Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland provided us with an iconic mad hatter. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a hatter that doesn’t look like Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations. More recently, in the 2010 movie, Alice in Wonderland, Johnny Depp’s interpretation left viewers with a similarly memorable personage. So when it came to creating the image for Mad as a Hatter, it was difficult to avoid the obvious – at least until I decided to scrap the stack of drawings (too reminiscent of both John and Johnny) and go for a hatter that is crafty and just a bit crazy.

Datura, chosen for its likelihood of bringing on symptoms of madness, provides the hatter with a handy pincushion/seed pod!

Mad as a Hatter
block print

The mercury once used in the manufacture of felt has been attributed to the madness that inflicted hatters, but the overall craziness could also be symptomatic of poisoning from Datura (Datura stramonium). Its other name, Jimson Weed, shortened from Jamestown Weed, refers to the Virginia settlers who dosed the invading British soldiers’ food, causing them to behave like lunatics for days while the colonists regrouped.