The 3.5-metre effigy of the Pulp frontman – complete with glasses, fringe and trademark pointing hand – was the work of Jennie, 49, and Chris Dennett, 50, with help from Rachel Weaver and Chris Lindall.
It took two weeks to build and pushed the limits of what can be paraded through the town’s streets for the annual Ulverston Lantern Festival.
The lantern caught the attention of Jarvis Cocker himself.
Marking his 62nd birthday on September 19, the Pulp frontman shared a photo of the creation with his 170,000 followers on Instagram, calling it “perhaps the strangest” birthday message he had received.
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He thanked the Ulverston lantern makers and invited people in the area to send him pictures of it illuminated during the parade.
For Jennie, a long-time Pulp fan, the challenge was as much technical as artistic.
“I love Pulp – you wouldn’t spend two weeks making a Jarvis lantern if you didn’t,” she said.
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“The main challenge was getting the arm out at an angle — it’s a lot of weight, so we had to use cross-bracing to keep it attached. My first effort was 90% nose – it didn’t look like Jarvis at all, even with the glasses!”
Her husband Chris used a laser cutter to capture Jarvis’s profile from a photograph which the team then built the lantern around.
Jennie said she plans to display Jarvis’s head and trademark pointing finger at The Spot, ensuring the essence of the lantern lives on even after the parade.
“I hoped if I got the glasses, the fringe and the pose right, it would capture his geeky charisma,” Jennie added.
The build took place at The Spot, Ulverston’s community arts hub in the old auction mart, giving the team room to attempt their most ambitious creation yet.
At 3.5 metres, it was the maximum size possible to navigate beneath telegraph wires and through narrow bends.
The tie was fashioned from black ripstop fabric – a nod to Jennie’s experience making flags for festivals – while countless sheets of paper and strips of willow went into shaping Jarvis’s frame.
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On parade night, heavy rain tested the design to its limits. At one stage, volunteer Dan Fox was forced to hold up Jarvis’s back after a support slumped. Eventually, the lantern made it to Hart Street before collapsing.
Jennie said: “He did eventually have a little lie down on Hart Street when the wind finally broke him. I kept his head and his pointy finger though — they sum him up quite nicely.
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“I joked that he actually ended up as pulp, just a big pile of soggy tissue at the end.
“His glasses and his pointing hand are pretty much the essence of Jarvis, aren’t they? We saved that – the essence.”
Jennie plans to do a display with the remaining parts of Jarvis in the future.
