Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 22:44:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sheena Beaverson <sbeavers@balloonhq.com>
To: balloon@balloonhq.com
Subject: Re: Multiple issues addressed

If Larry's description of Partick Brown's Lively Eye method
confused anyone, you can go to BHQ to see a close-up photo
of the finished product.

Millennium Jam information is at http://www.balloonhq.com/mjam00
The photo in question is under the 'shows and jam sessions' link.
(this is the 'deluxe' eye, with five balloons included).

Larry writes:  
> A tiny bubble like from a 160 gets attached to a small
> bubble from a 260 to make your basic button type eye.
> Now take a larger bubble from a clear balloon. Patrick used a 350.  I
> use a partially inflated 5 inch round. 

The 'tiny' bubble can actually be created from a 260.  Pat Brown puffs
air into the 260 so that it's a tube with air but not actually inflated.
He then strips the balloon tightly through his fingers so that all the
air (what there is, anyway) is sent down to the nozzle of the balloon.
Before this process is started, stress the very end of the balloon to
help this along.  You get a very small, 160-like bubble out of a 260.
(anyone remember watching Adrienne inflate a balloon... this was
how she always started a bubble)

The 'larger' clear bubble works better out of 350s if you use the nozzle
end of the balloon for the 'squooshing process'.  Partially inflate the
350 from the nozzle up, work the air partway up the balloon, then back
down to the nozzle end a couple times to increase the diameter of the 350.
Tie off a round-ish bubble and discard the remaining part of the clear
balloon.  Make the knot as small and unobtrusive as possible, and be sure
to hide it under the latex of the (eventually) uninflated back balloon.
 
> ... The name "illusion eye" comes from the fact that as you move it
> around, the eye actually appears to follow you.  

This works because whatever light source is in the room is
brightly bouncing off of the clear balloon's shiny surface. The
'spark' is always between your eye and the muted colored balloons 
trapped under 2 layers of clear balloon. 

I learned all of this from watching Partick Brown patiently teach this
technique while bits of eye were rocketing all over the room as the 
class tried to create eyeballs.  If you get the chance, I highly 
recommend attending any class taught by Patrick.  He's a talented artist
and a wonderful teacher.

Sheena