Figure Drawing & Mini Mad Hatter Top Hat, Part I

From Leah

Haven't gotten to take pictures of my other art homework yet. But here's what I'm working on in Figure Drawing class.

I wanted to do an original, but didn't have time to cook up something. This is more difficult [of a piece compared to what we drew last time we took the classes] because it's all bigger and more of a challenge. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

From Sarah

I don't know -- I almost feel like I should have made this into two posts or something -- it seems so disjointed...?

So --

I am making a miniature Mad Hatter hat out of cardboard and various odds and ends.

I googled a few different patterns and instructions, but I got bored of the research very quickly; therefore I decided to just wing it.

I do not know if that was a smart decision or not. Let's just pretend I'm mad... XD

ANYWAY -- THE EXPANDED TOUR of the impromptu project. (It's kind of like a random doodle, I guess, except with 3D-ness and different materials??? Idk, haha...)

To start with, I grabbed a nice piece of cardboard, my scissors, a ruler, a glass (to make circles with) ((and also to drink from--stay hydrated, hey)), and Elmer's School Glue.

I would say I measured the pieces, but I didn't feel like mathing so late at night and pretty much eyeballed the dimensions I thought I needed, using the ruler to keep things straight and centered.

I cut two circles (traced from the bottom of the glass) about 3" diameter, and one rectangular piece about 6.5" by 2.5".

In the long piece, I cut notches parallel to the short side, about halfway through. Then I rolled it so that the short sides overlapped each other by about 0.5", and glued them together. I used some mini binder clips to hold the structure in place while the glue set.

Then I worked on cutting the brim. I used the ruler to mark out about 0.5" around beyond the edge of one of the circles, then poked a hole in the center and cut outward toward the inside marks, to slice the middle section into eight pizza slices (oh, man, I'm hungry now lol). I turned the points upward so they could be attatched to the cylinder part of the hat later.

Then since my glue was pretty well set, I bent the notches on the cylinder inward by about 0.5" all the way around.

Then I discovered the circle for the flat top of the hat was a little too large, and trimmed it. I also cut another circle out like it. I placed the first circle of cardboard inside the hat and refolded the notches over it, then glued the second circle over the top of everything. I held the two circles together (not very easy, haha) until the glue set.

I have not figured out exactly how I'm going to attach the brim. Nor how I want to cover the hat -- if I want to try fabric, printed tape, paper...

So we'll see about that next time or something. :)


*not an affiliate of Elmer's School Glue -- just felt like being specific about the materials I was using

UPDATE -- 8/21/2018:

You can now see the other half of the mini top hat project here!