From balloon-request@cvs.rochester.edu Sun Mar 26 20:22:16 1995 Received: from swift.cvs.rochester.edu by mother.ent.rochester.edu with SMTP id AA15878 (5.65/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/local/lib/lists/balloon.archive); Sun, 26 Mar 1995 20:22:16 -0500 Received: by cvs.rochester.edu (4.1/MAIN-MX-1.4.3.1) id AA23278; Sun, 26 Mar 95 20:06:11 EST Resent-Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 19:05:44 -0600 Old-Return-Path: Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 19:05:44 -0600 From: Mark Balzer Message-Id: <199503270105.AA03626@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> To: balloon@cvs.rochester.edu Subject: Hello (balloon) world & FAQ update? Resent-Message-Id: <"dCrfp3.0.gh5.2-WTl"@swift.cvs.rochester.edu> Resent-From: balloon@cvs.rochester.edu X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/90 X-Loop: balloon@cvs.rochester.edu Precedence: list Resent-Sender: balloon-request@cvs.rochester.edu Hello Balloonatics! I've just recently joined your mailing list. My name is Mark and when I'm not out making balloons or ballroom/latin/nite-club dancing, I'm a PhD student in mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois. I've been sculpting balloons for about 4 years now. In Fall of '90 I bought "One Balloon Zoo" at a local magic store, and then got hooked. I rarely run into any balloon artists where I am, so I have learned most everything from books. You could say that I am a student of Dewey's, because I got all his pamphlets and mastered all his fancy tricks and beautiful animals early on. I did a library search and got a bunch of books through inter-library loan to acquire more skills. I'm pretty advanced and can make many, many different animals (even a bunch of vegetables - you should see my balloon pumpkin!), though I enjoy making complex, realistic looking things the best. I've got a few animals of my own which I've never seen anyone else do, and they include a penguin that actually looks like a penguin, a pair of ballroom dancers, and the best looking fishes you have ever seen! I'll post them when I get the chance. Oh, and the Hardy book is very good too (Hello Marvin!). I am really glad that I found this list, because I have already learned so much from you guys. From your excellent descriptions and ascii art, I can now: -blow up balloons backwards (I found that if you pinch the balloon nipple between thumb and index finger, and also between ring and pinky fingers, then separate these pairs of pinched fingers, you can stretch the balloon a little when you put that first puff in without anyone really noticing - this helps with the initial inflation), -flash inflate - what an AWESOME method this is - thanks Jim! -make a fabulous choo-choo train (Larry - if you ear twist the very first bubble, then hold it in your hand for 30 sec while squeezing it flat, the heat and squeeze cause it to turn into a realistic looking "cow catcher" which is made better by a few radial lines drawn with a marker... and I draw a headlight too - like a pound sign (#) in a circle) -learned about T. Meyers Inc. - What an impressive catalog they have! -I've ordered Great Balloons by Merlin through inter-library loan (thanks for your review Larry), -plus many, many little tips. I have yet to print out/try some of the animals described in the archived messages, but I will soon as soon as I get some more ballooons. Hey Larry - do you have a brother (an old neighbor of mine) in Glen Ridge, NJ? Hey did any of you see the movie The Mask where the main character makes his balloon animals? If you haven't seen it, rent it on video and watch the balloon animal part in slow motion as his black balloon morphs into a Thompson submachine gun with 50 round drum magazine and a pistol grip forearm. Now that's a VERY cool trick! There is a Steve Martin movie where he makes balloon animals, but I can't remember which one (maybe more than one? I believe balloons played a big role in Steve Martin's early comedy acts.) If you know of any movies with balloon animals in them, please post them to the list and I'll add them to the FAQ. Here's a litle story I want to share: I was making animals in a bar last month and I ran into this one fellow who looked like he did _way_ too many drugs in the '60's... well anyway, he was a balloon artist, and the guy was amazingly FAST!!!! He borrowed a purple and a clear balloon, made a purple baby (what Larry calls a meatball) and stuck it in the clear balloon, then made a dog out of the clear balloon, and a rather well endowed male dog from the rest of the purple balloon :-) Literally 45 seconds after his first puff, this guy was holding up two animals and announced "Here's a pregnant dog... and here's the one that did it!" A bunch of friends and I are Sunday night regulars at this place, and I often make balloon animals for the band members to take home to their kids (on condition that they sing a song mentioning each animal/thing I make in return :-). Larry's train was a big hit with them, and in return they treated us to Johnny Cash's old hit "I hear that train a'commin', it's rolling 'round the bend..." Last week one of the band members gave me the best compliment ever when he told me of a conversation he had with his son in a mall where they saw a guy making balloons. When the dad asked his son if he wanted one, the son replied "No, those aren't anywhere near as good as the ones you bring home." It just made me feel warm and fuzzy all over :-) :-) I really enjoy doing requests for people, and often bring my balloons with me when I have to go to social gatherings where I don't know many people - they are a real ice breaker - everyone's your friend if you can make balloon animals :-) :-) Well anyway, I downloaded all the past messages, and in the course of several nights I read through them all, deleting the chaff, uh, I mean talc, and keeping the er, uh, latex... so to say. So I ended up with this 250k file and felt bad that I learned all this neat stuff without giving anything in return... so I did a little cut and paste work and updated your FAQ for you. It still needs some work, but it's a start. Hope you guys can use it. I'll be talking to ya soon! Mark Oh, wait - I do have one request - How are those T. Meyers workshops? When and where and how much $ are they? Is there a schedule? Any near IL? Also, please post any good and bad review of balloon books/pamphlets that you may have. The T. Meyers catalog lists so many... and I'm just a poor student! ****************************UPDATED FAQ 3/26/95************************** This document provides general information about the balloon sculpting mailing list, along with some frequently asked questions about the list. This is an unmoderated list. Anyone is welcome to join. At the current time this is a rather small list. Due to the small number of people on the list, it is not unusual for it to be quiet for long periods of time. Please, don't let that stop you from asking questions or bringing up ideas when you first join the list. The list consists of people at many levels, so there is likely to be someone that can answer your questions or benefit from your suggestions. You may wish to introduce yourself to the list to let us all know what level you're at and any other interesting facts there are to know about you. This introduction is not in