The hair drops evident above were among the details of the cap that troubled me: the locks of hair (mine, from when I had long hair) had been rather crudely "hot glued" into cones I had formed (very crudely) from heavy-gauge sheet tin and attached to the cap using unnecessarily thick wire, so that they didn't move or hang particularly gracefully, but poked out rather awkwardly. I have now completed most of the beadwork with the exception of the front strip, which I had finished in the black and white striped pattern like the others before deciding that I might prefer a wider strip of a different pattern. I have started the new front strip, but don't feel satisfied with the pattern or colors, so will probably try something different. I added some red deerskin trim accented with old cobalt blue glass trade beads attached with sinew, and a silver concho against a red antique blanket-wool circle to the front also. Here is the cap in its current state:
The image immediately above shows the new hair cone-drops. I loosened the hair from the old tin cones by gently heating them until the old hot-glue became liquid enough to allow the hair cluster to be pulled out. I was then able to pull off all of the excess hot-glue so that the mass of each hair cluster base was greatly reduced, allowing it to fit into new, thinner store bought jingle cones. Before using the new cones, however, I gave them a quick dip in a metal darkening patina solution to give them a nicely aged appearance. I set each hair cluster into its cone this time with a touch of heated pinon resin after first securing a strip of sinew to the hair cluster and passing it up through the tip of each cone to attach to the cap, which should allow the drops to move more naturally than the thick wire I had used for attachment previously. I also added 3 antique green glass trade beads (in additional to the original abalone disks) to each drop. In the photo you will also notice a thick cluster of horsehair; I had dyed one quarter of the hair red, and was considering using the white and red dyed horsehair instead of the brown human hair in the drops-- I may still do a horsehair version and see which one I like better. The original crown feathers were in pretty poor condition after having suffered a great many surprise cat attacks. They were wrapped in antique red blanket wool and wire, then attached with wire to the crown. I will probably add some new feathers and wrap them differently, and attach them all to the crown with sinew, though I haven't yet started on that part of the reconstruction. I Thank You for joining me for this segment of the "shaman's cap makeover" and hope to have a completed project post up for you before long!
