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Bubbleology
By “The Balloon Kid” Stacey Schmude
Hello! Sorry it took so long for this article! It has been extremely busy
for me so far this summer. Last week alone I travelled almost 1,000 miles
doing programs. I’m looking forward to the week of the
4th when I’ll take a number of days to visit Chicago as a
tourist. Recently, I did my first parade twisting balloons – it was
a blast! In my column this month, I’m going to tell you how to make
my quickie dragon. I made it out of spur-of-the-moment at a fair I was
working at and viola, I now have a quick, small dragon. There are many
dragons similar to it, but not quite the same, in Guides to Balloons and
Ballooning.
You Will Need:
1 pink or red balloon, 260
2 balloons of same color, 260. Later there will be instructions on two of different colors.
Take Balloon Number One (Or the Pink/Red balloon. I prefer Rose, a combo of the two). Blow this balloon up about 10 inches, then tie off with a large nozzle on the end (One inch at very least). Make a bubble the width of your hand out of this balloon and pop off or cut off the rest, then tie off the open end of it and trim, then set it aside.
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Image one
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Image two
Take one of the two remaining balloons and blow it up with a six inch tail (uninflated balloon, for newcomers). Tie off and set aside. Take the other balloon and blow it up with a 10-inch tail. Set this balloon aside. Now you have your necessairy balloons for this project. You’ll need a scissors and an EXPO, or whatever brand of marker you use to illustrate balloons, also.
Pick up the pink and the balloon with a six-inch tail. Make 1 inch apple or tulip, whichever you prefer, twist by shoving the large nozzle of the pink balloon into the head of the other, grabbing the nozzle and twisting. Follow this up by two one-inch bubbles lock twisted together. Next make a four inch bubble for the neck and two two inch bubbles. Lock twist the two two inch bubbles to complete the head, neck, and front legs.
Next you’ll set up the wings. This is somewhat easy, except for holding onto most of the balloon. I speak from experience, but then again, I have smaller hands. Make a one-inch bubble, followed by a _ inch bubble, and ear twist the _ inch bubble. Next make another one inch bubble, then another one half inch, also ear twisting it. Next toe twist your last ear twist (Divide bubble in half, for those who do not know what I am talking about). Follow this with a soft _ to _ inch bubble, then a _ inch bubble, ear twisted, then toe twisted. Next complete a one inch bubble, a one half inch bubble ear twisted, followed by another one inch bubble. Wrap the end of the balloon around the base of the wings, or the twist after the legs (See Image Four). Deflate the rest of the balloon and tie off, hiding knot.
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Image three
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Image four
Pick up your other balloon of the same color, and wrap the knot around the base of the wings. Make a one-inch bubble, then two two-inch bubbles lock twisted. The rest is the tail. Pick up your scissors and pop the soft _ to _ inch bubble that you made between the two toe twists, separating the wings. Then illustrate, as you’d like.
To make this with two different colors, the front part is the same. After the legs, you make two one inch bubbles, then two two-inch bubbles and lock twist them. Then take the other balloon, make a toe twist, one inch bubble, ear twist, one inch bubble, one inch bubble, ear twist, one inch bubble, toe twist, and deflate the rest. Wrap the center twist in the body of the dragon around the center twist of the wings. If done correctly, the body and wings will be different colors.
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Image five
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Image six
And with a variety of colors:
