Adam Ant, Then and now

[greenmachines]

You could also glue bendable wire around the inside edge, then sew the pieces together, that way you can shape the edging anyway you want, and it will hold the shape. Plus you can easily continue to tweak the shape later if you still aren’t happy with the shape.

I think that is likely the way the original Mich hat was made.

I can see where two layers ares sewn together at the very edges.

And it would make the final product have no glue edges exposed.

 

[greenmachines]

The crown/cap could be sewn for the outer shell and completed with a finished edge. Then the entire flat pattern for the brim could be made as a two layer, sewn and then inverted, leaving enough in the crown center to hand stitch up into the finished crown/cap. The Edging Wire would be placed inside this double layer shape and hand stitched to stay at the edge. Stitch the brim to the crown, add the inner liner and time to shape and add stiffener.

I will definitely try this after my test model is complete. My main benefit of this screen material is just ease of demo sculpting. I am 100% newb on hats but this feels right with the wire and the double layers.

 

[joberg]

Looking good

 

[greenmachines]

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This skull ring differs from Adam's in the height of the forehead. Beyond that the shape and size is very close. I have worked on layering white, red and then black accents to get to:

And a really poor picture of Adam's:

 

[greenmachines]

So my ring differs by a few points. Those holes in the jaw. The size of the lower jaw. The size of the forehead.

So, a torch, a hammer, a saw, a dremel, a few files and a bench grinder to get to size and some super glue, baking soda and paint to bring it back around. Currently applying the white coat but here is the filed down version.

and Adam's next to my original (much bigger then)

 

[goldcylon]

For reference, here is the front view, side view and adornments of Adams original hats:

View attachment 1741690View attachment 1741692View attachment 1741693View attachment 1741694

Great view of the seal !!!

 

[joberg]

Always difficult to gage the person's finger size That's why you're going for the "close enough" each time since you don't have his proper fingers measurements.

 

[greenmachines]

Always difficult to gage the person's finger size That's why you're going for the "close enough" each time since you don't have his proper fingers measurements.

The final adjustments on this red skull started as comparison to the belt buckle ring but ended with a close inspection of ratios of the red itself. My original had a full extra section of jaw and had a normal human forehead. His ring has a blunted short forehead. Fingers crossed. Still have red and black to go.

 

[greenmachines]

Newest paint has dried and I am calling the red skull ring complete. Comparison photo below:

 

[greenmachines]

Great view of the seal !!!

I am currently trying to find someone who will create the foil transfer in gold. Several have advertised they could but then turned down the project because the detail is too small to cut or print on their machines. Now I am focusing on a possible two step heat transfer process..... meaning I am making a brand new process in the hopes I can do it myself.

 

[greenmachines]

Although these lenses are larger than Adam's, I have added these prescription glasses to my personal wardrobe. My prop glasses are cut down to match Adam's (separate pair):

 

[goldcylon]

Greenmachines Vive Le Rock !

 

[greenmachines]

A bunch of my stuff came in today. I was going through a pile of shirts and chains and geeking out at the number of poses that are now near completion... or at least possible and my wife says "You are five minutes late. You usually leave for violin at 540." Oh ya, like back to our regularly scheduled programming.... hehe. I brought my glasses with, so took the picture above with them sitting on the cafeteria table at my son's violin lesson. I am thinking I need to list the parts needed for each pose and check off the ones that can be done and do a quick outfit layout like the style planner type. My son just came in, "Dad, I think you got distracted. You bagged up the extra taco but did not put it in the fridge." Errr ya, I am trying to remember where I put my black costume pants..... As I roll back the memory to bagging the taco while reading rpf... see video Vive Le Rock... see black pants....where are my pants... And here I am curled up under a blanket, on the couch, watching music videos. I don't even remember walking in here.

