August 13 - Addi's Hats

"Laughing is the smile of the World."

Weerashon Puttrpadit, Mahasarakham, Thailand

The final official Bling Bling Jam twisting instructor I want to cover is Addi Somekh.  (Sorry decor instructors!)

I left Addi's session inspired to "go and make the world happy with balloons".

Addi and his photographer friend, Charlie Eckert, spent literally years travelling the world creating abstract hats for strangers.  Many of these amazing images you can find on his websites (main link) and in the book/kit they created together "Balloon Hat Kit", but we watched as he showed image upon image of human beings from everywhere imaginable, from a Sadhu sitting and meditating in a loincloth in India, to Norwegian soldiers, to a family BBQ in East LA.

One point he makes is that regardless of divisions we may feel, no matter what dialect we speak, we all laugh in the same language.

He showed us a few basic hat structures from which to build, gave us tips on jazz, what he considers elegant design and use of negative space, but mainly go practice, and that for every great hat design you see in the images, there were more than an equal number of terrible looking ones.

So here is my homework, I kept myself to balloons that were given from the jam - so in some ways I was limited on color.  This is also a fraction of what I made, as I would make 3-4 at a time - some didn't get a picture, some are waiting downstairs at this moment for daylight for pictures.

Thanks Addi!

I've watched Ratatouille, this could work ...