Crayon Badge Commission from Taen at Further Confusion 2011! Thank you so much! (and apologies it took me this long to upload a proper scan version of this)

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Some of y'all that have been seeing me around conventions in recent years know that a classy tophat has become part of my con-garb and this badge.... may have been one of the reasons.

A bit of backstory: once upon a time, I created a duct-tape tophat (literally just made with a lot of swearing and tearing of duct tape to make one; no wire frame or other sort of guide - you can find pictures of its once-great glory in my gallery, somewhere?). I wore that hefty thing here and there, but it was bulky, uncomfortable, and a little painful. Right now: it sits in my closet, abused and crumpled from years of neglect and not particularly up for taking its once-great form again without a great deal of doctoring. I figure: it's probably best to let it sit in its pasture.

Point is: I had a tophat! One I made, no less, and I thought it was a cute little detail to continue as a sort of personal identifier within what artists would throw it in! (Go figure, buns and tophats go a bit hand-in-hand, after all). I must've made some comment about it to Taen when describing the sona and when they came back with this absolute treasure gem... I was speechless. The tophat was here to stay. Forevermore I'd figure out some way of getting a tophat into any representation of myself going forward. It's part of my own aesthetic. Done.

(spoiler: I got really bad about actually keeping up with it)

All the same: that's where it comes from! The rest, as they say, has yet to be written - but given the amount of "Wow, cool hat!" I get means it's definitely sticking around, just like this amazing badge that keeps me grinning every time I glance at it.

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