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Considering that Halloween is getting close I thought I'd do another column related to the holiday. This week I will teach how to
weave a witch hat. In my example I am going to use different color balloons so that you can see each step, but the design
looks best when using all black 260 balloons.
The basic shape of our hat will be a cone.
Supplies needed:
6 black 260 balloons
1 key lime green 160
1 gold 160
If you are using Betallatex balloons, prestretch the balloons. You will get some extra length that can be used on the brim
of the hat and it will also help cut down on tears and breaks.
| Inflate the 6 black 260 balloons leaving about 3.5 inches of uninflated tail in each of the balloons. |
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| Tie the nozzles of 2 black 260's together. This is called a duplet. Repeat this so that you have 3 duplets of black 260's. |
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| Twist all the duplets together at the nozzle end. |
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| When twisting the hat we will start from the top of the cone and work towards the brim of the hat. The weave that makes up this hat is very economical in it's use of balloons. By using a down and sideways pattern each balloon will form a zigzag pattern from the tip of the hat to the brim. Each balloon will be 1/6th of the whole of the hat. Twist a 4 inch bubble in the 1st balloon (red). This will be a vertical line in the hat Twist a 1.5 inch bubble in the 1st balloon (red). This will be part of a ring in the hat. Twist a 4 inch bubble in the 2nd balloon (orange). This is also a vertical line. |
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| Locktwist the 2nd balloon(orange) to the 1st balloon (red). Arrange the ends so that the 1st balloon (red) is pointing down and the 2nd balloon (orange) points to the side. This is important because if you don't pay attention you won't have relatively equal lengths of balloon left to make the hat brim. Twist a 1.5 inch bubble in the 2nd balloon (orange). |
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| Twist a 4 inch bubble in the 3rd balloon (blue). Locktwist the 3rd balloon (blue) to the 2nd balloon (orange). Arrange the ends so that the 2nd balloon (orange) is pointing down and the 3rd balloon (blue) points to the side. Twist a 1.5 inch bubble in the 3rd balloon (blue). |
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| Twist a 4 inch bubble in the 4th balloon (green). Locktwist the 4th balloon (green) to the 3rd balloon (blue). Arrange the ends so that the 3rd balloon (blue) is pointing down and the 4th balloon(green) points to the side. Twist a 1.5 inch bubble in the 4th balloon (green). |
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| Twist a 4 inch bubble in the 5th balloon (yellow). Locktwist the 5th balloon (yellow) to the 4th balloon (green). Arrange the ends so that the 4th balloon (green) is pointing down and the 5th balloon(yellow) points to the side. Twist a 1.5 inch bubble in the 5th balloon (yellow). |
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| Twist a 4 inch bubble in the 6th balloon (lilac). Locktwist the 6th balloon (lilac) to the 5th balloon (yellow). Arrange the ends so that the 5th balloon (yellow) is pointing down and the 6th balloon(lilac) points to the side. Twist a 1.5 inch bubble in the 6th balloon (lilac) |
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| Time to complete the 1st ring. Thread the 6th balloon (lilac) through the hole between the 1st(red) and 2nd (orange) balloons. |
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| Pull the 6th balloon (lilac) through the hole until you can lock the 6th balloon (lilac) to the 1st balloon (red) and complete the ring. I don't recommend pulling the balloon through 2 times at this point, since there is a lot of friction and it can be tight. |
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| Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 1st balloon (red). Twist a 3.5 inch bubble in the 1st balloon (red). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 2nd balloon (orange). |
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| Locktwist the 2nd balloon(orange) to the 1st balloon (red). Arrange the ends so that the 1st balloon (red) is pointing down. Twist a 3.5 inch bubble in the 2nd balloon (orange). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 3rd balloon (blue). |
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Locktwist the 3rd balloon (blue) to the 2nd balloon (orange). Arrange the ends so that the 2nd balloon (orange) is pointing down and the 3rd balloon (blue) points to the side. Twist a 3.5 inch bubble in the 3rd balloon (blue). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 4th balloon (green). |
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| Locktwist the 4th balloon (green) to the 3rd balloon (blue). Arrange the ends so that the 3rd balloon (blue) is pointing down and the 4th balloon(green) points to the side. Twist a 3.5 inch bubble in the 4th balloon (green). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 5th balloon (yellow). |
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| Locktwist the 5th balloon (yellow) to the 4th balloon (green). Arrange the ends so that the 4th balloon (green) is pointing down and the 5th balloon(yellow) points to the side. Twist a 3.5 inch bubble in the 5th balloon (yellow). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 6th balloon (lilac). |
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| Locktwist the 6th balloon (lilac) to the 5th balloon (yellow). Arrange the ends so that the 5th balloon (yellow) is pointing down and the 6th balloon(lilac) points to the side. Twist a 3.5 inch bubble in the 6th balloon (lilac). Thread the 6th balloon (lilac) through the hole between the 1st(red) and 2nd (orange) balloons. |
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| Pull the 6th balloon (lilac) through the hole until you can lock the 6th balloon (lilac) to the 1st balloon (red) and complete the ring.
