The Hat

I have been mildly obsessed with the Mad Hatter's hat from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Im not exactly certain why. I have also been fascinated with the mini victorian style top hats, and how they really work in Steampunk fashion.

So where did it all start? Well I am a fan of Tim Burton's movies. Simple, easy, to the point. I admire Johnny Depp as an actor, no he's not hard to look at but I actually do not have a movie star crush on him.
And well, I believe Tim owes me some royalty fees for using my hair. Oh yeah, thats my hair alright, down to the color.

And well if its my hair, then its a natural to think I should be that Mad Hatter for some costuming event (no I don't have a specific event). But Im not a boy, and I don't want to dress as a boy; no I want to do a girlie version. So naturally the feminine mini hat seemed like a "oh why not." Gives me something else to try to make.

I am soooo not a hat maker, I have tried, and I understand why they cost what they cost. But I still wanted to make that hat. Out of clay! So I have been working out in my head for just over a month how to construct a hat in polymer clay. I have 3 designs I want to try out. Will I make more after that? Don't really know, lets see how these 3 go first.

I finally was able to spend some quality time working on the hat. I made my pattern, modified it a bit and remade the pattern. Then I cut the pattern out of screen door mesh. Then I cut it out of clay. The assembly required some curing of bits before assembly, and super glue to help. Along with some strategically placed wads of paper for curing support.

So far I have 5 curing rounds, I have a few tweaks to do so there is at least one more cure. The hat as pictured is not quite finished, there are some details that need to be finished, like the hat pins across the front, and the tag needs the 10/6 written on it. its "lined" in orange, because I wasn't sure I was going to actually do this hat at the time, but I like it. I'm pleased with how it has turned out. I will finish it up in the next day or two, and do a trial run on actually wearing it; its heavier than I had originally thought it would be, so I am thinking I should try out the featherlight sculpy product--that stays light even after curing--for some base construction.

The pictures: in progress, you can see the mesh; assorted views

Style

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
This takes place in an alternative 1939. Stylistically would you call it deco-punk? or streamline-comic?
Whatever the style I LOVE IT. The film was created all "green-screen" based technology, there ya go that's the techie stuff. Lets talk about style. it takes all the best of the original King King (I say that one scene WAS the back ground from the original KK movie on Kongs island), then add some Flash Gordon, toss in some Metropolis, knead in some Lost Horizon, take a Journey to the Center of the Earth stir well with American stream line and art deco, and baste in comic book art.
It was awesome!
I think the movie was ok, after all Angelina Jolie was dead sexy with that eye patch, too bad there wasn't an equivalent male character--the guy who plays Sky Captain = yeah ok whatever, and stylistically he did not fit! He was not comic book hero style, too thin too weak jawed. Gweneth Paltrow was the brassy heroine, could have been brassier. Angelina, wasn't in the movie long enough to weaken her character, same with the quirky scientific side kick- he was plucky and smart mouthed and geeky.
The plot included everything from kid napped Russian scientists, flying robots, ray guns and miniaturized elephants, there is also a mysterious bad guy.
I wanted to see this when it first came out, but life got in the way. I found the DVD at some flea market for $2, cheaper than renting, so it was mine.
I only now got around to seeing it.
I let it play 3x while I created some jewelry.
I will become one of my favorites to work to, my biggest problem is I will really want to see the visuals.
And it will be great for the kids, child safe, and a great way to entice them to watch some old classics