Pointy Hats!

My local group’s Seneschal, Baroness Mathilde des Pyrenees OP OL, seemed to be in need of a new coronet. Lots of SCAdians call these “party hats”, as opposed to the shiny heavy metal ones landed barons and baronesses will often wear for official functions. They’re generally lightweight leather coronets, often adjustable so they can wear them over a variety of headgear.

I offered to make her one, then, in a fit of madness altruism, decided I’d make one for each member of the shire that wanted one (and rated it, of course).

Turns out, The Shire of Coppertree is like the goddamned all-star team of Æthelmearc. I had no idea. The shire’s populace includes a Dutchess (actually a triple-threat KSCA OP OL Dutchess), two Viscounts (one a Count/Viscount) with consorts (and one consort is also a Laurel with an Augmentation of Arms, Cornelian, Sigil, etc. and so forth of her own), a couple of Court Barons, a couple Jewels of Æthelmearc, three Knights, six Laurels, and five Pelicans.

It’s quite honestly off the hook. I can only hope to someday add a couple small checkmarks to this shire’s long list of accomplishments. Anyways…

This looks a lot to me like I need to make at least seven party hats. 

Better get cracking. I made the first one for Mathilde. Step one, figure out what she wants on it. Her arms look like this:

I contacted an artist friend to have him draw me a more updated Great Pyrenees dog for the coronet. This is what he came up with, with much back-and-forth:

I set to work gathering materials: some green aventurine gemstones, brass filigree bezel mounts, some gold-plated fleur-de-lis mounts, a bag of large freshwater pearls, leather and some thin brass plate.

I started soldering the bezel cups to the brass plate to mount them. These cups have an open back, and have to be mounted to something solid. I played with the layout a little bit:

and tooled the dog onto the front. On the advice of my wife, I ended up filing the gemstone mounts into little quatrefoil shapes, rather than leaving them square.

I put it all together, and…

I really have to get a picture of her wearing it… 😀