A couple of weeks back I was contacted through Facebook, with a request to make a very special wizards hat! The hat belonging to one of my favourite Discworld characters.. Rincewind the Wizard (from Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld books). For YEARS I had been fancying making Rincewind's hat, but not having room to display it I resisted the urge. So you can imagine how happy I was to receive the request :)
Here he is..
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| Rincewind played by David Jason in The Colour of Magic movie |
Rincewind is rather an inept wizard who can't really do magic.. he wears a pointy hat with the word 'WIZZARD' and a gold star on it so people will know he is a wizard and show him the respect due to all wizards (for example; by not killing them). He is always getting in to trouble, and is very good at running away from it.
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| The first layer was cherry red.. the second layer a mixture of purple, fuschia and bright red.. to give the finished piece a mottled, aged look |
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| Third layer lovely cherry red again |
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| Part way through.. I worked this for hours and hours, with boiling water too to get it as stiff as possible. |
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| While the hat was drying I set to work on the letters.. Stitched round and cut out from mustard felt with orange, gold and green silk cap felted in. |
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| 128 gold sequins on the star.. all stitched on with 'invisible' thread (awful stuff to sew with). WIZZARD and star stitched in place |
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| Shrinkage... |
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| Complete with tattered, battered brim and metal star spangles :) |
With it's HUGE brim I've had a job trying to find a box that it will fit in for posting! 17 1/2 inches across from one edge to the other! Got one now though so it shall be going soon :) Hope he likes it!
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I'm toying with the idea of offering another as a 'Made to Measure' auction. To raise money for a Dementia charity. But I'm not quite sure how to go about organising an online charity auction.. Any advice would be very welcome.
As most of you will know Terry Pratchett suffered from Alzheimers and died in March this year. He did an awful lot to raise awareness and funds for Dementia.. so, to me, this would feel a fitting tribute to a man I very much admire. And it is a cause which is very close to my heart.. having devastated people I love.
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9 comments:
Rincewind might not be good at magic .... but you are ;-)
Another magical creation!
Oh bless you Els :) That is sooo sweet! xx
Thank you RMK :) x
That's some shrinkage! I love the hat completely - you really have worked magic indeed.
Thanks Lyn :) I know, I was quite suprised when I sat it on the resist.. the whole thing fit inside the brim area of the resist - the finished hat is 17.5" across so you can tell how big the resist was :) xx
Maybe I filled out the comment box wrong the other day but this is an amazing hat! I also love the Charity Auction idea, we recently lost our Father to Alzheimer complications.
Bev
Hi Bev, I'm glad you came back and tried again.. your first comment never came through (maybe blogger was having a mad one!)
I am so sorry to hear about your Father! It's such a heartbreaking thing to watch someone go through..
I shall definitely be looking in to how to go about the charity auction.. and I'll post more on my blog and facebook if/when I get it going.
Best wishes to you and yours x
A great meaningful commission completed nicely. Can see the details you done.
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