any way complete. I used to say that I planned on finishing it some time, but the fact is that maintaining this document properly would be an ongoing task that I really don't have the time for. (When I have free time I'd rather draw up pictures of new balloon creations than work more on this document.) Stuff discussed in recent months has not made it in here. This should at least be enough to get you started and give you a feel for the list. The following information was compiled mostly from old mail by Wayne Lampel (waynel@microsoft.com). Some additions and a few changes were made by Larry Moss (moss@cvs.rochester.edu). Updated by M. Balzer 3/26/95. **************************** General info about the list: address for the list: balloon@cvs.rochester.edu address for questions/problems related to the list (including subscribing/unsubscribing): balloon-request@cvs.rochester.edu address for comments regarding this document should go to moss@cvs.rochester.edu. all mail to the list is archived and available for ftp on cvs.rochester.edu in pub/balloon. the archive is also available on WWW at: http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/Hull/dcs/people/bp/balloons.html and file://ent.rochester.edu/pub/balloon/balloon.html (the html page on ent.rochester.edu will be the one kept most up to date. This should go into effect soon.) There will soon be a list of balloon sculptors on the net (and others, perhaps) with contact information that will be available from the above archive. Among other things this should allow you to locate other balloon sculptors in your area. while more pictures of balloon work are becoming avilable on teh archive, it's always easiest to share ideas when you can actually see someone making a sculpture. Collection of this information is not automated at this time, so if you'd like to be on this list send information about yourself to moss@cvs.rochester.edu. (Feel free to leave off anything that you dont' feel comfortable sharing. It woudl be nice if you would at least send your name so we can keep track of who's on the list, but even that's up to you.) What we want: Full name, postal address, phone (day, evening, or both), e-mail address, URL (if you have one and know what it is), any other relevant information that will fit in a few short lines. ***************************** Buying balloons ***************************** WARNING!!! DO NOT GIVE BALLOONS TO YOUNG CHILDREN!!! CHILDREN MAY SUFFOCATE IF THEY SWALLOW THEM!!! The most talked about source of balloons on this list in the U.S. is T. Meyers Magic. 1509 Parker Bend Austin, Texas 78734 (512) 263-9742 (800) 648-6221 for orders They seem to have just about the best prices and most complete collection of balloons and balloon related materials. They are also extremely helpful and nice people to deal with. If you have a serious interest in balloons, you will probably enjoy just being on their mailing list. If you don't have one of their catalogs, do yourself a favor and call them for a free catalog. It will probably come with a free copy of their news letter "True Inflations". If you want to buy in wholesale quantities call Pioneer Balloon 555 N. Woodlawn Wichita, Kansas 67208-3682 316.685.2266 is their main number 800.999.5644 is the number to call to get a dealer referral. They're the folks that make the best balloons around. They should be able to send you to a distributor in your area. In Europe: Pioneer Ltd (0279) 501 090 ask for Debbie or Rozane and they will tell you the nearest distributor. Pioneer is situated at Bishop's Stortford near London. ***************************** Books ***************************** As you might well imagine, there are many differing opinions on the many balloon books available. Here are a few blurbs posted by various people. Aaron Hsu-Flanders, Balloon Animals More Balloon Animals Balloon Cartoons Balloon Hats & Accessories These books are full of pictures for every bubble and bend that needs to be made to create some really nice looking balloon sculptures. I have seen many books on balloon animals and I think these are the best so far. Aaron Hsu-Flanders, Balloon Animals More Balloon Animals Balloon Cartoons Balloon Hats & Accessories Each sculpture seems to build on previous sculptures. So why does he feel it's necessary to show detailed pictures of every step of every figure? While a lot of the material is good and helpful, it seems that a lot of pages are filled with duplicated information. If you strip out a lot of the repeated stuff you jsut end up with another pamphlet sized book. Now, that said, there is good stuff in them, so I really shouldnt' be putting them down, I just wish he had cut out some of the unneeded stuff and put all the material in his various books together into a real nice collection. My personal peeve with him is his dinosaur on p63 of More Balloon Animals. It needs an ear twist at the base of the tail to properly orient the tail, but instead of using one, sneaky Aaron holds the animal in a special way which orients the tail for the picture, realizing that it will never look that way without his hand there. Nevertheless, there are some good tricks to be learned from this series which can be found at most libraries and book stores. Don Burda, Homer's Rubber Bubbles This book contains pretty good descriptions of some of the basic sculptures. It contains 86 pages with about 45 sculptures. There are several drawings for each figure in various stages of completion. Marvin Hardy, Balloon Magic, 1987 The book is about $14. It's almost 200 pages of instructions and photographs. It covers a very large variety of sculptures (65 figures total) from the basic four- legged animal to more advanced things like a motorcycle with a kickstand. I find photographs of balloons harder to follow than drawings, but I know many people prefer it the other way. Anyway, if you're looking for a general collection of 1-balloon animals, I suggest getting a look at this book. Many of the things in it are fairly standard, but I found enough ideas in it that were new to me to justify buying it. The only real problem I have with it is that it's hard bound. It certainly makes the book stronger and likely to last longer, but I think I'd prefer a spiral binding so I could leave the book open as I learn something new. Ralph Dewey, lots of titles His books are really only pamphlets and rather expensive for their size, but he has some of the most creative sculptures I've ever seen. If you can afford a few of them, they're rea worth having. What I said about Aaron Hsu-Flanders holds here too. I wish Dewey would put together a large collection of all his stuff. I have a few of his books already, but I'd buy a large collection of his stuff in an instant if it became available. The books I highly recommend ( available from T. Meyers) are: Cartoon Balloon #1,2,&3 by Capt. Visual. Awesome Balloons By Flash, by Ken Stillman. These are not for mass ballooning. They are GREAT for the birthday child, or for restaurant work - they are major tip getters. These books have the little mermaid, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Roger Rabbit, Pluto, Opus, The Blue Genie, etc. Once you learn these forms you can take off on your own and create the coyote, roadrunner, awesome reindeer, Odie, Clifford, etc. Great Balloons - The Complete Book of Balloon Sculpting written