Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

I know that I am not the best balloon twister out there. I have a good collection of balloons that I know how to make and can usually find something to satisfy a picky child. I am lucky to live in an area with other, more experienced balloon twisters. I host a monthly jam and have the opportunity to see what the others like to make and to share some of the things that I like to make.

When I learn a new balloon, I need to practice and make it several times in order to really remember how it is done. Some balloons, I can remember the “gist” of how it is done, but forget the minor details. If I find something that I really like, I try to take a picture and then refer back to the picture to see how the balloon is supposed to look.

I learned how to make a ladybug at a convention last year. I have seen many variations of the ladybug balloon, but this one uses a red heart shaped balloon for the body/wings (black 260 for the legs, red heart for the head/wings, 5″ round white for the eyes, and a scrap for the antenna). Most of the other ladybug designs I have learned use the tail of the balloon used for the legs as a strap on a bracelet, but this balloon uses it to hold the wings in place. It is easy to remember the gist of this balloon, and I had made it several times after learning this variation. It wasn’t until I returned to the picture of the original ladybug balloon that I realized that I had been missing the ear twist on the heart balloon to make the ladybug’s head. This is am important twist as it makes the heart shape a little smaller and easier for the strap to hold the wings in place.

The same thing happened when I first learned the turtle balloon. I remembered the gist of the design (green 260 for the head and legs, 5″ round white for the eyes, and a 5″ orange round for the shell) but forgot how the head looked. The first few times I tried to make the turtle, I had to refer back to the picture to get it right.

When you learn a new balloon, take a picture or two. If you have problems remembering how it was made, you will be glad you did.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Balloon Twisting, Picture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.