First, you take about thirty vintage hats and fascinators.
Next, you put them in some fabulous antique hat boxes (stack the hats thusly, please):
Then, you give them all to ME!
Me? Did someone say....ME? Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.*
Anyone who knows me really well can spot two of the most special people in the world gracing the outer edges of that picture above.
Seriously, though, how amazing are these boxes? I want to live in a time where items are crafted this well out of materials that AREN'T plastic.
Foxy!
This Stetson box had an inner structure to support a top hat, but it was so worn the actual box didn't quite survive.
I'll take time to photograph the hats better in the future, but here are a few I hung up in my studio. Several of them were too perfect to alter, so they're in my dressing room awaiting a wearing. The rest are a bit worn/tired, and just begging to be embellished/repaired.
This little number I call "Blue Haze". It consists of a simple navy cap swathed in a cloud of blue veiling and white flowers.
Judging by the hand stitching over the tag, I'm guessing this hat was a homemade creation, embellished post-purchase. Discoveries like this make me feel closer to some woman I never knew. DIY at its finest.
A simple black cap:
A green bow fascinator! Perfect for a wedding...I may taxiderm it up and add it to my Bridal collection.
A cream fascinator with white florals. This ones a doozy! I can't wait to show you what I've done with it.
There were some veils in the bunch as well. More for the Bridal collection....
Also, sorry these pictures aren't so great. It's clear to me I need to invest in some new display heads.
Here is a darling little black veil with white silk flowers on top! I almost love it the way it is too much to change it.....almost.
These roses! J'ADORE!
Here's another veil, off-white with some red roses. A little worse for the wear, but I love the idea.
I call this one the muppet poof. It's already been switched up a bit; another potential Bridal piece in the works.
This is a simple black velvet wire base fascinator:
And another, non velvet....
I've been having a very exciting morning pairing natural/animal elements with these vintage pieces and everyone is getting along swimmingly. Updates coming soon!
*a reference to one of my favorite videos:
A HUGE thank you to my mother, and her pal Carol, without whom this well of inspiration would not have happened for me. XOXOXO!
I finally got around to working on a bear-skin rug for a client; she is another really fun individual to work with who basically said, "make it as glitzy and shiny as possible."
Words to live by.
So I set out to source materials and make the sparkliest, most pizazzified bear-skin rug the world has seen.
I bought the skin frmo a hunter who shot the bear with a bow and arrow, harvesting the animal for food. The cape arrived tanned and fairly soft but I had to rehydrate some parts to soften them up more in order to work with the facial areas.
Opal the cat approves of this fur.
Here is the head form. I altered it slightly to express a nice Elvis-like lip curl, and proceeded to plaster the top left fang with crystals.
Diamond Tooth, indeed! And this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for an update on this hunka hunka burning work in progress.
Here's a quick little ditty about a hair pin I made for a very special gal who celebrated her birthday yesterday. I didn't have a ton of time, and I was given some very basic guidelines (she's kind of girly and likes shiny things!) so I ran with it. The other caveat (for lack of a better word) is that the birthday girl sports a massive mane of dreadlocks. Long, thick, beautiful dreadlocks, so a typical fine toothed silver plated hair comb wasn't going to work. I opted for a pin and combined dyed deer tail (typically used for making fly-fishing lures), pheasant feathers and a vintage gem earring.
When my friend opened her gift; her joy was unmistakable. I wish the happiness I glean from giving other people something they genuinely love could be bottled and used as currency. It feels better than money. Not really knowing her style or preferences, I went with my gut and wound up with a product that, accordingly to the recipient, was an uncannily perfect fit. This brings me so much joy and seems to be a recurring theme in my custom pieces, which is more than I could have hoped for. I will touch upon this more when I post pictures of the bridal pieces I presented recently to a client- but until the wedding those details must remain under wraps.
"Oh hello there. Like the view? This is what a winner looks like, dearie, and don't forget it. "
Well, at least I was viewing this from the shaded and breezy environment inside the winner' box whilst sipping my ice-cold Cartier champagne. Those ladies had to roast out there for a good fifteen minutes.