by Jean Merlin published by Kaufman and Greenberg written in 1986, revised in 1993, translated to English in 1994 Full size, hard cover, perfect bound, 120 pages about $35 Aside from having no page numbers, which makes it slightly challenging to find the stuff in the rather complete table of contents, _Great_Balloons_ is actually the best book on balloon sculpting I've seen. Before now, most of the books available on balloon modeling were only slightly larger than pamphlets, contained shoddy drawings, and per useful bit of information, were far more expensive than this one. There is very little text throughout the book. The reader is expected to follow a series of numbered pictures. Some pages contain multiple models. It wasn't always obvious when glancing back at one of these pages which step 3 I should be looking at. This was never more than a momentary problem, The pictures are clear and, based on what I've done so far, fairly accurate. The book starts with the simple stuff that everyone learns to do in the beginning, but quickly progresses to stuff that I imagine would only be of interest to experienced sculptors. Most balloon sculptors are perfectly happy with simple creations. Merlin tends toward realistic looking figures. He says that he doesn't care what it takes to make an animal look realistic. He'll draw on them or use stickers to create faces. He'll use the proper colors whenever possible, and he'll use as many balloons as he feels necessary. What little text exists is written with a magician in mind, with a tone that almost says, "no one twists balloons without intending to use them as a selling point in an act, so here's how to do it." The hobbiest isn't even considered. With that in mind, if you are a performer you're likely to get more out of it than a non performer. I thought one of the best sections in the book was the discussion of using multiple balloons of different sizes and shapes to create things that can be seen on stage and yet simple enough to not bore an audience while the twisting is done. I counted 83 figures in the book. Most are based on a few basic categories of animals, ie the dog and related figures, the basic bird and figures related to that. Thankfully, when a sculpture is only a few steps off from one that was already described, the instructions refer to the earlier pages. There are quite a few variations on basic shapes that I had never seen or thought of before. I found the selection of things placed in the book to be very good. In addition to examples of balloon modeling, the book offers some advice on storing balloons, safety, tying knots, the use of varying colors while sculpting, and even building foot switches to control your sound system. I thought some of that would have been better left out, most notably the section on using colors. He states as fact that certain colors will break when making certain figures. I've found the manufacturer of the balloons to be a much more important thing to consider than the color of the balloon. Overall, I highly recommend the book to serious balloon twisters. But if you're just getting started or you like just fooling around with balloons occasionally this probably isn't the book for you. Jimmy Davis - One Balloon Zoo, 1966 - Basic animals presented with clear explanations and excellent pictures. A couple of pages of general advice and banter George Schindler - Basic Balloon Sculpture, 1983 - Beginning instruction in simple animals - 2 good pages of face/eye/detail ideas for highlighting your animals with markers, nice balloon-fruit-in-a-basket idea. Bibliography. Kay Watts, Balloon Sculpture.- This is a lousy book except for page 8 where they give 16 sets of eyes/faces for marking up your animals and a few lines to use when your balloon pops. Bibliography. Bruce Fife - Dr. Dropo's Balloon Sculpturing for Beginners. Beginner book with hilarious text - Fun to read with nice illustrations and literally a joke every few paragraphs. T. Meyers workshops are also great places to learn about balloon sculpting. ***************************** Some sculptures in messages ***************************** Title - (Author, Subject, Date, Time) Airplane - (Larry Moss, airplane, 09/18/92, 14:43:45) Bat - (Larry Moss, bat, 10/05/92, 21:33:48) Bear - (James Batten, Re: Freezing balloons to preserve them, 02/04/92, 09:43:22) Bike - (Larry Moss, bike and car, 1/20/94 15:46:02) Bird in a gilded cage - (Larry Moss, Bird in a gilded cage (text), 01/08/93, 22:37:02) Brontosaurus - (Larry Moss, Re: Storage - and show, 3/7/94) Butterfly - (James Batten, the butterfly, 06/02/92, 09:09:17) Car - (Larry Moss, bike and car, 1/20/94 15:46:02) Christmas Tree - (Larry Moss, Trees and other holiday gooddies, 12/22/92 14:09:27) Christmas Tree - (Larry Moss, holiday sculptures (Christmas tree), 12/7/94 13:51:30) Daffy Duck - (Larry Moss, Daffy Duck 8/29/94 11:45:46) Dinosaur, T-rex - (Chris Pugmire, space man, 11/08/93, 15:53:00) Dreydel - (Larry Moss, Trees and other holiday gooddies, 12/22/92 14:09:27) Dreydel - (Larry Moss, dreydel 11/28/94 11:23:08) Flower, multi-balloon - (James Batten, the flower, 02/06/92, 13:59:32) Goofy - (Larry Moss, goofy, 04/29/92, 18:01:18) Groucho Marx - (Larry Moss, balloon caricatures, Groucho Marx and balloon news 2/5/94 ) Hat, monkey - (James Batten, hats, 06/01/92, 11:41:50) Hat, parrot, shark - (Todd A Neufeld, Buffett Balloons 6/11/94 23:29:14) Kangaroo - (Larry Moss, kangaroo, 02/06/92, 18:37:28) Lady Bug Bracelet - (Raymond Bowers, Introduction, 9/15/94 14:46:00) Lion - (Aaron Fasel, Re: Baby Simba Balloon11/1/94 12:45:38) Motorcycle - (Larry Moss, Re: Motorcycle Balloon - Help!, 9/27/93 17:46:09) Octopus - (Larry Moss, Juggling convention, ostrich, octopus, 07/27/92, 22:44:13) Ostrich - (Larry Moss, Juggling convention, ostrich, octopus, 07/27/92, 22:44:13) Power Ranger - (Clyde & Arlene Powers, Retry Power Ranger 1/30//95 23:10:04 ) Rabbit - (Jim Batten, Re: caricatures 2/6/94 22:12:21 ) Rabbit - (Steve Hattan, Sculptures, 4/25/94 16:27:02 ) Reindeer - (Larry Moss, reindeer , 12/15/92, 22:27:52) Rhino - (Larry Moss, pins, rhinos, pops 10/2094 18:15:23) Santa - (Larry Moss, Santa, 12/15/92, 22:28:50) Scorpion - (Larry Moss, 9/7/94 15:38:20 ) Snoopy on a motorcycle - (Larry Moss, Re: Motorcycle Balloon - Help!, 09/27/93, 17:46:09) Snowman - (James Batten, snowman, 06/09/92, 11:31:24) Spaceman - (Chris Pugmire, space man, 11/08/93, 15:53:00) Spaceman, additional info - (Larry Moss, Re: space man., 11/08/93, 17:04:00) Starship Enterprise - (Larry Moss, enterprise and triceratops, 02/13/92, 16:24:50) Stegasaurus - (Larry Moss, Re: Storage - and show, 3/7/94) Sword - (James Batten, Re: Freezing balloons to preserve them, 02/04/92, 09:43:22) Tiger - (Jim Batten, Re: busking, summer tip, seals, 6/11/94) Train - (Larry Moss, choo choo train, 05/17/92, 14:23:15) Triceratops - (Ian Osborne, Tricerotops, 1/17/95 22:19:52 ) William Tell routine - (Larry Moss, NABA and routines again, 06/12/92, 22:29:24) Witch's hat - (Larry Moss, Re: Halloween Balloons, 10/03/92, 17:43:48) Woman with baby - (Chris Pugmire, space man, 11/08/93, 15:53:00) X-rated balloons - (J.J. Smith, adult models, 2/17/95) ***************************** Terms and Techniques ***************************** Balloon types ------------- 130 250D 260Q 260A 260E 280D Q made by Qualatex. A-E made by Ashland? A's are the thinnest. E's the thickest. Rather than describing each type of balloon, here's a quick explanation. Long skinny balloons are identified by a two part number. The first digit is the diameter of a fully inflated balloon (in inches). The next two digits refer to the lenght of the balloon fully inflated (also in inches). A 260 is two inches wide and 60 inches long when fully inflated. Well, this is what it should be, but in actuality you'll notice a large variation in this. Even within the same package you'll find that differnet colors inflate to different sizes. A letter usually follows the number on these balloons. It differs according to the manufacturer of the balloons. Some manufacturers use this as to describe how think the balloon is (as an indicator of strength and difficulty to blow up). 