What material is used to make the opera hat shell?
At first, the black-and-white hat was woven with rattan, with grass stems as the lining and yarn as the surface, and then painted. Later, when officials used their black hat, because the yarn was strong and light after painting, they removed the rattan and put two feet flat on the hat, which means two hat wings sticking out from both sides of the hat.
Now, the inner tube of the hat is made by using multiple layers of wool paper (paper for pasting windows in rural areas), pasting and drying;
The outside is covered with a black flannel curtain, and the gauze cap is made of two separate parts.
The yarn cap wings are twisted into springs with fine iron wire to nest the cap wing frame, then cut into pieces with appropriate size with fine iron yarn, glued to the wire frame with bone glue, sprayed with gold or silver paint to make the background color, then carved the patterns in the yarn wings with cardboard, dyed them with color, and fixed on the cap wing frame with bone glue and iron wire, corrected the shape and inserted them behind the black hat.
other helmet heads are made in a similar way, such as Wang (Huang) hat, Shuai helmet, Zhongjun helmet, Xu horse cover, Feng Guan, Luo Mao hat, large bills, small bills and so on. Usually, the helmet heads are all made of hard paper tires, and no textile materials are used. The method is also to carve the bottom plate with hard cardboard paper and attach it with fine iron yarn to make tires.
In Beijing and Jiangsu, there are helmets, shoes, boots, colored shoes, etc., which specialize in making plays. If you have time, you can visit and study, and you will see it at a glance. It will be handy to make.
Appendix:
The black hat was originally just a kind of casual hat commonly worn by the people, and it was designated as an "official hat" in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty.
The official wearing their black hats originated in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but as a part of the official "official clothes", it began in the Sui Dynasty and flourished in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, wings were added, and their black hats were different in material and style according to their official ranks. After the Ming Dynasty, their jobs became synonymous with being an official.
These two hat wings have been added gradually since the early Song Dynasty, in order to prevent officials from whispering to each other when they go to work in the court. If the two hats and wings touch each other, it is likely that the hat will be knocked off, and the emperor will easily find it.
this is a black hat
black hat
opera helmet head
(the picture is taken from Baidu Pictures).