A couple of weeks agon, I saw a needle-though-balloon complete with lubricating holder advertised on the Internet - I believe it was just £10. Now I can't find it anywhere. Can anyone point me back to it?

Thanks,

Henry

I see there are some Balloon Modelling DVDs by Joe Lefler available fairly cheaply on ebay. Are these worth getting? What does the panel think?

Henry

If you have any of the set of six of the Patty and Royal Sorrell DVDs (not the video tapes) could you drop me a PM?

Thanks,

Henry

After an hour of twisting, my hands get quite sticky (presumably from the powder on the latex) so I wash them. However, I'm was wondering; if you are out somewhere where you can't wash up so easily, is this a problem as the day goes on?

Henry

I've noticed that all my Chocolate brown balloons are very tough. Grey are also fairly tough. Yellow and light blue seem quite soft. Clear ones are very sticky and noisy (squeaky).

Is this a known thing or am I imagining it? Or perhaps the properties vary from bag to bag and my next bag of chocolate brown for example is likely to be softer?

I'm using bags of single-colour Sempertex balloons.

Henry

If you're working outside in typical British weather (i.e. it could rain at any moment) and your balloons get wet, not soaked but well 'drizzled on' what effect does the rain have?

Does the rain ruin them, or do you need to wait for them to dry before continuing or perhaps it makes no difference and you just carry on twisting?

Henry

Looking at the posts about drawing on the finished balloon, I see many of you use Paint Markers for white areas. I bought some yesterday; a Uni Paint Permanent Marker extra fine line 0.8mm bullet tip from Partners and a Uni Paint Marker bullet tip from Wilcos.

The partners one bursts the balloon by the time I've drawn an inch of line. The Wilco one lasts longer but always bursts the balloon before I've coloured in an eye.

So which are the ones I need? I had difficulty locating any Paint Markers at all in the high street and at £2 upwards a go, I'm reluctant to keep looking and buying in the hope that I'll eventually find one I can use.

Can anyone tell me what to buy and where from in the UK?

Thanks in advance,

Henry

.... doing a little twisting one evening just to please a few people. Possibly at a hospital, hospice, orphange (do we still have those?), or similar.

Just to be clear what the wheeze is; such a person would not want to sign up for a charity gig where he would be expected to perform on a bill as a real artiste. More like arranging to arrive unanounced and try to raise a few smiles for an unofficial hour or so. Very low key and able to sneak off anonymously if things went wrong. :-)

Just womdering you understand, in case anyone browsing the forums might get this idea.

Henry

I've been trying to make some 'google eyes' I've seen a vid on youtube from Michael Floyd :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6YKFX7Q-ZE

I just can't do it! Perhaps its that I just can't understand it! Am I missing something? I can't understand how you can break off the balloon on the inside but not on the outside. I suspect I may be missing the point somehow.

By 'Google eyes' I mean small loose coloured bubbles inside large clear balls - which can then be used for Frog's eyes, etc.

Any help on the technique above, or any other way to make them will be most  appreciated.

Henry.

How do you decide (and remember) how much to leave uninflated when blowing up the balloon? Many times it isn't critical but sometimes it is. I understand that the more twists means more spare balloon needed but it appears to be more complex than that, otherwise there'd be a formula something like 'Half-inch per twist.

On some of the models I'm doing, if I leave three inches, its fine, if I leave four inches, I run out of balloon. Remembering which models are critical and which aren't is also a pain for me!

Any help much appreciated.

Henry

Hi folks. The name is Henry and the Hat refers to my topper. I'm a magic hobbyist.

I bought a few hundred balloons and a couple of DVDs last year to have a bit of a fun on the side. Shortly afterwards, I cam across some Qualatex balloons relatively cheap at a magic convention so I bought a few hundred more. Then I came across Graham selling them dirt cheap so I took another thousand! This lot ran out last month so I tracked down Graham's site to order more. That's when I came across this forum. I thought I'd join, pick a few brains, learn a bit, contribute if I can and have a bit of fun.

I have a dozen DVDs and books. I can make most of the common single-balloon animals, a few hats and some 'toys'. I don't make models for anyone else but my grandson. I would love to make them for others, perhaps even for money. However, I don't have the courage to do it and probably never will. Still, my grandson thinks I'm great and that's good enough for me.  :-)

Henry