Conical Hat Keychain – Crafting in Ho Chi Minh City

Every time I travel to Vietnam I consider painting a conical hat to wear and bring home. But every time I decide against it, since it is quite big and fragile. In Ho Chi Minh City I found the Workshop Hub which offered a conical hat keychain workshop – the answer to the question “how I could paint my own hat and bring it home”!

Workshop Hub Location

The Workshop Hub is some way outside the city parts most tourists stick to, but getting there is easy: With the newly inaugurated Ho Chi Minh City Metro! I entered at the Ben Thanh station (Nhà Ga Ngầm Bến Thành) and booked a ticket at one of the electronic machines (in English), plus a return ticket for the same price. From the Thao Dien station (Nhà Ga Thảo Điền) it was just a nine minute walk to the location.

Once there however I walked inside, thought I had the wrong address and walked back out. Several reviews deep in their Google My Business account I found the hint that the Workshop Hub is located upstairs, so I have included the picture of the only sign and the stairs for your convenience.

First things first: You can do many different workshops here, but I made the conical hat keychains, so I will focus on them. Other options include, but aren’t limited to: scented candle making, stained glass workshops and bracelet making.

Conical Hat Keychain Workshop

First you pick your hat size. I went for a bigger one and a smaller one, but size doesn’t matter for the price of the workshop. Then staff explained the process to me, showed me where to find anything and encouraged to me to ask for help whenever I needed it. During the workshop you are left alone, but always surrounded by staff and other crafters, so it was never lonely.

Afterwards you pick a chain or cord, an accessory and a bell for the top of your keychain, as well as a tassel for the bottom of it. If you pick something and later find that it doesn’t fit with the finished design you can change it again, so don’t worry too much about it.

Then it is time for painting. You can use markers and acrylic colours. I sketched with a light brown marker and then painted over it with a brush and acrylics.

For the smaller conical hat keychain I went for a nature design with a lotus flower pond and matching accessories: a medium green cord, light green bell and transparent pink flower for the top and a light blue tassel for the bottom.

The bigger hat was more colourful, with things that reminded me of Vietnam: The flag in red and yellow, bamboo in various greens and a silk lantern in blue and orange. For the accessories I went for a light blue chain, red bell and yellow star for the top and a medium green tassel for the bottom.

While I was painting staff got a hot glue gun ready, in case I wanted to use any of the many small decorative 3D pieces. The pond-themed hat got some iridescent butterflies, while the other hat got some tiny seashells and a cute light blue bowtie.

Then came the last big decision: a string of up to seven beads you could choose to adorn your conical hat keychain. There were so many! It took me at least 20 minutes to decide, if not longer. In the end I tried to replicate my painted design, or at least allude to it, with a lotus flower and butterfly for one and similar coloured beads to my used paints, plus two gold accents for the other.

While I paid for the workshop my finished keychains were placed in a delicate mesh bag, before being wrapped securely to avoid damaging them. I took the “finished” picture at home after hanging them on my wall. You can see that they survived two months of travelling in a stuffed suitcase with no damage.

How to book the conical hat keychains workshop

Now, I just showed up, BUT they told me that I got lucky that they weren’t fully booked that day. When I started I was almost alone in the location, but within half an hour every single seat was taken. Since I can’t find them on any booking plattform it’s probably best if you call or message them beforehand!