Graphic artist Bob Thomas is probably best known for his work for the Grateful Dead -- he designed both their trademark lightning bolt skull logo and the ubiquitous dancing bears. What you might not know of is his long association with the Renaissance Faire. Thomas was an accomplished piper and he and his band, the Golden Toad, played at the Marin Renaissance Faire for years. They also opened for the Dead on a number of occasions. What came as a surprise to me was that Buffalo's ex, Don Brown (of the famed Teahouse of the Mullah Nasrudin's Donkey at the renfaire), was their drummer. It wasn't until I googled last week and stumbled upon old photos of the band that I realized this. Here's a bit of lost Dead lore about the Golden Toad.

The reason I bring up Bob Thomas here is because Buffalo commissioned a sign from him years ago. She still uses it as her fair sign. It's a bit weathered now, but I think that gives it character. Bob was supposed to paint both sides of the sign but he never finished the back. As a result, people would approach Buffalo at the fair to ask "what's an uffalo at?" Here's what remains of the art on the backside:

The third King of Fools crown is a mermaid hat -- because Buffalo has a well-established mermaid fetish. This concludes the Kings of Fools 2016 hat series.

From the Fools Guild Parade, Hat #2 commissioned for the King of Fools: the Coconut Shell Cocktail Hat.

Heidi Barthelemy of Pale Moon commissioned a special order from Buffalo for the Fools Guild Parade at the RenFaire yesterday. The results were some pretty amazing hats. I love these hats so much, I'm going to spotlight one hat per day.  Hat #1, the Volcano Hat.

Southern RenFaire opens this coming weekend, y'all, but if you were planning on going, consider the weekend of April 16-17. That's when Buffalo will be there. It is also:

• Kids Free Weekend
• Military Appreciation Weekend
• Scouts Weekend

The Fools Guild Parade and Coronation of the new King of Fools is happening on Saturday, April 16.  Details, directions, and ticket information here.

Buffalo is planning on bringing everything she has in stock to the faire. That includes all the hats and masks in the store here and on Etsy. You can check out all the fabulousness in person if you are in the LA area next weekend. She's got some new stuff too, which we are not listing on Etsy until after the faire.

Just a quick note: Buffalo will be at the Northern California Renaissance Faire this weekend!  Huzzah!  She is only attending this one weekend and doesn't know where her booth will be.  I took some hurried photos last night at 2:00am of all of her new stock but I haven't uploaded it from the camera yet.  Not sure how they turned out.  I'll post an update later.  New item: tiny little hat boxes with tiny little hats!  They are truly adorable.  More later.

Hi Folks.  Lisa here.  Still no store and no blog entry from Buffalo yet either, I'm sorry to say.  She's been very busy creating new work for RenFaire.  I probably should have led with that: Buffalo is going to RenFaire!  The Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale, CA.  Buffalo has had her nose to the grindstone for weeks making new stock for the faire, which I should have photographed and put on the site.  But Tuesday, the one day I got home from work while it was still daylight out, my shower door suddenly decided to explode, raining broken glass down on me.  My hand got cut and oozed blood all over the place.  My bathroom looked like a crime scene.  I'm okay.  The cleanup was the worst part.  But all thoughts of photographing Buffalo's cute new felt hats went out of my head.

It's been a long hiatus since Buffalo last attended the faire.  She will be there one weekend only: April 25-26.  This weekend is The Best of the Fest, featuring the Fools Guild Parade and Coronation.  WooHoo!  (The Fools Guild sprung from the RenFaire back in 1979 and is still going strong.)  The crowning of the new King of Fools occurs at noon on Sunday, April 26.

If you are in or near the LA area and would like to attend the faire, they are selling tickets at various Southern California Walgreens locations.  More information at the link below.

Hey folks.  Lisa here.  We still haven't launched the online store, but I have photographed dozens of Buffalo art objects and scanned many old photographs over the past few weeks.  It will take a while to sort, crop and upload all of these photos.  

One area that's a little lean in the gallery is the wearables page.  This is because we need a model or a mannequin to display clothing.  Last weekend we attempted to photograph some things on a 2-dimensional wire dress frame from IKEA.  It worked okay for the Hawaiian shirts and cowgirl jackets, but the gossamer-like dresses with lace bodices tend to droop so you can't see the delicate lacework.  This is not a problem when a real woman with breasts wears these dresses.    We jury rigged it by sticking a hanger inside the dress at chest level.

I created several new galleries, such as masks for Buffalo's trademark needlelace masks. These need their own page separate from the lace page. The faires, etc. page is a collection of photos from Renaissance Faires, Music Camps and other events where Buffalo set up a booth and sold her stuff.  Some great vintage photos here of renfaires in the 80s.

We discussed setting up a works-in-progress page, but I think Buffalo wants to write a blog entry on the process: from initial sketches to mocking up a pattern to creating the piece.  Watch this space for that, if I can get Buffalo over her fear of blogging.  Buffalo's sketchbook is fascinating in its own right, but I don't know if she wants to go public with that.

That's all for now.  Next time you hear from me, I hope it's to announce the grand opening of the Buffalo Hats webstore.