Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

Penguin Balloon from a Face Painting and Balloon Jam at Cici's Pizza

Each month, I host a face painting and balloon jam at the Cici’s Pizza in Chantilly. It is normally on the 2nd Monday of the month, and in January, our first Jam of the year will be on Monday, January 9th at 7:00pm.

You can come as early or late as you like. We are able to accept tips from the guests. The jam is open to face painters and balloon twisters of all skill levels. Bring your supplies. The jams are an opportunity to socialize with other face painters and balloon twisters, share ideas, and practice interacting with the customers at Cici’s.

Chantilly Face Painting and Balloon Jam
Monday, January 9th, 2012
Eat 6:00 – 7:00
Jam from 7:00 – Close

CiCi’s Pizza Buffet
14392 Chantilly Crossing Lane
Chantilly, VA 20151
703-961-9100

If you can’t make this jam, there are several other jams in the area. Princess Jennifer hosts a jam at the Cici’s Pizza in Falls Church on the 1st Monday of each month. Ivonne and Leandra host a jam at the Fuddruckers
in Annandale on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. You can find these jams and others on Facebook.

Balloons By Mike holding a Christmas Tree Balloon at a balloon jam

Merry Christmas from Mike Becvar aka Balloons By Mike and Sir Toony Van Dukes the host and moderator of the Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog.

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of 2011. This has been a good year for me. I am very thankful for my friends who have helped me along the way. I host a monthly face painting and balloon twisting jam which has proven to be a great way to both get time to practice and share ideas with others.

I am making a new years resolution to put more time into writing content for this blog. Hopefully, you will enjoy the posts to come in the new year.

It is a fact I quickly learned when doing balloons outside in the summer. A balloon left in the sun will eventually pop. While there are probably multiple things that lead the balloon to pop, I think a big issue is the increase in volume of the air trapped inside the balloon as it heats up in the sunlight. Eventually, it will expand enough to pop the balloon.

You don’t need to have a complete understanding of Thermodynamics to understand that there is a relationship between temperature, pressure, and volume of a gas. When you trap a fixed amount of air inside a container then heat the air one of two things will happen. If the container is solid, like a glass jar, the pressure inside the container will increase. If the container is able to expand like a balloon, the volume of the air will increase. The opposite is also true. If you cool the air, the pressure will decrease or the volume will decrease.

Last winter, I made myself a balloon hat while working at a local restaurant. When I left, I decided to walk to a store on the opposite side of the parking lot before heading home. It was a cold night and before I made it to the store, I noticed my hat was becoming limp and suspected that one of the balloons had popped. I took the balloon hat off and noticed it was much smaller, but within a minute of walking into the warm store, the balloon hat returned to its former size. What had happened? I had made the balloon inside a warm building and then took it outside where the temperature was freezing cold. The air inside the balloons cooled off and caused the volume of air to decrease making the balloons shrink. Once I returned to a warmer location, the air inside the balloons was able to expand and inflate the balloons to their normal volume.

While it is an interesting effect, it is important to realize the impact that temperature will have on balloons. When doing balloons outside on a cool day, it is important to realize that if the kids take the balloons inside a warmer building that the air inside the balloons will expand and increase the chance of the balloon popping. If making balloons inside when it is cold outside, it is equally important to realize that the balloon will deflate a bit when the kids go outside.

Each month, I host a face painting and balloon jam at the Cici’s Pizza in Chantilly, VA. It is normally on the 2nd Monday of the month, and in
December 2011, the official jam will be on Monday, December 12th. This month, we will share ideas on designs for the upcoming holidays.

Note: The theme is more a conversation starter for the dinner period of the jam. It is not a lecture but an open opportunity to ask questions of the group or share what has worked in the past. come with your questions and ideas… Bring your ideas and an open mind for the discussion.

Arrive when you can… I will try to arrive around 6:00 and plan to eat first. The jam continues until Cici’s closes at 9:00pm. You can come as early or late as you like. We are able to accept tips from the guests.

The jam is open to face painters and balloon twisters of all skill levels. Bring your supplies.

