Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Fancy Hats









Here are some photos of my fancy hats.









At our next meeting we are going to make Bottles of Hope and I will show you how I make my fancy hats. These have been very popular with patients and the nurses have requested more.
Supplies:
Normal clay kit
For this project you need firm clays, either Kato or well-leached Premo.

Clay in colors suitable for hats and ribbon trim:
-for a straw hat, use Premo Ecru or a mix of Kato (4 parts white, 2 parts brown, 1.5 parts yellow)
-black is good if using bright feathers for decoration
Clay in colors of your choice to cover the bottle. Contrasting colors for polka dots.
Bottles , preferably Botox bottles
Set of small Kemper circle cutters. We use several of them.
Set of Circle cutters: 1/2", 3/4", 7/8", 1", 1 and 1/4", 2", 2 and 1/4 (The Ateco cutters have the sizes we need)
Set of Oval cutters in case we want to make cowboy hats
Index cards

Decorations for hats:
-feathers (Michaels sells packages of brightly colored feathers with dots. They are on the "craft supplies" aisle. You can also use natural colored feathers. You want the smallest sizes)
-Tiny little fabric flowers. Michaels has them in the wedding area, I think. My dollar store has "mini craft roses".
I will have some feathers and flowers to share.
-any other hat decorations you would like. Actual ribbon or trim, for example.

Something to texture the hat - I will bring some netting to share

If you have the wooden block with hole in it that I gave out when we did the flower BOHs, bring it. Helpful but not required.

I use a mould to make the base for my hats but it is not required. However, if you have some 2-part moulding material, bring it and you can make a mould from the big marble I used. It's a perfect size. I also have little cowboy hats and you can make a mould of one of them.

Cynthia

2 comments:

Gail said...

Great class (as usual!) Cynthia. Thanks for sharing your ideas and tips (and tools).

Sandy said...

You really should submit the article to Polymer Cafe - your technique and teaching ability are wonderful.