Do I sound catty? Bitter? It's no wonder, given the fact that after making two special pieces for the hat competition at Ladies day at the Devon Horse Show, with the goal of winning the Mad Hatters category, we missed the entire judging. Unbeknownst to us, (with any sort of update suspiciously absent from the website), the judging had been moved up by over an hour. I heard claims of excessive heat being the reason for this, but I can't help but wonder if they heard we were coming and decided to slide one in under the wire.
Paranoid delusional, you say? Maybe. Maybe not.
Greg Powell, the talented milliner who took last year's blue ribbon, wears one of my fascinators and laughs in disbelief at our crummy luck.
Fortunately we looked too good for anyone to deny us access to the judge's box, so all four of us were invited in to sip on champers and mingle with the winners. Here is my lovely model Rachel, wearing what was intended to be my mad hatter entry #1. She is primarily a photographer when she's not being a good sport and wearing hats for me; in fact she took all the pictures you see on this post. Due to the heat and our massive champagne consumption that day, she feels these photos may not be up to snuff. Please check out her site: rachellynnk.com
And here I am wearing entry #2, with the fabulous Megan donning the tried and true duck wing fascinator that all the galslook great in. I love her pose in this picture but I'm not sure what my hand signal is saying.
The mad-hatter entries were composed of hand-made visors (something I plan to expand on more for my fall line) and a swirl of fancy chicken wings, outstretched and reaching upwards. Looking at them on our heads in photos, I already see a million things I want to change. For a one-off experiment though, I would say I am pleased.
Maybe I was asking for a close-up shot of my eyelashes. Pony lashes, to be specific. Carson Kressley noticed them right away, maybe because they were framing my huge, sad, about-to-burst-with-tears eyes as I watched all the winners being announced and he said "Where were you? You were late!"
We made our way up to the stands to watch some horse action (I guess that's why we're all really there) where we were joined Lauren St. Clair Lynch. As gracious as ever, she only had nice things to say about my hats while we enjoyed light snacks and sipped on a creation I'd like to call a gasoline shandy.
Looking good:
Looking very, very good. All winners in my book.
Rachel and I:
Discussing plans for Ladies Day domination next year, which include but are not limited to: camping out overnight, sprinkling tacks on all surrounding roads, and planting moth eggs in the closets of our competition.
Actually, that was Megan, a very experienced rider, giving us the scoop on side-saddle. I never fully appreciated how difficult a skill set this is, to ride mounted with legs draped on the same side of the horse. All I can think of is how sore the rider's back must be afterwards. I believe the reason this method of riding originated was to protect a woman's purity, both figuratively (a woman straddling a large beast could be quite unbecoming) and literally (it was thought that her hymen would not remain in tact unless her legs were firmly shut).
As I watched these graceful ladies make their way around the course, moving seamlessly with the horses despite the intense raging heat and the added difficulty of handling everything from one side of the horse, I thought about how throughout history women have been thrown extra challenges, just because of our bodies and the fear they evoke in the opposite sex. Foot binding, corsets, all the little hoops the fairer sex has been made to jump through (by men and women alike) that have only bred a stronger and more adept, versatile woman over time. Try keeping an air bubble from rising up in the water; use your hands, use machines, whatever device the mind can think up, but the plain and simple fact is that the air will rise up to the top. Time is on our side.
Did that just get weird? Here, look at Greg, watching in awe as horses jump over a five foot tall oxer (two obstacles placed closely together).
Outside the fairgrounds, I turned to a tree stump for sympathy. I'm not going to lie; I was crestfallen for the rest of the day. It's really hard on the heart to have expectations and not meet them.
Fortunately, every day is an opportunity to be a better person then the day before, so I listen to the wise words of Aaliyah and TImbaland and motor on.
My Memorial Day was deliciously taken with white wine and cheese-filled, prosciutto wrapped figs at the Brandywine Polo Club with a side of horse action.
My two lovely hat models accompanied me and supplied the picnic:
We had front row seats for all the action. I'm still getting a grasp on exactly how polo works, but despite all the things I don't know, I can say with absolute certainty that it's an event I could watch for hours. The athleticism, the pageantry, the uniforms...
My GOD the uniforms....
Unfortunately my action shots are embarrassingly low-rent, but I know someone who took about five hundred OUTSTANDING photos and her name is Amy Dragoo of akdragoophoto.com. Please please check them out; you will not be disappointed.