 

[greenmachines]

Hat badge research: I searched for a product called "toner reactive foil". This is a gold foil transfer that sticks to laser printer toner. My local stores did not have any. Without a deep dive into why I didn't use a Cricket or other types of transfer (including all my cancelled or denied outsourcing of same), I decided that this foil was the easiest way to allow this tutorial/walk through to suffice for the highest number of people who want to attempt to make one. My plan is to print the negative (and reversed text) on a laser printer. Then place the toner sensitive foil on it and run through a laminator (in the protective sleeve) or using a clothing iron. Then carefully peel the foil away, now having the positive gold image still on the foil. Now load this positive (but text reversed) foil onto my leather, inside the laminator sleeve and run this through the laminator to transfer the now correct image onto the leather. The only drawback is that now we wait. I had to online order my foil. I believe this process to be new and untested as we are creating the image in the gold by purposely running the negative image first. What should work in theory doesn't always work for real, so we wait for shipping to do our testing.

 

[Moviefreak]

Why not just silkscreen the gold onto the leather? It sounds so complicated to try to transfer foil and run it through a laminator, when you can quickly create a stencil, and silkscreen as many as you need.

How to easily create a silkscreen stencil:

And you can research videos on how to silkscreen on YouTube. You can buy supplies on Amazon. They even sell a gold metallic silkscreen paint that should do the trick.

 

[greenmachines]

Why not just silkscreen the gold onto the leather? It sounds so complicated to try to transfer foil and run it through a laminator, when you can quickly create a stencil, and silkscreen as many as you need.

How to easily create a silkscreen stencil:

And you can research videos on how to silkscreen on YouTube. You can buy supplies on Amazon. They even sell a gold metallic silkscreen paint that should do the trick.

This was part of the deep dive not taken. I worked in a graphics shop for about 4 years. I have silkscreen repetition dreams that I wish to suppress. It is part of why I can honestly say that I would rather fake my own death than work in retail/public facing ever again.

 

[greenmachines]

In my closet I have two bags of hats. I use them for workdays and painting parties when I need a scrap cover. All of them are customer rejects from "I am not a design person. I'll be happy with whatever font." but then rejects the order due to font.

 

[greenmachines]

These shirts came in. They are not exact matches but intended for collar pics and any needing the fluffy cuff. Both the collar and the cuffs can be made separately but these shirts will also be incorporated to future outfits so it was a useful purchase.

Each was about 15 dollars. The no-buttonhole one will likely join my Star Wars Dryden Vos build but stands up to the Adam Ant "Dandy" interview outfit (the one with the mafia/kilt jacket/dapper look).

 

[greenmachines]

Well, let the disappointment roll in. My custom white on white vest came in and it is a silver on white coat with a pattern that does not match Adam's NOR does it match the coat I ordered. So our lesson here is "The world is filled with inept morons" and you really are better off learning an entirely new skillset and doing the job yourself. it isn't even close enough to be modified.

First Adam's:

Then the advertised picture of the coat I ordered. I asked only that the coat base cloth be white but to leave the cording as white and the buttons chrome. Drop the sleeves and make it a vest.

After confirming this was all possible, I ordered. They waited a few days so I couldn't cancel and then reported that they didn't have white. We negotiated for a few days and they said ok to white. I repeated more times than I can count: "White vest, not a coat, with white cording, not silver, not gold but white only cording, with chrome buttons....no sleeves, short like a vest" and gave precise measurements. Let's just lay out here that the reason I picked this coat was the very serious V formation of the button pattern. Now let's look at what I got.... a truly beautiful and totally useless coat that looks nothing like what I ordered or described....But in white instead of black woohoo.....sigh...

Full sleeves, full length coat, not a vest. Cording is silver and shows up dark against the white coat. The original black advertised coat had white cording not silver. Buttons go STRAIGHT DOWN THE ^##%^&,'N jacket, no taper and cannot be modified to look correct.

I WILL BE MAKING MY OWN VEST.

 

[greenmachines]

Saw a picture that looked like Adam while looking at some old movie pics... put it in my face similarity app with Adam....

We're gonna need a bigger boat.