everything was dry.  For the final coat I drybrushed the whole piece with Art Alchemy Steampunk paint and Brushed Iron wax 

I thought then I was finished but I put some artificial flowers in the hat vase and I did not like how they looked. I then tried real flowers because the shampoo bottle holds water but again I was not happy. So I decided to make my own steampunk flowers.  I used MDF cogs, snap fasteners, sewing pins, quilt pins, safety pins, hooks and eyes, tabs from drink cans, plastic forks, wire, upholstery pins and other bits and pieces I found in my stash aka 'hoard'. I used knitting needles for the stems and die cut the leaves from a foil roasting pan.  Once finished I sprayed them with primer and black spray paint and dry brushed them with Inca Gold and Finnabair waxes.  I think they work well with the hat vase.

I loved this project and I am grateful that Faith lets me alter her kits to fit my twisted vision of things.  Check out the fabulous kits on her site and find something that you can alter.

I have entered this project into the challenge over at the Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenges Blog