Chantilly Face Painting and Balloon Jam
Monday, December 12th, 2011
Eat 6:00 – 7:00
Jam from 7:00 – Close

CiCi’s Pizza Buffet
14392 Chantilly Crossing Lane
Chantilly, VA 20151
703-961-9100

If you can’t make this jam, there are several other jams in the area. Princess Jennifer hosts a jam at the Cici’s Pizza in Falls Church on the 1st Monday of each month. Ivonne and Leandra host a jam at the Fuddruckers in Annandale on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. You can find these jams and others on Facebook.

Sometimes, you just need to get out and have some fun.

Sir Toony Van Dukes and his friends from Just Clowning Around of Northern Virginia

On Friday, November 25th, 2011, Mike Becvar went out as Sir Toony Van Dukes and joined several of his friends from Just Clowning Around of Northern Virginia (JCA) and participated in the Reston Holiday Parade at the Reston Town Center.

Several of my friends from JCA are also balloon twisters and face painters. They have helped me become a better clown, face painter, and balloon twister. Getting together for parades is a way for us to have fun and give back to the community by spreading smiles to large groups of people.

Several years ago, someone gave a presentation on software development. He presented a triangle and said that at each point of the triangle represents one variable: quality, speed, and price. When a client decides they need custom software developed, they need to decide which of the three is most important because changing impacts the other two. If you want something fast, you will either need to pay more money or sacrifice quality. If you want quality, you will either need to pay more or wait longer. If you wanted something cheaper, you will either need to wait longer or sacrifice quality.

An example of a large, multiple balloon flower made from 3 orange, 260 balloons, one green 350 balloon and 1 lime green 260 balloon

How does this relate to face painting and balloons? I have been to many events where kids had to wait in line for an hour to get a balloon or to get their face painted. I was at an event yesterday where one mother said my work was much better than the guy they had at her company’s holiday party. I told her that I wasn’t concerned about speed (length of the line). I was making bigger and better (more expensive and higher quality) balloons. If I was hired for a party and needed to make enough balloons for all of the kids in a limited amount of time, I would make simpler balloons.

As a balloon twister, I can choose to make simple, single balloon creations, or larger, multiple balloon creations. My choice impacts the number of balloons I can create in an hour. If the client wants only the larger, multiple balloon creations, they either need to give me more time, hire additional balloon twisters, or invite fewer kids to the party.

A simple, two balloon flower made with a pink 260 and green 260 balloon

Unfortunately, it is not quite as easy for face painters. Their only option for speed is usually to cut down on the level of detail or not adding glitter at the end. Some people think that offering cheek art is faster because it is smaller, but the truth is that it is more detailed work and as a result can take just as long… Yes, there are stencils and rainbow paints that help speed up the work for some of the cheek art designs, but in general it isn’t much faster.

When I talk to the mother planning a birthday party or the person in charge of a large festival, I try to get an idea of how many kids they expect and explain how long it takes to do something for each child. Sometimes, it costs me the job as they realize they can’t afford to pay additional people and other times they are able to hire my friends to help. Either way, I see it as a win because I am not put into a position where I need to deal with a very long line of customers. I can do events where I can do my best work and wow the customer and their guests.

When planning a balloon twisting competition, how long should the competitors have to create their entries? Last week, I went to the Mid-Atlantic Clown Association annual convention and participated in their balloon competition. They had two categories, single and multiple balloons. My problem was that I felt they gave too much time.

This was a clown convention, and most clowns make balloons at parties where they need to make balloons for all of the children at the party. At parties, I feel that balloons should not take more than about 5 minutes to make. Actually, I often need to make balloons in under 2 minutes. I can see taking a little longer for the birthday child, but the competition gave 30 minutes to create the entry for the multiple balloon category. I feel this turns it from a balloon for a child at a party into a centerpiece balloon. While that is a valid category of balloons, it is not my primary focus and probably not the primary focus of most clowns doing balloons at birthday parties.

