Just posted another tutorial video:

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdOJuuqTc0

It is a fairly simple rifle that I do while line twisting. I will leave the Scope off if I am busy as it will save one complete balloon and make the initial twisting easier.

I just posted this tutorial of an intermediate - but very fast - Sonic bracelet.

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agS5OU-9E7s

I titled it "easy" in YouTube but I should have said quick.

I was inspired by a picture that was recently posted by Michael at Balloon-animals.com. His was a very detailed, full figure of Sonic but it reminded me of all the times I've been (or almost have been) requested for a Sonic and knowing I didn't have a fast and/or good one. Well I got off my but and designed one and Now I do have one to offer.

Enjoy.

It was a friend's 41st birthday this past weekend so I made her a birthday balloon.

The face is a Jack Mattson design.
The body is based on Ken Stillman's superhero body with a couple extra muscles...and a bum.
The bum is made from 2 5" rounds. Niko-looned together through a sidewall connection. (connection was at halfway point between middle and bottom of round).
The blue balloon is a heart with the lobes pointed up for "added" effect.
To keep the legs in close, the thighs have a sidewall bubble just below the blue balloon and that is pulled in using an un-inflated 160.
The feet are hearts.
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I am trying to make a pretty gold that is opaque. I'm using 260Q gold stuffed with various 160Q's.

Here is a picture with the results side by side.

I've used (left to right):Yellow, Goldenrod, Mocha Brown, Grey, Chocolate Brown.
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I also tried orange & rose, they both looked good but both were too orange for what I'm after.

I think we've all heard that line ad nauseum. Although it wasn't a bike request, the sentiment was the same.

When I make balloons I work off of requests. Last night a 7 year old boy (who was sitting next to his teenage brother) asked for the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I told him I could make it but it's not fun to play with and asked if he'd prefer something to have fun with. NOPE.

I made the Leaning Tower of Pisa for him. It was a caterpillar body out of Ivory 260's (5 loops), put it on a 350 green base, drew some windows. Not fancy.  I should have just used a 350 on a base and made it crooked.

While I was making it, I asked him, do you know what the Leaning Tower of Pisa is? "mmm, no."

Ugh! Whatever. He waited the time, he got what he asked for.

Last night I worked a restaurant which was hosting a Halloween party for kids. The kids were encouraged to come dressed up.

I had the cutest 3.5 year old Little Red Riding Hood - complete with basket for Grandma's house - come up with her father. When I asked her what she would like, she responded, "Well, in the story there's a wolf."  I told her that I'd be happy to make her a Big Bad Wolf but that I'd need her father's help.

I used Caldwell's dragon mask as a base, changed the colors, the ears, and added a nose. I was really pleased with the way it turned out. At the end I put it on the father. Red was really happy.

I ended up making three of these - one of them was for one of the waitresses. I only added the whiskers (you can barely make them out in the picture) to the last one.

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This one is a recreation of what I made last night. Usually I'll tweak the design but I was really pleased with this one so no tweaking occurred.

So I took a pinch of jeanine von essen, a dash of david brennion, a little bit of me, mix well and viola!

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Jeanine has a Piggybank made with a clear balloon in her BHQ portfolio. I loved the idea. I have been making a modified version of Brennion's pig lately so I just did it with a clear balloon this time. The snout is a little longer than I would have intended but it kinda looks like the pig from Toy Story so I think I'll keep it that way.

Original Question: I'm wondering how round you can get a 12-inch balloon? Most come out looking kind of egg-shaped. And then there's the knot -- is there any way to push it into the balloon and make it stay?

Funny enough, I was pondering this EXACT same thing today. Here's what I came up with:

1. 11" round balloon, Red 260, two red scraps.
2. Tie a knot in the far end of the 260.
3. With a wooden dowel inserted into the 260, push the 260 into the 11" and, stretching the 11" over the end of the dowel and knot of the 260, tie in place.
4. remove dowel, flip the whole round inside out, Inflate (DO NOT TIE) the 11", Grab the 260 knot through the 11" round (again) and tie in place.
5. Deflate 11", flip right-side out.
6. With the long end of the 260 hanging out of the 11" nozzle, inflate to a round shape.
7. Pull on the 260 to create tension, and tie the nozzle. Snip off excess everything.
 - This encourages the round shape and pulls the nozzle into the balloon slightly.

The process described is very similar to Ralph Dewey's (GENIUS!) wobble-Loon technique described here:
//http://www.balloonhq.com/column/dewey/jun11/

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Disney has a new show about pirates based in Neverland. The bird (Scully) who's friends with the main good-guy characters is Scully. He's a parrot, seen here:

Here's my first attempt at is tonight:
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I wanted to add more green forehead which I did here:
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I rolled the knot too far forward on the second attempt so the beak is too long. I tried to re-tie it shorter but could make the knot.
Regardless, I think I'm partial to the first one.

Qualatex doesn't have a goldenrod heart. To get that color beak I stuffed an orange heart inside a yellow one. Where I tried to retie the knot on the second one you can see where I roughed it up a bit in my attempt.

I had this concept and I tried it two different ways.

The right one has two arms and a white body. The eyes have no brown back to them on that model and that causes the ears to pull down a little bit.

The left model has no arms and a single run of white for the body.

I'm wondering if I should use a white round for the body?

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Any suggestions?

I think most of us know the "creating a flower from a round balloon" trick. (aka. balloon round to geo blossom trick.)

While palming a geo blossom, you blow up a round balloon of the same color, deflate, cut it up with your scissors and then "re-inflate" the round balloon (geo) and it's magically changed into a flower with a hole in the center.