130' and 280's are available from T. Meyers. Tilly, makes both. There have been some differences of opinion on these: "Tilly 130 balloons: These are great! Teeny tiny little balloon animals!" "The 130's aren't the sort of balloon I expect to use a lot. They're not easy to blow up, but it can be done without pain." "I got some Tilly 130's this weekend. I REALLY like the 130s. I have not had any trouble blowing them up." "The Tilly are not Qualatex quality. You can feel the difference." "I like the "feel" of the Tilly rubber, too." Twisting them takes absolutely no effort. You can almost treat them as short pieces of rope. They're great for adding details to larger sculptures. Possibilities are blindfolds on ninja turtles, small flowers on hats, lassos in a cowboy's hand. I also like using them on costumes when I make them. Jewelery is a nice touch. Heart These inflate into the shape of a heart. Very handy for some types of sculptures. Qualatex makes two sizes, but I dont' remember what they are. Round Your standard "party" balloons. They are identified by a single number that refers to their diameter. I don't use these enough to know more about the different kinds. GEO (donuts) Made by Qualatex. Inflate to look like donuts. Spinner - Airship - Bee Body These balloons are small and roundish with a narrow point on them that forms sort of a stinger. QUALATEX ======== Most of us are probably familiar with Qualatex balloons. The company which makes them is Pioneer Balloon. It turns out that they do not sell to the public, nor to anyone who has less than about $1,000 to spend. Instead, they refer you to a qualified dealer. In addition to making and selling quality balloons, they have a support network for balloon designers. Alas, they mean caterers and those other round-balloon people. Pioneer Balloon 555 N. Woodlawn Wichita, Kansas 67208-3682 316.685.2266 is their main number, I believe 800.999.5644 is the number to call to get a dealer referral. My Qualatex distributor would be Lippman Co. in Portland, OR. Their prices, per gross, are: 260Q assorted colors $5.75 260Q one color only 5.75 <= no difference for all one color! 260Q jewel tone 6.25 No bulk discounts. TILLY ===== Tilly balloons are the work of TILCO International, supposedly the oldest balloon company. They, also, don't really sell direct. Call for a distributor near you! My *distributor* is Windy Balloon Company, and they sent me a price list with the TILCO International name on it. The Tilco catalog is focused on round balloons, and it was only through careful inspection that I found some twisting balloons. They must make more than I found, because T.Meyers sells a wider variety than is shown in the Tilco catalog! Windy Balloon Corp. 106 West Gardena Blvd Gardena, CA 90248 800.421.1980 for orders 310.532.5328 Fax Tilco prices, per gross: 260T $5.50 360T 6.50 No mention of bulk discounts. SUPERIOR ======== "Manufacturing Since 1957." The superior catalog actually has the twisty balloons prominently displayed! They also have magician's clear balloons for $6.07 a dozen. The "Knobby" balloon is a "Superior Specialty" - I don't know what it is, exactly, but it sounds like fun. Superior Balloon Company 20923 John R. Road Hazel Park, MI 48030 800.323.0405 Orders Only 810.543.2234 Phone 810.543.1593 Fax These balloons come in an assortment, or your choice of nifty colors. Superior Prices, per gross: 220S $2.65 260S 5.26 321S Bee Body 6.10 330S 5.50 340S Knobby 8.41 615S Doll (?) 5.61 PRESTIGE ======== Prestige Balloons are made by somebody or 'nother... the catalog I have has the name of the Windy Balloon Corporation. Prestige is a round-balloon company at heart. Their price list mentions only the lowly 260, and no others. The do have bulk discounts, though! See TILLY, above, for the Windy information. Prices per gross: 260P @ 1 gross $5.76 @ 9 gross? ("split case") 4.80 @ 18 gross? ("full case") 4.00 They also have a new size that you may find interesting: 360s. If you like airships but don't find them long enough, these should do it for you. I talked to Jim at T. Meyers Magic when I ordered the stuff. He said he likes the Prestige balloons. For the last week or so I've been playing with Prestige balloons Here's the good news: -------------------- They're slightly longer than 260Qs. This makes them great to use for hats. Recently I've been finding that the qualatex balloons haven't been long enough for some of what I want to do with them. I don't know if this is because of a change in the balloons or a change in what I'm doing. Whatever teh reason, I like the extra couple of inches I get with the 260Ps. They're more consistent throughout the package. All the qualatex packages I've had in recent months consisted of black balloons that were hard to blow up, clear balloons that were very thin and blew up thicker than the others, etc. Each color seemed to feel different to twist. That doesn't seem to be a problem with prestige. They inflate straighter. They sqeak a lot less. They're a bit cheaper. 360s are a great size that qualatex doesn't make. I haven't come up with anything that really needs to be made with a 360. But they're fun to work with. The bad news: ------------ They're harder to blow up by mouth. The powder inside them clumps in the cold. I think I've been popping more of the prestiges when making complex stuff. Since I like the feel of them better I haven't decided if it's my fault or the balloons' fault that they're popping. T.Meyers ======== T.Meyers has the best selection that I have found. T.Meyers sells balloons, balloon twisting books, and a smattering of magical props. They are your friends. They have a wide array of pumps and pump supplies, balloon aprons, some stickers, and so forth. Get their catalog, it is fun. T.Meyers Magic Inc. 1509 Parker Bend Austin, TX 78734 512.263.2375 for Information 800.648.6221 Orders only Prices, from Price list #94, as of 8/1/94, per gross: Qualatex -------- 260Q @ 1g assorted colors $6.00 @ 10g 5.40 @ 48g 4.95 @ 1g single color $7.00 @ 10g 6.30 @ 48g 5.95 321Q Bee Body @ 1g $6.25 @10g 5.60 Prestige -------- 260P @ 1g $5.90 @ 10g 5.30 360P @ 1g $8.50 @ 10g 8.00 Tilly ----- 320T @ 1g assorted colors $6.00 @ 10g 5.40 @ 1g single color $6.00 5.40 130T @ 1g $5.75 @ 10g 6.25 245T @ 1g $5.75 @ 10g 5.25 260T @ 1g $5.75 @ 10g 5.25 280T @ 1g $6.50 @ 10g 6.00 340T @ 1g $10.00 @ 10g 9.00 344T @ 1g $9.70 @ 10g 8.75 Superior -------- 312S @ 1g $3.50 @ 10g 3.15 315S @ 1g $4.50 @ 10g 4.05 330S @ 1g $7.25 @ 10g 6.75 418S @ 1g $6.25 @ 10g 5.75 524S @ 1g $9.70 @ 10g 8.75 T.Meyers also has needle-through