BEANIE MASK - PART 2 (*SPOILERS* if you watch the anime Bleach)

Primer dried and I got painting, going off of several photos of the mask I found on Google and a rough sketch I did of the mask beforehand. Unfortunately, I'm new to this whole blogging thing, and I was REALLY excited about painting this thing, so there isn't a whole lot of documentation of the process of painting.  Give me time...I'll get the hang of it.  

Keeping the mask in pieces allows
for it to stretch when the hat is worn.

ANYHOW, this is how it turned out.  I was super happy with it, so I wasted very little time in preparing to attach the pieces to my hat base.  I found a rather ordinary beanie cap at Walmart that's sturdy enough to hold the weight of the rubber, but light enough that he isn't going to feel like he's wearing a ton of weight on his head.

But before I got hot-gluing, I realized last minute that I needed a way to keep the paint fastened to the rubber.  Sure, it'd stay pretty well on its own, but I wasn't sure if unforeseen circumstances (i.e. 80mph winds, volcano spelunking, the zombie apocalypse, etc.) would ruin the piece.  SO! I grabbed my handy-dandy, gloss-finish, rust-protection enamel spray (as shown) and gave the mask several coats. 
I use this spray quite a bit, which is why I keep it close at hand while working on my projects.  Its uses branch far beyond the suggestions on the can (some, for good reason, but who am I to be barred by mere warning labels!  Bah!), from quick around-the-house fixes, to a form of adhesive, to a waterproof coating for some of my up-cycled shoes (a post for another time).
  
All that to say, I loved the outcome. It was fun and comfortable, and the glossy finish on the mask made it pretty legit.

Upcoming Apology:
Now, I need to confess something.  I finished the hat just the day before I met up with my friend for his birthday (because I procrastinate), and gave it to him, and then proceeded to COMPLETELY FORGET TO POST THE FOLLOW-UP, PART 2 OF THIS BLOG ENTRY.  So it's been, like, five months since I did this project.  And I had pictures of the final product, but because of an unfortunate incident with my phone involving the pavement, combined with my chronic forget-to-up-load-my-photos disease, I have no evidence of its marvelousness.  

Someday I'll get a picture of him with it on.  

Until then, I shall attempt to do a better job at documenting my artistic process.  (I really do suck at this...)

-Chimmy