I recently received an unexpected challenge to make a hat.
There were a few conditions, the key one being that it must be made from cardboard and/or paper.
Casting about for materials, I noticed I had a surplus of cardboard shoe inserts, along with other newspaper and tissue, all kept for drying out wet shoes. Cardboard shoe inserts look like tall ears, and while I briefly pondered how I might make an aardvark snout, material and time constraints were nudging me towards a rabbit.
I was given the hat brief a couple of months in advance, so with about 10 days left, I did a quick search for paper mache recipes, then bought a litre of PVA glue, some balloons and a cheap bowl for mixing.
Here's a rough montage of the process that followed.
I blew up two balloons to a slightly bigger size than my massive head, so that if one went wrong I would have a reserve. Each balloon took six layers of newspaper and brown packing paper, applied in small strips and with time to dry between layers.
Fixing the ears took some experimentation. I tried knotted string, then thread, before settling on wire cable ties. I stabilised the ears with paper mache packing, and added more strips to hide the ties, strengthen the bond, and blend the ears and head together. A couple more layers of strips strengthened and smoothed the rim, to reduce ear scraping when putting it on.
Under the influence of an upcoming comic art festival, I had a zombie rabbit theme in mind as I put the hat together, bright green with crosses for eyes. Ultimately I didn't have the lurid green paint I imagined, so instead I applied a layer of dark green tissue paper. I thought white lines would show up better on dark green, but wouldn't fit the zombie idea, so instead I drew the hypnotised, concentric circles in the picture. Using more tissue I coloured the lines a more subtle, light green. This and the uneven glued tissue texture resulted in a serendipitous verdigris-like patina.
I made it up as I went along, led by materials that were close to hand; but it's been a fun departure from doodles and digital drawing.