I love this trick.

This weekend I used it in a different way.

After I made the birthday boy a balloon, he asked for just a plain orange round balloon (5"). No problem. I inflated it and sent him on his way. A little while later Dad came by and asked for another orange balloon because Jonah's had popped. I asked if Jonah still had the scraps and to have him bring them to me.

Jonah came over with a handful of scraps and, after a thorough examination (with much consternation) I said, Yep! We can repair this. All we need is a little balloon glue which I just happen to have here in my bag. (THANKS TONYA!) I had Jonah hold the scraps while I glued them - making sure to get some onto his fingers so he knew it really was glue. I gave it a few seconds to set up and then I blew up an orange geo as I palmed the scraps.

The kids loved it, the adults were like, "WHAT?!"

This is an article written by the chef of a restaurant. It's the 6 things customer's do to get on his nerves.

Frankly, I can't believe he put this in print along with the name of his restaurant. He must have business insurance and is trying to figuratively 'burn' his business down.

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2010/10/11/55- ... n-eyester/

As we are also in the service industry, sometimes I've gotten upset with the way a client or a line member has acted. It's good for me to read articles like this, see that end of the spectrum which is full of contempt for his clients. My thought for him - and reminder for me - if you don't like it, get out.

I love balloon entertainment; Line twisting especially. But if I ever start to feel like this guy, whew! - I'm outta here.

I was going through some old photos of mine and found this one. I don't think I've posted it anywhere.

I thought it was cool becuase of the shape and angle of the tree. I used the old idea that as long as your center of gravity is ... well ... in the center, you can bow out and then back over.

Hi all,

I own the domain //http://www.balloonjam.com and I'm not really sure what it's eventual purpose will be. For now, I use it as a spot for Bonnie and Thelma to sell their cd's.

I recently updated the site with a new/simple look and a page for free instructions too. Take a look, let me know if you have any suggestions. I'm open to ideas. Except not another forum. I think that base is sufficiently covered.

- Sean

I was hired for a family fun day hosted by themotherconnection.org. They are an online forum for mother's in the tri-state area to get information about such things as ... entertainers ... and other stuff - I wasn't really listening after that.

The woman in charge asked ahead of time if I could make a beagle for her daughter. Their dog's name is Pudge.

I love Caldwell's dog, so I based the beagle off of his creation. I just received these pictures from the mom.

Birthday Balloon - Little boy wanted captain underpants.
Here's a photo: http://www.scholastic.co.uk/zone/images ... s_logo.jpg

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I started backwards in this whole industry.
 - I had my first gig before I owned a single balloon
 - I had a website before I was even open for business
 
My daughter's preschool has a 'family fun fair' every year. It's a fund raiser that's open to everyone ... which usually ends up being the 6 surounding towns. Every year they have a clown who makes balloons.

My wife came home from a preschool meeting a year and a half ago in May and said, "The clown cancelled so I volunteered you to make balloons." I responded, "I don't know how to make balloons." Compasionately she replied, "can't you learn, you have a month."

I agreed, but insisted that I wasn't going to dress up as a clown. "what about a red nose?" "No, I'm not a clown."

I ordered a bag of balloons from Tmeyers and a handpump and got busy learning balloons.

It didn't dawn on me to have a menu. In hindsight, it seems like an obvious idea, but I wasn't 'in the business' at that point so it seemed like I had to know whatever the kids asked me for.

They day came and went and everybody had fun. Mom's kept asking me if I did birthday parties and I said "No, this isn't what I do."

One woman wouldn't leave me alone - for weeks she insisted that I do balloons at her son's birthday party. I kept insisting I don't do balloons. My wife said, "Well at least put a website together." (I'm a hobbist website developer). So I put a website together - just as a place to put pictures of the balloons I was practicing.

I ended up doing Michael's birthday (He's the kid who loves fans - I made a working balloon fan for his birthday party). I also started getting work through my website.

I finally resigned myself to the fact that I am indeed 'a balloon guy' and have really enjoyed learning everything I can over the last year and a half.

I was lucky enough to fall into a good - great - crowd. I became friends with Bonnie, Thelma, Patrick, Mishel and others. They have all been invaluable as I've been developing my skills. I wouldn't be half the twister I am if it weren't for their influences.

I am hoping to learn and contribute to balloonchat as much as possible. I am always up for a challenge and look forward to getting to know everybody here.

I really don't know what to say abou this:
http://www.pinkcoyote.net/creativegrooming.html

Guido's Link-O-Loon heart on BHQ has been getting a lot of attention. If you haven't seen it already, here it is: //http://www.balloonhq.com/photos/db/complete.php?id=64223
 
It is pretty cool, I can only imagine how big it is using 16" L-O-L's.
 
I decided to give it a shot using 260's. It turned out pretty well. Definitely not for line work.
 
It took 7 260's for the empty version. The filled version as 2 5" rounds in the lobes and one 6" heart in the lower section. The 6" heart also supplies the pinch twist on the bottom to make the heart a little pointier.
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Thanksgiving is a traditional American holiday based on a very special bond between two cultures. After the indians saved us from starving but before we gave them blankets filled with smallpox, we sat down for supper.

Largely forgotten for hundreds of years, the tradition of taking a thursday off from work to eat a meal fit for two kings was re-instated.  This holiday is a time for us to reflect what we are thankful for. Most likely it will be that we also get Friday off.

But enought sentimental jiber jabber. Here's a turkey.



The cornicopia is made from 6 balloons. It starts off with 3 at the smallest point, but after three rows I added three more balloons in. By adjusting the length of the vertical (non-concentric) bubbles, I was able to make it curve.