Category Archives: Swimming hats etc

Two-colour sea monster hat in Clevedon Marine Lake

New swimming hats for sale

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Two-colour sea monster hat in Clevedon Marine Lake

Two-colour sea monster hat in Clevedon Marine Lake

Apologies for not featuring these on the blog before! Anyone who stalks me on Facebook will have already seen these but I’ve not properly updated here yet.

Where to buy the hats? You can see, and buy, the hats I currently have in the Swimming Hats section of my Etsy shop.

If that’s all you were looking for, read no further, follow the links! The rest is mostly pretty pictures. I am very pleased with this new one – one of my two-colour Sea Monsters hats – a twist on last year. I can be very particular about colours, as you might expect from an artist, and I wanted a really nicely balanced colour combination. I mixed an orange and turquoise from my watercolour paints, put them in the post and sent them to the lovely hat-printing people Swimhatco.com, who carefully matched my samples. Turquoise in particular does not print true from a computer screen, so this was the only way to do it. I was delighted that they got them just like my samples.

Matching the Sea Monster paint samples

Matching the Sea Monster paint samples

Then I got into Clevedon Marine Lake last Wednesday with a camera and a hat on my head. It was a lovely morning. It was Brass Monkeys in the water mind you, at only 5.5 degrees, so I’m pretty pleased with the selfies considering everything. No, the water is not always this clear in Clevedon Marine Lake, but in the Autumn in particular it can be, once the silt has had a chance to settle.

Sea Monsters rising

Sea Monsters rising…

Still the Marine Lake - yes, that see through water is a little unusual

Still the Marine Lake – yes, that see through water is a little unusual!

I’ve also had some plain purple sea monsters printed, and the Swimflakes return for a 3rd year….

Purple Sea Monsters

Purple Sea Monsters

New Swimflake hats

New Swimflake hats

And one last new addition to the hats – I have more Clevedon Pier hats too, in some colours that have never existed before…

New Clevedon Hats

New Clevedon Hats

Aaaand I want to show you just one more pretty picture, because I still have a few of these mermaid hats. Many thanks to Pat Goding and Jeanine Lehmann Palmieri for this photo:

Pat Goding by Jeanine Lehmann Palmieri

Pat Goding by Jeanine Lehmann Palmieri

 

Yellow 'Swim Wild and Free' hat

Swim Wild and Free!

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Yellow 'Swim Wild and Free' hat

Yellow ‘Swim Wild and Free’ hat

…were the words that Outdoor Swimmer Magazine came up with as a slogan on a swimming hat that they asked me to design. Here’s what I did with them…

If you fancy one of these they are available from Outdoor swimmer – not from me – go to https://outdoorswimmer.com/swim-hats, or subscribe to the magazine and you get one free with the beginner’s pack: https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/outdoor-swi…/promo/swimpack/
You can also get one by buying the May issue, but they have nearly run out, so that is only available for another day or so, if that.

(I don’t think they are available in that particular green, that’s just a mock-up image I did against a random hat colour…)

Simon Griffiths from Outdoor Swimmer is modelling the hat, photos by Katia Vastiau

sketch

sketch

People with hats and outdoor swimmer magazines!

People with hats and outdoor swimmer magazines!

Simon Griffiths, modelling new hat!

Simon Griffiths, modelling new hat!

image mock-up

image mock-up

Mermaid Swimming Hats Are Here!

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Remember when I asked you to vote on which you liked so I could narrow it down a bit. Ah… so, small admission: I did narrow it down, but only a very tiny bit, from 5 to 4. My favouite came in 4th, there were different views on the blog to in the swimming groups on Facebook and then I didn’t dare ask everyone what colour I thought they should be!

I have left the hard part up to you, choosing which you like now out of a total of 16 variations! Don’t see why I should do all the work. One thing I have made sure is there are plenty of bright ones because visibility is often an issue for open water swimming, but there are a couple of luscious darker colours too, for when you don’t have such requirements. Have fun choosing!

Available in my Etsy shop now: www.waterdrawnart.etsy.com

Mermaid Swimming hats designed by Nancy Farmer

Mermaid Swimming hats designed by Nancy Farmer

Today, I shall mostly be wrapping hats:

Wrapped hats with my lovely new mermaid stickers!

Wrapped hats with my lovely new mermaid stickers!

This explains everything.... ;-)

Hat voting update…

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So pretty much the only clear thing is that I don’t get number 3 printed!
There was voting on this blog and on ‘Did You Swim Today’ on Facebook, with different results. I think maybe two hats are called for but – while trying not to invite design by committee – I may work on them a little more. One of the popular things about number 5 was scales and I had always intended to add scales to all of them. The hair was also mentioned as a feature on number 5… not so sure about losing the hats and goggles – it’s a bit of a major change to the feeling of the other designs, and if I remove hats, then the swimming costume tops probably would have to go too. I’ll get back to you….

This explains everything.... ;-)

This explains everything…. 😉

mermaid hat 4

What sort of mermaids do you want on your hats?!

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Ok, so several times when I’ve had swimming hats printed people have asked me for mermaids. But what sort of mermaids? People seldom ask me for artwork if they want the standard version of anything… can’t think why this is. So I have tried a few drawings of mermaids that are mostly not like the fairytale variety, and then I thought I’d ask you what you thought of them.

Please vote! …especially if you actually want mermaids on swimming hats! You can vote for more than one design, but please cast your vote just once unless you plan on buying two dozen hats.

…and if you’d like me to email you with an update on when the hats will be ready, just add yourself to my email list (you can unsubscribe any time).

mermaid hat 1

mermaid hat 1

mermaid hat 2

mermaid hat 2

mermaid hat 3

mermaid hat 3

mermaid hat 4

mermaid hat 4

mermaid hat 5

mermaid hat 5

Sophie Apnée‎ in Paris, photo by Manon of Blue Parallax

Distant snowflakes

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My snowflakes / swimflakes hats are getting about a bit, I just wanted to show you a couple of photos that I particularly loved – in Paris and Siberia.

I’ve sold out of these hats now, but people have suggested mermaid hats several times so I’m thinking about that for the spring. Also, anyone who wanted a Clevedon Pier hat – I have a few of those coming in the next couple of weeks. If you want to get a very rare email about when I have new stuff, feel free to add yourself to the mailing list – see link above.

Jackie Risman in Siberia
Sophie Apnée‎ in Paris, photo by Manon of Blue Parallax
Jackie Risman in Siberia
Sophie Apnée‎ in Paris, photo by Manon of Blue Parallax

Paris photos by Manan of Blue Parallax

Portishead Popsicle swim cap

Portishead Popsicle swim cap

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Portishead Popsicle swim cap

Portishead Popsicle swim cap

Behold the Portishead Popsicle swim cap!

I think I got most of the important things into the picture:
The water will be cold. Very cold.
Despite this, many happy people will be swimming in it.
They will not be diving in! (see point one)
There are different classes for wetsuit and non-wetsuit, unlike many winter events where all rubber is banned.
There will be cake.
There may be silly hats (a stretch this one, I admit, but it’s not often you see someone in a pool with a bobble hat).
It’s at the lovely friendly community run Portishead Lido

The Portishead Popsicle happens on 16th December.

… and I believe you can still enter the events. The shortest distance is 30 metres, you know you can do it! You can certainly still order a hat till this Sunday (26th November). I will be there too, if anyone would like their hat signed. For more information visit the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1181288338683926/