Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 17:32:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Larry Moss To: Balloon Sculpting Mailing List Subject: (brief) Book review: WAY Cool Hats WAY Cool Hats by Harry ``Wally'' Walmsley, Arlene ``Arleenie'' Powers, and Yvonne ``Yummy'' Brogdon. Includes definition of twists, eyes, basic hats, ballet hat, basketball hoop hat, frog on a lily pad hat, giant funky chicken hat, la cucaracha hat, queen for a day hat, swirl hat. 60 pages, 8.5 x 11 inches, comb bound. $10. Wally, Arleenie, and Yummy have produced a second book of the same quality as their first, WAY Cool Balloons. When they say these hats are "Way Cool", they mean it. If you want to make a fashion statement, this is the way to do it. The ideas in it are original and presented well. the drawings are very clear and easy to follow. The jokes that accompany each creation are so awful that I'll be using them every chance I get. As with their last book, the things described here are not what you want to make if you're working large crowds and need to get something into everyone's hands. These hats take several minutes and a few balloons. The book does not have a huge amount of material in it, but in my mind the giant funky chicken hat (mentioned on the mailing list a while back) makes the whole book worth while. My feeling about hats is that you can do just about anything you want on them. The bigger, the better. I tend to start with a basic headband and add wild things to it. The authors of this book bothered to make sculptures that just happen to be worn on the head. If you want your hats to look like something, this may be what you're looking for.