Alley Kat Hat Co

[Cane Rod Maker]

I must say that is a very nice lid indeed...I may be biased just a bit since I believe I have the original Midnight Rider Daniel has a great looking hat and man that purple suit to go with it is amazing. I wish that I had both the suit and the confidence to pull it off like he does. Pretty awe inspiring!

Tim, great work on the hat as always. Great work on the Black Cherry, I have seen Winchester Black Cherry felt that when it arrived it is nearly black and to get the purple hues to come out takes some work and lots of patience. If I may make a suggestion, I suggest you create a few listings on Etsy for both Midnight Rider and Grand Torino so that others outside of this forum can see your work. It is a good way to start the two hat model lines. Just be clear that the photos are for reference only and not the actual hat as each hat is made to order at the time they order or contact you. Indicate your lead times, etc. You may be able to put another generic listing for a custom hat as well.

Kurt, I am a fan of your photography and like the prop staging. I recently took an online class about product photography for online selling on platforms like Etsy and it is recommended to use props to help accentuate and draw attention to the item. Looks like one of the props in the photos above is a piece of Alder wood acting as a hat stand, I really like that. I also like how many of the photos were either the tools used to make the hat or steampunk like things that give an era appropriate feel. If helping with photos for Etsy they recommend them to be in 800x1000 pixels either landscape or square images, that way the cropped thumbnail includes the center point of the image. They do not recommend going past 1000 pixels square.

Great work by Tim on the hat and Kurt for photography. Daniel must be a very happy man right now.

KEVIN,
Man I am glad to see you. Thank you for the great review. I'll be in touch, just bought a hot plate and going to give a test run on pencil curl Shackle tomorrow after I get some Brim work some. I also want to talk to you about Etsy, and your quest to make hats. Hope your evaluations are going well. Looking forward seeing what you will do. Thanks for stopping in. Talk soon.

 

[Cane Rod Maker]

Yes...we have a ivory hat with a purple ribbon and trim from Esther to go with several ivory dinner tux jacket and dark purple pants and now this hat to go with the dark purple double breasted jacket and a couple of other jackets and suits...we do that...have hats made for the colors of suits and dinner jackets. Grey Sharkskin suits and jackets...grey hats!

This hat from Tim is special. I hope other people will order from him.

I am glad to have you support me, proudly refer me to friends . Thank you Cindy&Daniel

 

[Cane Rod Maker]

WHAAAAAT..... I just did a very unladylike swear.

That hat is sick!
I especially love the binding. I know you do it by hand.

Hats of to you my friend. And super pics Kurt!

Hi Esther, you know I love your post. I'm shooting for just that, sick/wild/offthehook/unique; with some of these creations, wild with vintage passion . Thank you for your posting. Have a great day.

 

[Cane Rod Maker]

I learned how to do a 3/8 pencil curl yesterday. It is practice work as I gear up for the UK order I picked up while posting Instagram @alleykathatco

It turned out really great and I am super excited about that. I posted on my IG account if anyone is interested to see it. Maybe Kurt will throw a quick phone picture in that I sent him. Thanks all.

 

[LuvMyMan]

I am glad to have you support me, proudly refer me to friends . Thank you Cindy&Daniel

Hello. Many are here and considered a part of our family. Of course, that does mean you, too!

 

[bolthead]

So, yesterday I swung by Tim's, @alleykathatco workshop to see what he was up to. I always bring my camera with me, even tho it was in impromptu moment, meaning no special set up involved......I still snapped a few action shots. of Tim at work, to share with you all on his thread here. He had these sweet pencil curl irons and shackles forged for him and he wanted to try them out, practice if you will. These things are very cool and I already know what my next hat from Tim will be, after seeing the results. This was only a trial and error session. I was there for almost 2 hrs as he was struggling a bit to get the knack of these things but, lemme tell you, this man has the patience of a saint. He only had maybe 1/4 of the hat done by the time I had to leave......maybe an hr later he texted me a photo, saying he was done. I thought he meant done, meaning fed up, done for the day, nope he had it already finished......and I must say, for his 1st outing with it, he did extremely well, I'm fairly surprised, to say the least. Here's a few photos.

 

[bolthead]

one of (3/4") forged irons he's using.

Tim giving it a good cleaning off b4 use.

Here's the lucky hat getting this brim treatment.

Here's the iron at work. He heats it up on a hotplate.

.....and here's what it looked like when I left for the day.

 

[ChicagoWayVito]

one of (3/4") forged irons he's using.

Tim giving it a good cleaning off b4 use.

Here's the lucky hat getting this brim treatment.

Here's the iron at work. He heats it up on a hotplate.

.....and here's what it looked like when I left for the day.

I have those same shackles They are a little tricky at first but the results are good once you get the hang of them.

 

[bolthead]

Hey Rodney, here's you hat going on the block, won't be long now my friend.

 

[bolthead]

......and here's a short clip for you as well.

View My Video

 

[bolthead]

Is anyone able to view that video? Please let me know, thanks.

 

[Bob Roberts]

......and here's a short clip for you as well.

View My Video

I can't cuz it wants me to use "flash 9."

 

[bolthead]

Well that's pretty much a waste then. How do others post videos on here then?

 

[BobHufford]

I could view it when I clicked on the link. This surprises me a bit because the forum is very flaky using Safari on a MacBook Pro right now. Cool video!

 

[Zombie_61]

I had no problems viewing your video Kurt. I wouldn't mind seeing more, providing you wouldn't be giving away any of Tim's trade secrets.

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Well that's pretty much a waste then. How do others post videos on here then?

Flash is off and banned on all my computers. Sorry, too much of security holes on crap software.
Youtube doesn't use flash anymore.

 

[EstherWeis]

Well, that's awesome Kurt & Tim.

It's clear why blocking hats used to be a man's job.
I've got a mean right arm but man can my shoulder ache after blocking a few.
Hard to admit but it's the truth.

Keep up the good work fella's!

 

[LuvMyMan]

Is anyone able to view that video? Please let me know, thanks.

It worked for me...all but NO popcorn! Haha!

 

[LuvMyMan]

Well, that's awesome Kurt & Tim.

It's clear why blocking hats used to be a man's job.
I've got a mean right arm but man can my shoulder ache after blocking a few.
Hard to admit but it's the truth.

Keep up the good work fella's!

My Father in Law would have said, "Beaks and feet, if your arms give out"!!!

 

[1mach1]

one of (3/4") forged irons he's using.

Awesome work, Tim!
Thanks for sharing the photos, Kurt.