I almost think she and I were the only ones watching the game! Polo is fun like that; there is so much eye candy and great conversation, it can be hard to concentrate. I was rewarded for my focus by seeing several truly fantastic plays, none of which were caught by my camera. It's much, much better in person though.
At the mid-game break, the fans are invited to step onto the field and stomp the upturned bits of earth back into the ground. It's fun to watch people accidentally jam their shoes into some fresh horse crap.
These are the fascinators I worked on for the event. The one on the right has actually made an appearance at the club before but it complimented the ensemble better than the one I had just finished, so that one will debut at another time. Polo matches are the perfect place to wear fantastical head-gear; not only is the the sky (literally) the limit but they act as a magnet for other fun people to strike up conversations.
Also, I think it's polite to dress up for the horses who are working so hard.
I'm hooked. You might be too...take a gander at what's available at Diamond Tooth so you can get gusied up for the next match!
I've been in an equine hole the last two days, working on hats for two horse-centered events while in front of my computer watching every episode in the two season cache of the show "Jockeys. I can't quite seem to find words that can accurately express how much I love this show but I will try.
For anyone who may not have seen , the show is a reality series covering the lives of several jockeys during a thirty-day period known as the Oak Tree Meet at Santa Anita Park in California.
There's the couple who competes against one another:
There's the young hot-shot, Joe Talamo:
and the newbies, the old heads, the injured, the bitter, the hopeful,etc. They're all in a different spot in their career which gives a perspective from a myriad of points. In the first season there is heavy concentration on the new jockeys just trying to break their way in and get a chance to race. Kayla Stra came all the way from Australia to see if she could cut it and I couldn't hold back my tears watching footage of her being turned down repeatedly by owners and trainers not willing to hire a no-name* jockey. I can relate, as an independent artist, feeling completely hopeless and exasperated sometimes and wondering if it will ever all come together. These guys have to look failure and rejection in the face time and time again and they greet it with a smile. There seems to be an unspoken rule that if you're not grinning, you'll be ostracised. The horse racing word is riddled with superstition and from what I gather, a jockey who isn't positive for one second or who lets even an iota of doubt cross their mind will be seen as the racing equivalent to a broken mirror or a black cat.
How do they do it? When people ask me how the taxidermy business is going, I try to emulate this good sport attitude even when things aren't so great. It's no easy task trying to find your own way, especially when you encounter rejection. I get really emotional thinking about how much these men and women inspire me with their fearlessness and drive. More than that, it's almost impulsive: there is nothing else on earth they could possibly do with themselves. They were born to ride horses. I feel the same way about creating. I don't know how to do anything else, at least not happily. I know I'm not alone; there are so many of us out there just trying to make it. It's hard not to blame one's self for not being where they had hoped they'd be in life, while overloooking the plain truth which is that there are too many factors at work in the universe to make success for one individual such a simple and clear-cut path. My favorite jockey, Aaron Gryder, sums up the feeling pretty well in this clip:
So we motor on, focusing on the future, hoping for that break.
And when that break comes, people respond, but they probably have no idea how many hundreds of hours were spent putting in nonpaying/underpaid work, being exploited/used and feeling terrified/uncertain of what's to come. These jockeys risk their lives every time they get on the track, sometimes only to clear $17/race. We all notice the ones who place, the ones who are in the money, but for each of those there are many more who walk away virtually empty-handed.
The second season is even better, exploring more controversial issues like performance enhancing drugs for horses and conflict between riders. The whole series gears up toward the biggest race of all, the Kentucky Derby. As someone who went to the derby and left still feeling puzzled over how the betting works and what exactly odds even are, I wish I'd seen this show before the trip. There are one-on-ones with a professional better named Jimmy Hats who breaks down the betting system for the viewer, and a slew of nuances are covered like how greatly starting gate position affects the odds for each horse.
The only thing lacking in the series was good music. I'm not sure if it was too difficult to obtain the rights to use certain songs but the songs which were used are just awful, in my opinion. Of course, this is coming from a gal who has Ke$ha and Nikelback in her current workout rotation...so take that with a huge grain of salt.
