Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Mad As a Hatter



When I was a kid I went to Girl Scout camp every summer for a week or two, probably 4 years in a row. At my last year there our group put on a play for the entire Girl Scout camp of our version of Alice in Wonderland. I got assigned the role of Mad Hatter (early job training?). I didn't pick it. I didn't want it. I got assigned it. The role was a singing role. It was also a dancing role. I don't sing, and if you have seen me dance, you know I don't do that very well either. I really, really didn't want the role. I tried to get out of it. No luck. So, the counselors gave me a stack of about 10 hats to wear on my head and I went out in front of the entire camp and sang the following ditty while sort of hopping around pretending to be dancing:



I've got these hats upon my head
Trying to sell one to you
Piled so high that I'm going crazy
And I don't know what to do.

Here, try a hat, buy a hat
Won't you buy one from me?




And it went on and I forget the rest. I didn't pass out or die. But that has stuck with me now for nearly 40 years.

This past week a woman contacted me and wanted me to make 3 hatter hats for Pullip's boyfriend, Taeyang. If you don't know Pullip, you'll have to look her up. She's another "trendy" doll that requires a million costumes including hats.



I made the 3 hats and made a few more while I was at it. I think I have gone mad. These are roughly 6" tall hats for a 12" tall doll. Imagine that in human proportions! I can't, and don't want to, but the hats look funny and fun on the dolls and the client is happy, so I am happy.

Grab a hat. Sing a song. Do a little dance. It'll be good for you! :)

3 comments:

  1. These doll hats are really stylish...I love what you're doing with them!
    The camp song definitely set your future in motion, or maybe just your destiny in the hat business:-)
    Stella xx

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  2. Thanks, Stella. Isn't that funny how little jokes on us happen throughout life? The mad hatter "tune" has always stuck with me. Perhaps if I had been assigned the role of the White Rabbit, things would have come out entirely differently :)

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  3. Love the Mad hatter hats! Your camp song reminds me of a childhood book I used to love about a man who walks around selling hats and carries them all on his head at the same time but a little monkey in a tree starts to steal them one by one. ;0)

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