balloon balloons, yo-yo balloons (YoBalls), rocket balloons (great fun!), and flying saucer balloons. U.S. Balloon, in Brooklyn,NY ============================= Their prices are good, but you need a tax id to buy from them. They only sell wholesale. Prices of 260Qs from US Balloon: Asst $5.19 qty: 3gr $4.70 qty: 36gr solid colors jewel $5.89 qty: 3gr $5.34 qty: 36gr other $5.19 qty: 3gr $4.70 qty: 36gr Chazpro Family Fun Shop ======================= They sell mostly magic, but they do sell balloons too. They do mail order, Chazpro 603 E. 13 Eugene, OR 97402 503.345.0032 Their prices, from memory, are: 260Q @ 1g $5.75 @ 10g 5.25 As far as I can tell, the only other company around that sells balloons worth looking into is Gayla. I was given a bunch of them to try out. The colors were great, the balloons weren't bad, and the price was better than Qualatex, but they still weren't as good as Qualatex. I actually would have given them another try but the folks I buy balloons from said they were having too many problems with them and stopped carrying them. Does stretching the balloon help? --------------------------------- In my opinion, no. All that stretching them really does is weaken them in some areas. This is useful if you want to fill it a little differently, like with a bulge in the middle, but that's about it. The more they are stretched or weakened, the sooner they'll pop. Blowing up a balloon -------------------- There are balloon pumps that make this somewhat easier. If you're interest in balloon sculpting is just as a hobby, a pump can be a great asset, however I strongly urge anyone who plans to use balloons in an act to learn to blow them up with their mouths. It looks much more impressive than using a pump and means one less item to carry to shows. That doesn't mean that if you're twisting balloons for an audience you should avoid pumps. If you're inflating more than a few balloons a pump can be a very handy tool. When you first get started you will probably be tempted to stretch the balloon. You may find that it helps some, but more likely, you'll just change the shape of the balloon and possibly weaken it enough to pop when you start twisting. The best way to fill the balloon is with one large breath without pausing. The fewer breaths it takes to inflate the balloon, the smoother the balloon will look and the easier it will be to work with. Unfortunately most people can't do that. Hold the nozzle of the balloon in your mouth and pinch the balloon about one inch away from the nozzle. Blow into this small section of the balloon and try to form a bubble. While blowing, stretch the section of balloon you are holding a small amount. It's much easier to fill the rest of the balloon if you have a small bubble to get you started. After forming this small bubble, pinch the nozzle closed so no air comes out, and take a deep breath. Now, if possible, with one breath, fill the balloon. Use stomach muscles and not cheek muscles. Puffing up your cheeks and blowing from your head will only succeed in making you dizzy and possibly hurting your eyes and ears. The idea is to blow through the small opening you form with your mouth around the balloon. One common mistake is to blow hard while letting the cheeks fill with air. Doing so will only build pressure in your mouth. Also, remember to breath through your nose. Blowing into the balloon isn't a good reason to forget about breathing, and hyperventilating isn't the best way to be reminded. If you find that it hurts to blow up the balloon you are probably blowing too hard. Relax and blow a bit softer. If you really can't get the hang of it now, use a pump and try to blow it up with your mouth later. It isn't worth hurting yourself. The fun part is twisting anyway. It does take some practice to get it down so you don't pass out. The most important point is that you push the air out of your lungs with your diaphragm, through your mouth and into the balloon. Your cheeks should never puff out; if they do, they will surely be sore! If you feel like you're blowing too hard, you are. Relax. It takes a lot less effort than you realize. Sometimes just blowing more gently is all it will take to fill the balloon. Not blowing into the balloon is the most commond mistake, blowing very hard will tend to close the balloon opening and result in your cheeks exploding before the baloon goes up. It's learning how to focus your breath into the balloon that will suddenly make it easy. A hint I found for blowing up balloons easier is to: 1. Pull on the balloon slightly 2. Start blowing, not too hard, but firmly 3. Slowly release the pull on the balloon - at some point a bubble will appear, and the rest is easy! That said, the best way is to work up. If you can find some Ashland 2-60As, they're relatively easy to inflate. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who try can blow them up in their first session; most of the rest can master it the next day. Practice with them a while. You can blow good balloons and have fun, but they'll pop more easily than heavier balloons. Once you're comfortable with them (e.g., can blow them up in one breath), then try getting some Ashland 2-60Es or Quaalatex 2-60Qs. They're heavier and will take more abuse while twisting, but are harder to blow up. If you blow them up by mouth, you earn a certain amount of respect from fellow adults when THEY try to inflate one. There is only one issue of concern for those who receive balloons from people who inflate the balloons by mouth and that is germs. While they are impressed that you can inflate the balloons, they also are not happy to see their child sucking on the balloon in the same place you just had you mouth! In fact I know of one balloon worker who was inflating by mouth and got sued. One kid who received an animal later came down with pneumonia. Blowing up a balloon backwards ------------------------------ (Filling it up at the tail (nipple) and ending at the nozzle.) This is useful for a sculpture like an elephant where you want a long thin trunk and a thin tail or if you're going to be making a lot of twists and you need room for the balloon to expand on each end. There are several ways you can do it. 1. Stretch the balloon as much as you can while inflating. That is hold the nipple of the balloon in an outstretched hand whiel blowing into the nozzle. This is sort of difficult to get the hang of and it's a lot harder to get air into the balloon. 