Hamilton - King George Crown: Finished! (?)

It's been two years in the making, but this dumb sucker is finally finished.

I promised an unveiling, so how about an unwrapping?

This paint is no joke.

My fears about the texture from the primer were substantiated, and a lot of the surface is kind of grainy so then the chrome finish didn't turn out as well as it could have. But the top piece was the cleanest and painted the best. This is just three light coats of the Montana gold chrome on plastic and I can hardly even believe it.

And tada!

Kind of hate how dull and flat everything - even the velvet - looks here, but okay.

Up until the literal moment that I tore the plastic bags off, I was really underwhelmed. After the paint, I felt "eh" partly because of the inconsistent application, but also for reasons I couldn't really pin down. After I pulled the puffy paint mask off the rhinestones and saw those with the paint, I still felt mostly "eh." Maybe it was having been working on it and looking at it in just bits and pieces for so long, maybe it was losing perspective. Don't know. Then when I pulled the bags off and got to see the paint and the rhinestones with the velvet and fur, it suddenly clicked and I fell in love.
 

I still want to make an improved Version 2.0. That impulse hasn't changed at all. I'd never made anything like this before, and when I started I really wasn't sure how I was going to actually do it and if it would even work. I improvised a lot during the process, learned a whole lot too, and now there's a lot I know how to do better or differently altogether. Just for another challenge, and to be that much more extra accurate, I kind of want to do one in metal. Given how heavy this one is already, one made of metal would probably be for photos and display only, not wearing out to events anywhere. But it would still be pretty fabulous.

But at the very least, I will be making another one with pretty much the same exact materials and overall process. Most stuff I had to buy in more quantity than I needed, so I would only have to reorder a few little things. I can scale the pattern down a little to fit continuously on the 24" length of the plastic sign, so it doesn't need an extension piece and will fit the base hat and my head and frame a bit better. I can also be smarter with painting: get the good sandable primer again, then go straight to black base and the well-proven Montana gold chrome, and glue the rhinestones on last.

Having this done and feeling good enough about the whole process that I'm willing to make a duplicate has also given me the confidence to make another crown of very similar design for a costume that made its way onto my list quite unexpectedly last week, so that'll happen someday too.

In the meantime, with this out of the way, I'm getting back into what's next on this incredibly long haul project. Stay tuned!