Yellowbeard

Aye, that one was a commissioned piece that's gone. I guess this one is a stretch for pirate-related garb, but it would fit in with Jean Lafitte's time period; I'm particularly proud of this one because I made everything myself, no pre-made blank used at all. It's made of cardstock covered with canvas covered with silk plush. And thank'ee all for the compliments!

Thanks Laura, I'm thrilled you like 'em!

Back with more! These ones are all commissioned pieces. First up is a very weathered and piratical looking one; A more conservative look (I lightly weathered it since I took these) And this one was for someone who wanted a "Horatio Hornblower Hat"; Hope ye like 'em!

Thanks Captain Midnight! And I just shot a PM to you Mr. Noland regarding your question.

Thank'ee Strick, I sure hope so! I've been wanting to do one like this for a while now, and as I ruined a blank trying to make something else I figured I'd use the scrap to make it.

Here is a glazed canvas covered one, just waiting on the cockade Tried to base off this one at the National Maritime Museum in the UK:

Happy New Year me Hearties! Couple of my latest I'd like to share. Back to the fighting sail timeframe with these ones. The first is your basic duty cocked hat, tried to get it as close as possible to the ones in the Hornblower miniseries; This one I'm going to keep for myself. Sorry about the hideous looking creature ruining the picture, but I wanted to give a general idea of the size of the hat. Now let me ask a practical question; as I'm working towards starting my online hat site and plan on offering these two hats as standard designs, what do you think I should be realistically charging for them? As there are so few people offering stuff like this it's hard to get a good idea of what people are willing to pay. Thanks!

Well such are the vagaries of ebay! I'm glad a denizen of The Pub got it that's for sure. As far as the blank, this one I got from Leko, the pricey ones from hatcrafter I usually start at least 75 and usually get about 150 on average. One of my new years resolutions is to set up a website for my little cottage business and move away from ebay. I've got orders through February for hats just from listing on ebay so there really does seem to be a market for historical hats that are not priced equivalent to a car payment.

Just amazing! Museum quality.

This hatmaking thing is moving from a hobby to an obsession, Here is a more hollywood pirate look; I wanted to do a Jack Sparrow hat without doing a Jack Sparrow hat if you catch my drift. It was an extra blank I had and I wanted to experiment with stretching felt and artificially weathering them. It's on ebay in case anyone is interested: http://cgi.ebay.com/...em=180598389382

Sold!

Thanks! And I think they must have changed their business model as I've been buying one or two at a time for a year or so now and they have been nothing but friendly and accommodating.

Here is the finished lining;

Thanks PoD! It's up on ebay in case anyone is interested.

Yes the certainly do! Might have to knock out a few more before the movie comes out. Here is one I did with a spare blank, I really like the color combo on this one. I'll be putting it on ebay once I finish up the lining.