If you want to do this a second time as a safety measure feel free since there is lots of room to do so. |
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| Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 1st balloon (red). Twist a 4.5 inch bubble in the 1st balloon (red). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 2nd balloon (orange). |
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| Locktwist the 2nd balloon(orange) to the 1st balloon (red). Twist a 4.5 inch bubble in the 2nd balloon (orange). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 3rd balloon (blue). |
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| Locktwist the 3rd balloon (blue) to the 2nd balloon (orange). Arrange the ends so that the 2nd balloon (orange) is pointing down and the 3rd balloon (blue) points to the side. Twist a 4.5 inch bubble in the 3rd balloon (blue). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 4th balloon (green). |
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| Locktwist the 4th balloon (green) to the 3rd balloon (blue). Arrange the ends so that the 3rd balloon (blue) is pointing down and the 4th balloon(green) points to the side. Twist a 4.5 inch bubble in the 4th balloon (green). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 5th balloon (yellow). |
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| Locktwist the 5th balloon (yellow) to the 4th balloon (green). Arrange the ends so that the 4th balloon (green) is pointing down and the 5th balloon(yellow) points to the side. Twist a 4.5 inch bubble in the 5th balloon (yellow). Twist a 5 inch bubble in the 6th balloon (lilac). |
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| Locktwist the 6th balloon (lilac) to the 5th balloon (yellow). Arrange the ends so that the 5th balloon (yellow) is pointing down and the 6th balloon(lilac) points to the side. Twist a 4.5 inch bubble in the 6th balloon (lilac) |
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| Thread the 6th balloon (lilac) through the hole between the 1st(red) and 2nd (orange) balloons. Pull the 6th balloon(lilac) through the hole until you can lock the 6th balloon (lilac) to the 1st balloon (red) and complete the ring. If you want to do this a second time as a safety measure feel free since there is lots of room to do so. At this point I have checked the lengths of the remaining balloons, 3 are short and close to the same length. Twist a small bubble at the end of one of the short balloons. In my case this is the lilac balloon. |
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| Lock the lilac balloon to the bottom ring of the hat. |
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| Since I have 2 more balloons that are equal shortness in length I twist a bubble in each one and lock it to the brim of the hat. First the yellow, then the green balloons. |
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| My red balloon was longer so I measure the bubble length by holding it against the lilac one and twist a bubble. |
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| Lock the red balloon to the hat base. Twist a small bubble in the red balloon and pinch twist it. Get rid of any remaining excess balloon by deflating it and tying it off. |
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| Once again the orange balloon was a bit long, so I measure against the red loop and twist a bubble of the
same length as the red loop. Lock the orange balloon to the hat base. Twist a small bubble in the orange balloon and pinch twist it. Get rid of any remaining excess balloon by deflating it and tying it off. |
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| The blue balloon is the last one, and once again is too long. Measure it against the orange loop and twist a bubble
of the same length as the orange loop. Lock the blue balloon to the hat base. Twist a small bubble in the blue balloon and pinch twist it. Get rid of any remaining excess balloon by deflating it and tying it off. |
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| You should now have a hat that looks something like the photo to the right. If you have time you can add some shape to give the design a little more character. We'll start by giving the brim a bit of a curl and the tips a sharper point. |
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| To give the brim some curl grasp the balloon as shown in the picture. The tip should be in your left palm and the
wide part of a brim piece in your right hand. Bend the tip towards the point on the hat while holding onto the wider part with your other hand. Squeeze the top and bottom of the tip a bit as you give the brim piece a bend. |
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| The brim piece should be less rounded now and more pointed at the tip with a slight upward curl to it. Repeat the shaping to the remaining 5 brim pieces of the hat. |
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| Now the hat is starting to take on some style. There is still a little more you can do to make the design more interesting. |
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| You can add a bend or curve to the middle of the 5 inch vertical balloon segments in the hat to add a bit more shape to the hat. The main trick is to support the ends as you pull in on the middle of the 5 inch balloon segment. |
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| Once done your hat should look something like this. |
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| Looking at my hat I notice that there is kind of a bend in the tip of it I plan for that to be the back of the hat when
adding a band to it. Inflate your key lime 160 almost completely leaving a 2 inch tail. Lock the nozzle end to the joint you decide will be the front center of the hat. |
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| Wrap the key lime 160 around the hat, and lock it into place where you tied the start of the 160 to the hat. |
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| Make a small loop twist out of the remaining 160 balloon. Deflate the remaining 160, tie it off and get rid of the scrap left over. |
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| Inflate your gold 160. To make a buckle for the hat band make a pinch twist with your gold 160. Measuring against the loop twist make a medium bubble, pinch twist, medium bubble, pinch twist, medium bubble, pinch twist, medium bubble. Lock the 1st pinch twist to the tail of the last medium bubble. Get rid of any excess balloon and tie it off to secure it. Simply slide the buckle over the loop twist. The buckle should be made tight enough to be held in place by the pressure of the loop twist. Don't forget to hide the nozzles of the balloons at the top of the hat. |
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| Here is what the witch's hat would look like when done in all black. |
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| By making a few minor changes you can turn the hat into a hillbilly hat. I started by using all yellow 260 balloons. The loop twist was dropped from the hatband. I added a flower in place of the gold buckle and used a round waterballoon for the flowers center. The water balloon's nozzle is used to attach it to the hat where the seam is in the hatband. Remember the first movie in a series about a school for magicians? Does the shape of the hat remind you of one used to place students in their different houses of magic? |
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| One final variation I did on the hat was to turn it into an Elf Hat for Christmas. By varying the lengths of the vertical bubbles at each ring stage I was able to make the hat bend backwards. The 2 bubbles at the back of the hat are short. The 2 bubbles on the sides of the hat are about 1-2 inches longer than the back bubbles. The 2 bubbles at the front are about 1-2 inches longer than the side bubbles. The greater the difference in bubbles sizes from back to front of the hat determines how sharp the curve will be. The downside to this is that I need to use 2 balloons to make the brim of the hat, since most of the remaining balloon length would be too short for a brim piece. This worked out anyway in the elf hat because I wanted to use white for the brim. |
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