2. Stretch only the nipple end of the balloon a little before inflating. By stretching one spot on teh balloon you're weakening it at that point. That spot will naturally get inflated first since the air will be stretching some latex that's already been stretched. Once a bubble is started it will continue to fill from that spot. 3. Wrap your fingers loosely around the balloon leaving only the tail free. A combination of 2 and 3 allows you to get the most control over how the balloon gets filled. The Flash Inflate method: ------------------------- Last week while on a business trip I met up with a bunch of magicians for dinner and we all decided to make balloons for the waitress since it was her last night. I thought I saw someone blow a balloon real fast and asked him about it. He of course denied it, but knew of the technique. Seems it was developed in Japan since they don't like to stick things into their mouths. While trying to explain it to the rest of the group I attempted to demonstrate. ONE SMALL PUFF and the entire balloon was inflated. To say it was fast is a bad understatement.. It was as close to magic as ballooning can get. It was just there! One warning, this did hurt my cheeks the first few times when learning. I have a hard time controlling how much I inflate so I limit this to making monkeys and swords. Whatcha do is.. stretch the balloon REAL good, then litteraly use both hands to pull the mouth of the balloon open. It doesn't spread all that far, but you have to stretch it open as far as it will go. Now you have to pretend like you are going to play the trumpet (or blow a pea shooter), purse your lips and use the tip of your tongue to plug it. Build up pressure behind the tongue then snap the tongue back so the pressure can escape. (of course you have to be holding the mouth of the balloon to your mouth at this particular time) If it works you don't see the balloon inflate... it just IS inflated. It makes a neet wooshing sound.. adds to the over all effect. One gotcha I found is it only works on never before inflated balloons. I've tried inflating balloons, letting the air out and trying again just for practice but it just won't inflate properly the second time. Balloon Pumps ------------- Pumps allow you to keep talking while the balloons are being inflated. The Qualatex AirInflator - $4 from T. Myers Magic. It fills a 260 in about 4-5 strokes, since it works on both the in & out motions. It is about 2.25" in diameter and about 13" long, so it is easy to carry and you can tuck under your arm or between my knees, or drop it to the ground if you need to while you twist. I am very happy with it. HOWEVER, it has a weak point where the "head" attatches to the "body". The head is removable from the pump shaft; it is held in by a few small tabs of plastic wheich broke after a few months of fairly light use. I used a large dose of Duco Plastic Weld and attatched it permamently, and it is holding up fine so far. T. Myers Magic sells several different pumps starting from the little TINY blue squeeze pump (many, many squeezes needed), to the pumps which inflate on both push AND pull of handle, though it still takes a few strokes, (but is good if you are walking around) all the way up to their 'Pump 1'. Euro Pump: For $6 I thought I'd give it a try. It's small, and easy to pack. It does appear to be built of tougher stuff than the other double-action pumps I've seen. Pump O - this is what I use and I really like it. The materials used on this aren't as strong as Pump 1, but otherwise they should be about the same. If you've used the old version of this I can only say this is better. I got mine about a year ago. I think it was only a short time before that they improved it. A fair amount of my performing income is from balloons and I haven't found the need to upgrade to a "Rolls Royce" yet. $65. Pump 1 - called "the Rolls Royce of balloon pumps" in the catalog. It's priced that way too. $138. It will probably last you the rest of your life and then some. Will fill a 280 in a single stroke. It's probably about 3 feet tall and 6 inches in diameter. Not a small thing to lug around. that inflates on either stroke, up or down, and will completely fill a 260 in less than one full stroke. Good if you are going to be stationary such as at a mall where you are set up to have people come to you. It is also large enough that you can pull the sections apart and stuff a large supply of balloons inside for compact travel. The last one mentioned was the Pogo Pump, now called Pogo 2. Pogo 1 had to be discontinued due to problems getting parts. $60. Compressed air -------------- Get an old Electrolux cleaner, clean the guts out of it, place a funnel on the exhaust end of it and place the mouth of the balloon over the funnel. This will blow them up readily. Unfortunately, power is not available everywhere you perform. (but you can inflate the balloons before the show.) Also, a tank of compressed air with a regulator works great. Helium ------ Balloons and helium are not good bed partners, period. Helium is a tiny, monoatomic molecule. In a short space of time, through osmosis, the helium will leave the balloon and then the balloon will stop floating and go for ground zero. Depending on the thickness of the balloon all, this might last anywhere from 45 minutes or several hours. Mylar constructed balloons are more stable as far as remaining up in the air for a period of time. There is a liquid on the market that you can squirt into the balloon prior to inflating with Helium, and the balloon will last up to a week rather than the traditional 16 hours. Check with your local balloon delivery shop for what they are using, since there is more than one brand available. Is blowing baloons up damaging to your health? ---------------------------------------------- I don't think it's a problem at all for the lungs, but it can be a problem for the eyes and ears if you're not careful. If you blow too hard (the most obvious sign is puffing up your cheeks) you build pressure inside your head. That pressure can do serious damage to your eyes and can at least cause temporary pain in your ears (I don't know how serious that can be for your ears). You also don't want to forget to breathe with your nose while blowing - the talc inside the balloons IS bad for you. Balloon care ------------ Does freezing the balloons really preserve them? It seems to have worked well for my balloons. Mine are > 5 years old, kept for almost all of that time in a freezer. They seem just fine. I do not thaw and refreeze them much though - that may make a lot of difference. They are also 260Es (double dipped) rather than 260As (single dipped), which might make a lot of difference, too. A coat pocket seems likely to flex them a lot while they are cold. This is definitely bad for them. Ziplock bags are pretty good for storing balloons. If you take a work apron ( the kind that only tie around the waist ) and double the bottom up you get a large pocket by sewing the edges up. You can also run a few extra rows of stitches on up to create extra pockets.. I bought 2 canvas "nail" aprons at a hardware store $2 a piece and cut the straps off of one and sewed it on to the bottom of the other. Each apron came normally with two wide pockets. I sewed a new seam up the middle of each and got 8 pockets about 3 inches wide. I worked great. Stuffed each different color into a pocket. I had 10 colors but I found that the colors were not evenly distributed in the bag (lot's of purples, not many blacks) so I combined some balloons where it would be easy to identify them (black with white, green with lt. blue). History of Balloons ------------------- There seems to be more information around about the history of balloon sculpting than about the balloon itself. Balloon sculpting has only been around for a few decades so there are still plenty of people around that remember its evolution. Here's the little bit that I do know. At least I consider it to be the real evolution of the balloon. Some others may disagree since what we currently think of as a balloon is the latex or mylar varieties and this is, well, a bit different. You can find mention in fairly old books of toys made out of water filled animal bladders. Bladders apparently