When I got started doing balloons and face painting, I was at several events where the kids had to wait in very long lines before it was their turn. As a professional, it made me work to get faster, but it also made me realize that it is important to know your capacity.

There have been several times where I have been invited to an event where the planners expected hundreds of kids. I have learned to ask how many kids they expect and will NOT hesitate to recommend bringing in additional support. I am not doing this to help my friends get paying gigs, I am doing this to help myself get future gigs. I have learned that people are much happier when they don’t have to wait in line for an hour. The tips are bigger and more people stop to ask for my business card.

My current estimate is that a face painter can paint a child’s face in 3-5 minutes. I know several face painters who can do it faster, but that is a good starting point. Kids can slow the line down by not knowing what they want or by not wanting to hop out of the chair when they are done. Based on 3-5 minutes per child, a face painter can paint between 12 and 20 faces in one hour. I usually say 15 faces is a good average. This means that a three hour event with about 100 kids would require at least two if not three face painters to meet the demand. (Not all kids will want to have their faces painted.) I try not to get too involved with cheek art. For the most part, I don’t think it is any faster unless it is just a simple rainbow. Since cheek art is smaller, it is often more detailed.

I usually consider balloons a little easier. I can do 25-30 one or two balloon creations in an hour. When doing fancier designs or larger balloon sculptures the numbers drop. But, I will still try to bring in the support needed to meet the expected demand.

If for some reason, I am unable to bring in additional help for a large event, I look for ways to decrease the demand for balloons or face painting. Just about everyone will get in line when things are free. If the kids need to use tickets to go on rides or play games, I can decrease the demand by suggesting that the kids also need to use tickets to get their face painted or to get a balloon. Now, the kid needs to decide between another ride or a balloon.

At a recent event, we had four balloon twisters. The previous year, there were only two balloon twisters at the event and people waited in line for 45 minutes to an hour. Having the two additional balloon twisters was a great help. People still waited 15-20 minutes in line, but we were able to take a little more time interacting with each kid and gave them the balloon they wanted. Yes, it cost the event organizers more money, but in the end, people were much happier.

I started learning how to twist balloon in 2008 when I attended Mooseburger Clown Arts Camp or Moose Camp. I bought my first bag or two of balloons before going to camp and watched a few videos on YouTube, but I had no idea what I was doing. When I got started, I didn’t like balloons and had so many things I wanted to learn that it wasn’t a priority.

It took me 18 months to get to a point where I felt comfortable doing balloons and felt that I knew enough balloons to be able to offer it as a service. OK, I didn’t put much effort into balloon the first year… I was taking magic and unicycle lessons and going to face painting jams. Suddenly, something shifted and I began to focus on balloons and stopped working on magic and the Unicycle. I still wanted to learn face painting, but realized it was so much easier to practice balloons (I don’t have kids to practice face painting on).

In March 2010, Balloons By Mike was created. I had been advertising balloons on my clown website, Sir Toony Van Dukes but realized I didn’t have to be dressed as a clown to do balloons. Now, 18 months later, I am booked more for balloons than for clown or face painting. I have friends who are much better at balloons, but I think I am catching up.

Each month, I host a face painting and balloon jam at the Cici’s Pizza in Chantilly. It is normally on the 2nd Monday of the month, and in
October, the official jam will be on Columbus Day, Monday, October 10th. Since Columbus Day is a Federal Holiday, I plan to start the jam early… 4:00pm.

Mike with his face painted like a vampire for Halloween

Note: The theme is more a conversation starter for the dinner period of the jam. It is not a lecture but an open opportunity to ask questions of the group or share what has worked in the past. come with your questions and ideas… Bring your ideas and an open mind for the discussion.

Arrive when you can… I will try to arrive around 4:00. The jam continues until Cici’s closes at 9:00pm. You can come as early or late as you like.

The jam is open to face painters and balloon twisters of all skill levels.

October Face Painting and Balloon Jam in Chantilly
Monday, October 10th
Jam from 4:00 – Close

CiCi’s Pizza Buffet
14392 Chantilly Crossing Lane
Chantilly, VA 20151
703-961-9100