I've seen people (especially at balloon conventions) with those big tophats with the large brims.  Can anyone tell me how you make those?  I'm assuming the main part is a basket weave and I can handle that.  But how do you get the brim to
1) stand out at a 90 degree angle  (is it just a matter of putting a pinch twist on the base of all the balloon tails before starting the brim?)
and
2) not flop all over the place if you have more than 1 or 2 rows in the brim?

I just got back from the Florida SuperJam -- great convention!  Here are a couple of photos of things I made during the Jam.  The dog is one that Albert Muñoz taught.  It uses a distortion technique to do the ears, which I had never done before.  I think it makes great ears!    And the dragon uses a very flexible body design taught by Michael Crayton.

Inspired by a cat headband that Dale Campbell did.

I'm doing a birthday party this afternoon for a little girl and the party theme is rainbows and unicorns.

My niece got married this last weekend and she likes minions.  So this is what I made to hold our wedding card for her....

I just got back from 3 weeks of volunteering at a zoo/wildlife rescue center in Costa Rica.  Since I was there over Valentines day, I made this for their gift shop counter.  It's a modification of Ken Stillman's Valentines Awesome Bouquet (I didn't have any hearts with me, so I had to stick with flowers) with Graham's parrot from one of the Models of the Month and a few other misc animals.

Hi!  I've been doing  balloons on a volunteer basis for about 10 years and just last year started doing them at parties for pay.  Because most of my ballooning has been for huge groups before that, I always had to stick to very fast, fairly simple designs.  So I don't know that I'll be able to contribute much but am looking forward to being part of the forum!