expand quite a bit (I haven't tried.) Unfortunately I can't give you names of these books since that's about all I've been told by the various librarians I talked to. I went looking for references like this, but these weren't in history books and I have no idea where to start. As far as more modern books, there is a reference to a ball of this type in one of the Little House on the Prairie books. I think it was "Little House in the Big Woods". It's near the beginning of it. If you really want to do the research I suggest you look through literature written during the Renaissance in Europe. An old issue of True Inflations said something about latex balloons at, I believe, a worlds fair. Merlin has found references indicating that balloon sculpting dates back at least as far as the Aztecs. Types of twists =============== Apple twist ----------- This can be done with any balloon, but if you do it with a small, 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. Basic 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 ())__ \ ____ (__) ()(____)() ()) ()) 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__/ ^ | | Curly tails ----------- That's where you curl the balloon around your finger and then inflate (or inflate again like I do cause it's hard work otherwise). Ear twist --------- That is, take a bubble and twist the two ends of it together. before: __ ____ __ after: ___ __)(____)(__ ( v ) <-- formed with single bubble / ^ \ Or, described another way, ( )( )( )( )------- ^ ^ a b form a bubble and then twist its own ends together. ie: points 'a' and 'b' are twisted together 'folding' over the bubble inside. The size of the bubble determines what the use is for. Often, as when making a bear or cat, a one inch bubble is used, by having the edge that looks like the ear canal poining forward on the head it looks like a cat, pointing to the sides of the head it looks more like a bear. At least that's what they say. I always make them point forward, it looks more charming to me that way. Meatball -------- Otherwise known as "putting an object or bubble inside a balloon" I call the bubble inside the balloon a meatball. You can put an object inside the balloon the same way you put the bubble in. Instead of twisting the bubble, just push the object you want to use into the end of the balloon. Grab the object through the balloon as you do with the meatball. Then break the object free inside and tie the new end of the balloon. A bubble inside the balloon doesn't always roll very well. The ball is heavy enough that it rolls through the whole pretzel shaped balloon very easily. I also like leaving tips inside of balloon figures when I'm in a restaurant. I push it as deep as I can into the 260 and then rip off the top and immediately grab the new 'nipple' and tie it. Sometimes it's really hard to rip off the top and I am forced to use my teeth. ----------------- \ -- most of balloon )(__) - small bubble _________________/ push the small bubble into the big one with your index finger. ----------------- -- __) ____________ (__)__<- (_________ \_______ _________________) (___ your hand (___ ________ (____/ pinch here | V ------------------ --xx __)__________ (__)x(___________ __________________) ^ | and here Now there is a bubble and your finger inside the large bubble. There is a second layer of latex around the small bubble. the outer layer is still connected to the big bubble. with your free hand, pinch the big bubble where the little one is inside of it and hold that bubble in place. With the finger nail inside the balloon, break that outer layer. (The outer layer to be broaken is marked by x's in the above picture). Breaking it just takes a bit of practice. If you stretch the balloon that you want to break, by working the bubble further inside the long bubble with your other hand you should weaken it enough to help break it. While still pinching the large bubble, work the little one free. Your finger will still be inside of the balloon. pinch here | V ----------\ __ ----__________ (__) (___________ __________/--------- ^ | and here since you're pinching the balloon, air shouldn't escape while you get your finger out. Now just tie the balloon from the end where your finger came out of. If you want to put a ball inside, it's the same thing, except that you don't start with a small bubble. You would just insert the ball where the small bubble was placed inside. A hint for tearing off a meatball inside a balloon, which I discovered by watching Richard Levine here in Eugene: 1. Make the bubble 2. Poke it deep into the balloon with one finger 3. Pull that finger out fast - the balloon will often pop due to friction, and the "meatball" is free! 4. If (3) fails, tear the end off with a *fast* motion, which is easier than slow. 5. Failing (4)... use scissors. Latex makes crummy dental floss! A trick for making bubbles inside a balloon for peas in a pod/caterpillar and also for making apple twists is to: *lick your finger* before pushing the bubble in. This makes it MUCH easier to get your finger out without pulling the bubble out, losing a lot of air, or whatever. Of course, you can have as much fun with this as you like hamming it up. Hook Twist ---------- This is the "hook twist" that Dewey describes. He uses it for a lot of neat animals: dogs, snakes, squirrels, frogs, etc. This twist is basically a variation on the apple twist. Instead of pushing the nozzle into the balloon only about an inch, push it in as far as you can reach with one finger. If you bend the balloon a bit you can reach further along the wall of the balloon. Now grab the nozzle through the wall of the balloon and twist the way you would make an apple twist. Then carefully work your finger out of the balloon. I use the thumb and middle finger of teh same hand that has the index finger insdie the balloon. These two fingers kind of push the sides of the bubble back a bit while I retract my index finger. If you can do an apple twist you already know how to take your finger out. It's just a bit harder now since there's more finger inside the balloon. Practice making apple twists of increasing size. I suppose a bit of powder on your finger couldn't hurt to reduce friction, but I've never tried it. When you take your finger out of the balloon, the bit of balloon inside the bubbel that goes from teh nozzle to the end of the bubble will go straight from the twist to the end of the bubble. If the bubble is bent (or hooked) as described above, that inner piece of balloon will hold it in that position. _ __ | V \ -------------\ /-------/ / B | \ / ______ _/ | )( A / / \ / -------------/ \-----------/ The line going from point A to B in the above picture should actually be straight, but with ascii characters I don't see an easy way of showing that. The key to getting that shape is really to get the nozzle further into the balloon than your finger could reach if the balloon was kept straight. I scrunch up the bubble to really reach in there far. Note that no matter how far you reach in, the same length of balloon will be inside since you're only putting inside the ballon what covers your finger, so the further you can get the nozzle in, the greater the hook in the bubble. 