A Dinotopian Sun Hat: Fun at the Dollar Store!
Welcome to Starbat's Oh-God-What-Have-I-Done-I-Just-Wanted-To-Go-To-The-Dollar-Store segment, in which slightly improbable things are made out of shitty plastic and assorted crap.
So, it may not be a secret that I love hats and headdresses. The bigger and weirder, the better. Fortunately, the realm of Dinotopia also seems to revel in hats with a startling variety of shapes, sizes, forms, and functions. So I saw this as a perfect opportunity to try out a new kind of hat. The character I'm building for this project is something of a researcher/librarian so I thought some kind of sun hat would be appropriate, inspired by some of the Asiatic hats worn on the Earth farm in the Dinotopia miniseries:
As well as the woven and paper hats seen in Chinese fashion, such as this one:
I meant to make this a basic, functional hat. I, uh, didn't really succeed. It actually ended up as a wind hazard to rival Mary Poppins' umbrella, but I still contend that it is awesome.
So it's kind of a failure. But since I'm still pretty proud out making it (it's actually super easy), so I'm going to go ahead and write down how I made it. Buckle up.
Materials (pretty much everything here I got from a dollar store. I spent less than 10 dollars altogether)
- 1 plastic flower pot
- 1 packet of bamboo skewers
- 1 pack of tissue paper (you really only need a few sheets. I got a pack that only had 4 sheets, and I still have most of one sheet left)
- Elmers glue (or another lightweight white craft glue that will mix with water)
- super glue
- a large soft paint brush or a spray bottle
- a dremel or other drilling tool
Step 1: The Bones
At this point, you have to do the most technically complex part if the build, which is to attach the skewers to the flower pot. How many skewers you use depends on the size of the pot and how you want the finished hat to look. I ended up using 17 skewers, putting them about 1.5 inches apart.
There are plenty of ways to attach the skewers, but I decided to drill holes around the edge of the pot and then glue the skewers in to secure them. For this, I used two dremel heads to drill and widen/angle the holes:
The trick to this step is to get all the holes at about the same angle, so that the skewers sit correctly, rather than sticking every which way. It's not a bad idea to put placeholder skewers in each hole as you go so you can track how the line is progressing.
Step 2: Covering the Hat
Okay, so I tried a couple different things here. Some of them did not work.
The thing that did end up working for me was using tissue paper and treating it like a decoupage project.
Basically, I used light smears of superglue to attach a sheet of tissue paper to the skewers and up the flower pot. Then I brushed a layer of Elmer's glue mixed with water (the proportions don't matter that much, I used about a 1:5 ratio of glue to water) on top of the tissue and overlapping another piece over part of the first tissue and over more of the skewers and flower pot (remembering to use superglue to affix the tissue to the skewers with each layer). It took me about three sheets of dollar store tissue paper to cover the hat completely, and I used the fourth piece to patch up any uneven bits, missing corners, etc.
With the flower pot, I used more of the glue mixture, and really just molded it onto the pot at tightly as possible.
Step 3: Finishing Touches
This is really just about sprucing things up and making the hat something you want to wear. For me, this just meant that I trimmed the ends of the skewers to make the brim a little shorter, and giving the underside of the hat a light coat of gold spray paint. While the top of the tissue paper sheets was gold, the reverse side was a duller, whitish color, and I wanted to make the underside of the hat pop a little more. The result is that although the hat is translucent with a light source behind it:
The underside lights up gold when a light source is in front of it:
Final Pictures (to give you a better idea of the scale)
So, it may not be a secret that I love hats and headdresses. The bigger and weirder, the better. Fortunately, the realm of Dinotopia also seems to revel in hats with a startling variety of shapes, sizes, forms, and functions. So I saw this as a perfect opportunity to try out a new kind of hat. The character I'm building for this project is something of a researcher/librarian so I thought some kind of sun hat would be appropriate, inspired by some of the Asiatic hats worn on the Earth farm in the Dinotopia miniseries:
As well as the woven and paper hats seen in Chinese fashion, such as this one:
I meant to make this a basic, functional hat. I, uh, didn't really succeed. It actually ended up as a wind hazard to rival Mary Poppins' umbrella, but I still contend that it is awesome.
So it's kind of a failure. But since I'm still pretty proud out making it (it's actually super easy), so I'm going to go ahead and write down how I made it. Buckle up.
Materials (pretty much everything here I got from a dollar store. I spent less than 10 dollars altogether)
- 1 plastic flower pot
- 1 packet of bamboo skewers
- 1 pack of tissue paper (you really only need a few sheets. I got a pack that only had 4 sheets, and I still have most of one sheet left)
- Elmers glue (or another lightweight white craft glue that will mix with water)
- super glue
- a large soft paint brush or a spray bottle
- a dremel or other drilling tool
 |
| Feast your eyes on the tools of the trade. Well, my trade. |
Step 1: The Bones
At this point, you have to do the most technically complex part if the build, which is to attach the skewers to the flower pot. How many skewers you use depends on the size of the pot and how you want the finished hat to look. I ended up using 17 skewers, putting them about 1.5 inches apart.
 |
| Now you can be a crappy unicorn! Crappy, but deadly... |
 |
| Okay, so now you're less of a unicorn, more of a sea urchin. Still deadly, though! |
There are plenty of ways to attach the skewers, but I decided to drill holes around the edge of the pot and then glue the skewers in to secure them. For this, I used two dremel heads to drill and widen/angle the holes:
The trick to this step is to get all the holes at about the same angle, so that the skewers sit correctly, rather than sticking every which way. It's not a bad idea to put placeholder skewers in each hole as you go so you can track how the line is progressing.
Step 2: Covering the Hat
Okay, so I tried a couple different things here. Some of them did not work.
 |
| Construction paper didn't quite have the look I was going for. Plus I didn't glue it down right. And it looks stupid. So, you know, a learning experience |
The thing that did end up working for me was using tissue paper and treating it like a decoupage project.
 |
| See, it looks less stupid when you cover the sticker that says the pot was a dollar. Makes it look classy. |
Basically, I used light smears of superglue to attach a sheet of tissue paper to the skewers and up the flower pot. Then I brushed a layer of Elmer's glue mixed with water (the proportions don't matter that much, I used about a 1:5 ratio of glue to water) on top of the tissue and overlapping another piece over part of the first tissue and over more of the skewers and flower pot (remembering to use superglue to affix the tissue to the skewers with each layer). It took me about three sheets of dollar store tissue paper to cover the hat completely, and I used the fourth piece to patch up any uneven bits, missing corners, etc.
With the flower pot, I used more of the glue mixture, and really just molded it onto the pot at tightly as possible.
Step 3: Finishing Touches
This is really just about sprucing things up and making the hat something you want to wear. For me, this just meant that I trimmed the ends of the skewers to make the brim a little shorter, and giving the underside of the hat a light coat of gold spray paint. While the top of the tissue paper sheets was gold, the reverse side was a duller, whitish color, and I wanted to make the underside of the hat pop a little more. The result is that although the hat is translucent with a light source behind it:
 |
| Mirror magic, baby! And some bad lighting, ignore that. |
The underside lights up gold when a light source is in front of it:
 |
| All hail the sun goddess! She rises from the bathroom... |
Final Pictures (to give you a better idea of the scale)
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