From batten@kodak.com Thu Feb  6 13:59:55 1992
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Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 13:59:32 EST
From: batten@kodak.com (James Batten)
Message-Id: <9202061859.AA00525@cygnus.Kodak.COM>
To: balloon@gawain.cif.rochester.edu
Subject: the flower
Status: OR

   Am I the only one making traffic on this subject?

   I promised to describe the flower I give out to the lady of the house
when I'm done with a show. ( It's also great for a waitress IF you don't mind
blowing balloons in a resteraunt. )

For the petals, completely inflate two balloons then let some air out prior
to tying off.. and to make things quick, just tie one knot between the two
ends of each balloon. This leaves you with two seperate balloons each IN the 
shape of a large ring. 

Take one ring and hold it so you have two tubes side by side,(as if you had
just doubled the balloon in half.) Now fold the whole thing in thirds, make
sure you position things right so the knot is in the middle. Now pinch the
middle and twist. You'll be left with a group of four petals. Now do the
same thing with the other ring.

Now comes the hard part.... you have to mesh both groups of petals together.
Press their centers together, then start pushing the petals from the top group
down between the petals of the bottom group. I like to use two different colors
for flower, it shows off the fact that you are using several balloons and it
looks nice. Pink and Yellow are the two I use the most.

Now inflate a green balloon leaving about one inch for a tail and leave a small
amount of air out. from the 'TAIL' end of the balloon twist off a two inch 
bubble, then slide this between two of the flowers petals and get the bubble
right into the center of the petals, fold the 'stem' into an S shape about one
third the way down from the flower and twist it in the center of the S to form
two leaves. Lastly tuck the stem slightly between two petals when it is held
the flower will point 'out' instead of 'up'. actually, that was not the last
step. the last thing you have to do is give it away and get ready for the oohs
and ahhhs.

As I said, meshing the petals together is the hardest part and that depends on
how much air you left out prior to tying off. Also, don't worry if the petals
are not all the same size, most likely each petal group will have one petal
larger than the other, just make sure to have these opposite each other when
meshing together.

I hope you enjoy this. Let me know if any one needs something explained more
clearly. ( then I'll make Larry do it with all his nice art work )

ciao - jim batten