It occurs to me I never put this hat on my blog. Possibly my favourite ever hat, certainly the most complex. Medusa… the swim cap. Back in the day when I painted more, and none of it was about swimmers, Medusa was a regular character in my paintings. This is the hat I was always supposed to design.
I had these printed last year, sold out, and have recently had another batch printed, so if you couldn’t get your hands on one before, they are again in my shop – see link in main menu if the direct links below do not work:
On Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1755583489/
On Tizzo (UK only) https://www.tizzo.co.uk/product.php?Product_ID=1424671969
Here’s my pencil sketch…
It may not look much but hours of work went into this sketch. Each snake crossing the edge had to be matched on the other side, so that when you see the hat finished, the snakes travel across the centre line of the hat and back again. The joins and the angles are not perhaps perfect, but for a hand-drawn image, hand-printed onto a silicone swimming hat, I think they are good, and they certainly have the desired effect when worn.
For the rest of the rendering of this image I did take it onto a tablet and fill in the colour and patterns on the snake that way… and endlessly adjusted it and added to the design till it became what you see now. It was then expertly printed by Swimhatco.com and is available in my shop – while stocks last. I’m onto my second print run at time of writing (October 2025). I cannot promise there will be a third print run, it’s quite an investment to get these printed, but there may be. You can always email me if you’d like to find out more.
Below are just a few of my past “portraits” of Medusa. If you are interested in these, I I have prints for sale in my Other Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/nancyfarmer – this has a collection of my older work. You’ll find Medusa here, and also fairies, angels, demons… no swimmers at all, except for a few mermaids.
WaterDrawn 