5 GIANT steampunk hats

Hello there

I received an order for 5 giant steampunk hats for decor in a new Steampunk Cafe in Durban.  The match box in the photos are to try and give you some sense of scale.


You might recognize the hair diffuser on the top of this one... My mom got it free with her new hairdryer, but did not need it, so sent it my way...


The springs are inside some test tubes... Hard to see in this photo...


The dome on this hat is a barometer. I made the needle in Corel Draw and then sent it to my 3D printer!  I love that thing!  I also used it to print the electrical coils on the side of this hat.

I started with a trip to China Town and purchased some party hats...

Then I went to my local plastics shop called Mambo's and purchased some waste paper baskets and an ice bucket...  It turned out that I had to go back and get another ice bucket to use for the Mad hatter hat as the one waste paper basket was not working out right...

Things changed around a bit as I made up my mind for each hat.  I kind of work on a whim... I started these hats on Sunday night and finished them on Monday night after a marathon session in my studio from 6am to 11pm!

This photo shows 4 of the hats in various states of undress...  The normal black top hat on the right hand side is for scale purposes...

This is the top of the Copper hat you can see above.



This is an ice bucket on top of the sombrero.  At least you can carve into the polystyrene so that the Christmas ornament could sit flush on the hat.

The gauges were found on the internet and I had them printed to the right size for my various Christmas ornaments...

I was working at such pace that I forgot to take a before shot of this hat below.  It is the Spanish hat with the pompoms on it with an ice bucket on its top to create the Mad Hatter shape.  I also carved the sides to be able to add the Christmas ornament for the gauge.