From lm03_cif Mon Feb 3 19:02:23 1992 Received: from gawain.cif.rochester.edu by uhura.cc.rochester.edu (4.1/1.16) id AA26654; Mon, 3 Feb 92 19:02:13 EST Received: from uhura.cc.rochester.edu by gawain.cif.rochester.edu (4.1/1.15) id AA19934; Mon, 3 Feb 92 18:59:13 EST Received: from troi.cc.rochester.edu by uhura.cc.rochester.edu (4.1/1.16) id AA26644; Mon, 3 Feb 92 19:02:03 EST Message-Id: <9202040002.AA26644@uhura.cc.rochester.edu> From: lm03_cif (Larry Moss) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 19:02:00 -0500 X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.3 5/22/91) To: balloon@gawain.cif.rochester.edu Subject: Re: Freezing balloons to preserve them Status: OR On Feb 2, 10:55pm rh@craycos.com (Robert Herndon) writes: > Does anyone have a catalog of "standard balloon sculptures"? Such > a thing organized by category (e.g., single balloon 260s, multiple > balloon 245s, etc.) might be nice, even if we had to resort to p-mail. > A "balloon animals" notation would also seem to be very easy to > develop -- there are only a few standard twists, and almost all > one balloon sculptures are constructed in a very linear fashion. This is one of the things I was hoping to accomplish with this list - compiling a collection of standard (or not so standard) sculptures. I was hoping to find the time (and software) to take the stuff I have written up so far and draw real pictures that could easily be exchanged through e-mail (in postscript). I suppose paper is always an option though. I just forget those things sometimes. As far as just a collection of single balloon animals, there are a bunch of small books that I was given to look through. Dewey and Seigel are two names that come to mind. None of them are what I think you're looking for. I'm not sure I agree that a notation would be sufficient without pictures, but I'm willing to try. Here are some basics. The names I've used are what I've heard them referred to. I started writing this up a while ago before encountering any decent books on balloons and have used bits and pieces of this to explain how to make a few animals. While I wouldn't think of it as much of a notation, it should at least help to define a few terms. Just about everyone on the list now already knows at least the basics of balloon sculpting, but this should also help anyone just trying to get started (I hope). All comments, complaints, suggestions welcome. -Larry pinch and twist - --------------- forming an animal amounts to making bubbles of various sizes and then twisting them together in different combinations. Forming a bubble is as simple as pinching the balloon and twisting so that the pinched area stays pinched without your fingers. Well, this is almost true. The balloon will untwist unless some kind of locking twist is used to secure it. ______________ ____ -(______________)(____) ^ | pinch and twist locking twists and the basic four-legged animal - If three bubbles are made using the method described above, the second two can be twisted and locked together. The hardest part of this is learning to use all of your fingers to hold bubbles that you've made until they get "locked". ______________ ____ ____ ____ --(______________)(____)(____)(____)= 1 a 2 b 3 c In the above picture, the numbers refer to the twists, the letters refer to the bubbles. To secure all of these bubbles, fold the balloon at twist 2 so that 'a' and 'b' sit alongside each other. Now form another twist combining 1 and 2. This is already the basic head of an animal. 'a' and 'b' are ears. 'c' is a nose. This same process can be repeated two more times to complete a basic dog (or whatever you wish to call it). That is, immediately below the head make three more bubbles and twist the second two together. This forms a neck and two legs. Now, the same way, form a body and two more legs. All of the twists in the balloon look like the figure below. ___ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ --()(___)(___)(____)(___)(___)()(___)(___)(___)= tail leg leg body leg leg ^ ear ear nose | neck ())__ \ ____ (__) ()(____)() ()) ()) ear twist - That is, take a bubble and twist the two ends of it together. before: __ ____ __ after: ___ __)(____)(__ ( v ) <-- formed with single bubble / ^ \ apple twist ----------- This can be done with any balloon, but if you do it with asmall, round balloon you can actually form something that looks like an apple. This can be great for a William Tell routine. I'll try to describe it on a small balloon first. Blow up the balloon part way and tie it off. Push the nozzle end into the balloon with one finger until it is inside the tail of the balloon. With the other hand grab the tail far enough in to grab the nozzle also and give it a few twists. this should stay on it's own. You should now have something that basically forms the shape of an apple with a stem sticking up. This twist has a lot of uses aside from just making apples. In any long thin balloon you can push the nozzle in and form a bubble with the nozzle being further into the balloon than the twist. When you release this it should stay in the balloon without any other locking twists. bird body --------- Any figure that has wings or arms needs those wings and arms to sit alongside the body. To form this we will make three bubbles and do the locking twist above, but make the second two significantly longer than the first. This will be a head and wings. Make another bubble roughly the same size as one of the wings and push only that bubble completely through the wings. ________ ______ ______ ______ _ --(________)(______)(______)(______)(_)= 1 body 2 wing 3 wing 4 The wings should be twisted together. When the body gets pushed through them, 1 and 4 will be locked together even though there is no twist between them. _ _(_)_ / ^ \ | w|b|w | | i|o|i | | n|d|n | | g|y|g | \__V__/ ^ | | pop twist --------- It is often desirable to get more limbs on an animal than there are ends of the balloon. The basic dog works out ok, but legs need to be grouped in twos. The pop twist will allow two legs or arms to be separated. Twist two medium bubbles, three small bubbles, then another medium bubble. Do a lock twist with the medium bubbles so nothing untwists. __ ( ) <- // \\ <- Three medium bubbles (a) (b) (c) <- 3 small bubbles Ear twist bubbles a and b. Twist them about 5 times each (completely around). Now pop c. The air should not come out of any of the other bubbles. toes ---- I'm not sure what anyone else calls this one so for now I'll call it a toe twist since that's what I like using it for. Make an ear twist, with only a little air in it. The softer the better. Twist the bubble in half now to form two toes. twist along this line | v ___ ( v ) / ^ \ ^ |