Painted vented hats are plastic impregnated silk with hand cut leather gaskets and hand set rivets. The paint is a proprietary blend of acrylic and fabric paint. Embellishments are held on by E-6000.

Size of hat interior: 59 cm (medium)

Theme of hat: Gray gradation dark (top) to light (bottom)

My hubby and I live in the desert. Steampunk and Victorian clothing is notoriously hot to wear. When it comes to topping our head with hats on top of that warm clothing, it just seemed unbearable. We started with trying to add a fan to the top of the hat, but found it was too heavy, shook like mad, and didn’t push enough air to cool us. So, we took it off and magic happened. If you wear a Vented Hat, the breeze cools you almost instantly. They are infinitely cooler to wear than a fully enclosed hat. When you walk into an air conditioned building from the outside, it feels like a peppermint chocolate candy commercial is being instantly filmed on your head. It’s bliss! At night, the Vented Hats don’t keep the heat in at all, so I’ve been known to wear a scarf or handkerchief on the top of my head, under the Vented Hat to keep warm.

The painted hats came about because I was asked to create something different for a gallery show. I start by drawing on the design with a pencil, then I get to painting. Once painted, I tidy up the lines, add the gaskets, then add the ribbon and other finishing touches. Each is one of a kind, never to be duplicated.