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 ) / ^ \ ^ | ******************************** What to say when a balloon pops ******************************** When a balloon goes BANG say "May you rest in pieces!" "I sure got a bang out of that!" "That was a weasel. It went pop." "I told you I was going to BLOW it up!" "Sssh, don't tell anyone how I did that!" "Sorry son, the dog was rabid, had to put it down" (from movie The Mask) "Don't worry, I'll make sure that the Doctor puts him back together again." Q - What do you call a balloon dinosaur with a hole in it? A - extinct. When I do shows I usually have a gun in my pocket... the kind with the little flag that pops out that says "bang" on it. When a balloon pops I grab the gun quickly and fire at it and say triumphantly, "got it". Hold you hands to your chest saying, "He GOT me!" I also snapped an empty balloon into my face as I was attempting to blow it up. I would grab my nose and make a horrible face and a shocked face at the same time. Always got a good laugh. When blowing up the balloon, I would comment somewhere that "You have to be careful with these things...they have a hole in one end!" Which reminds me of another bit I have used.... The balloon inflated, and held at the mouth end, and have everyone do the "lift-off" countdown. Great laugh getter. I did this in our church service once and it worked great. Everyone had been waiting to do that for years, and I was the one!! ***************************** Notation ***************************** Standard ascii methods for describing balloon creations. First and foremost you must identify in words how much of the balloon should be filled; i.e. Blow up the balloon leaving an X inch long uninflated nipple. ***************************** Legend for method 1: () - One/half inch bubble (need we go smaller?) (=) - One inch bubble (=-) - One and one half inch bubble (==) - Two inch bubble, etc. For long bubles, use (L=) where L is the Length of the bubble in inches. ie. (30=) for a 30" bubble. [] - Same as other bubbles, but bent in the middle xn - Twist connection (where n = the number of the connection) O - Pop bubble (@) - Apple twist (!) - Pop twist If I designed it right, this should be the classic dog with a 1 1/2 inch nose, 2 ears bent in the middle, and connected to the back of the nose. A 1 inch neck follows, then two more one inch bent legs connected to the neck. 3 inches of middle and two 1 inch bent legs connected to the middle followed by a 2 inch tail. (=-)x1[=]x1[=]x1(=)x2[=]x2[=]x2(===)x3[=]x3[=]x3(==) a pop-twist used to generate two legs & paws: ... (==)x1[=]x1(=)!x2[=]x2(==) ... a tulip becomes: (==)@ If more than one balloon is used we can group the twists in a single balloon with '{' and '}'. We can still use xN to designate twists as long as N continues to increment with twists in teh new balloons. Taht way a previous xN can be used to show where the new balloon gets connected. this would be two balloons twisted together: {(===)x1(===)}{(===)x1(===)} ***************************** Legend for method 2: (x) - x inch long bubble (xA) - apple twist (xET) - ear-twist (*) - pop-twist (xAL) - for arm loop as in a standing bear... would also serve as a leg loop.. the two are the same, and are nothing more than LARGE ear twists any way. (.5),( 1 ),( 1.5 ),( 2 ), etc for the different sizes.. [spaces are optional within the paren's, but might give a better sense of size]. the X's and numbers I found to be confusing between the bubbles. Not all bubble ends are twisted around one another. the paws of the basic dog for example are just the two ends of bubbles, no locking twists. So, how about a captital letter at each point thats to be locked together. the basic dog now looks like. ( 1.5 )A( 1 )A( 1 )A(.5)B( 2 )( 2 )B( 3 )C( 2 )( 2 )C( tail ) or.. (1.5)A(1)A(1)A(.5)B(2)(2)B(3)C(2)(2)C(tail) Special bubbles could have abreviations for them.. ie: ear-twist is ET.. a half inch eartwist could be (.5ET) If you want to pop the bubble between two ear-twists us *.. size doesn't matter for this, but you have to realize that each ear-twist must be twisted around 5 or 6 times before pop the center bubble... notation.. (.5ET)(*)(.5ET) A bubble made by pushing the finger in, then twisting off is the apple twist.. its what I use to make the nose for a bunny. So (1A) for one inch apple. The bird body.... It's three balloons, with one pushed through. (1)A( 2 )B( 2 )A( 2 )B( rest of the balloon) Now the bunny head. (1A)A(1.5)B(1.5)A(1.5P)B(2)B(2)B(1)A(off to the legs) nose |head with cheeks| ears |neck| rest of the bunny Please note, the nose is a (1A) with the A inside to show an apple twist. This might work better with a half inch bubble. ***************************** Legend for method 3: Knot: . Uninflated balloon: ... length proportional to the following. _ Bubbles: (_) this is the smallest bubble 0.5" __ (__) this is 1". add an underscore above and below for each 0.5" This makes the size of bubble linearly proportional to the real size. Putting the no. inside the bubble is fine too. But I think it is not important. The impression of the proportion is enough. Measure a bubble that your think is 2" and see how long it actually is... you'll be surprised. When you have associated the screen image with the actual bubble, then it is very easy to tell. Order: diagrams are read from left to right, top to bottom. There is no confusion which bubble is made first, which is second, third etc. Twists: lines like this \_______/ are drawn to indicate connections: ___ __ __ .(___)(__)(__) nose and ears of a classic dog. \______/ __ ___ ___ .(__)(___)(___) mickey mouse nose and ears. \___/\___/ the bubbles are folded in the middle as clearly indicated. whether the twist lines are above or below is unimportant. Tugs: Similar to the above. When a bubble x is tugged between two bubbles y and z, y and z must be twisted together already. So, a line is drawn with one end from the middle of x, the other end connected to the middle of the twist line of y and z. The positions of the ends of the line indicate whether the whole bubble x is rolled behind y and z or just a portion. The starting place is marked by a slash, the ending by a vertical bar. y z __ ________ ________ .(__)(________)(________) \__________________/ ____| ____/___ _______________________ (________)(_______________________)... x The above is a swan. The whole bubble x is rolled behind y and z. Sometimes I'd like to roll only half of x behind y and z, like this: y z __ ________ ________ .(__)(________)(________) \__________________/ __| ______/_ _______________________ (________)(_______________________)... x The profile of the above swan will be like this: __ ( ).. (this diagram is, of course, not \ \ part of my formalism. It is just \ \ an insert to illustrate my point) \ \ __ \ \ __ (__-_\_\ (__)(________) -_) When a bubble is inserted between two bubbles: A frech poodle head: ____ ____ ____ __ .(____)(____)(____)(__) \ \__________/ \_________| Labels: feel free to add labels and other descriptive words: A classic dog will be: nose ears neck legs body legs tail ___ __ __ __ __ __ ______ __ __ ____ .(___)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(______)(__)(__)(____).... \______/ \______/ \______/ More visual aids: It is nice to start a new line after every twist line. ___ __ __ .(___)(__)(__) nose & ears \______/ CLASSIC DOG again. __ __ __ this may be more visual. (__)(__)(__) neck & legs \______/ ______ __ __ (______)(__)(__) body & legs \______/ ____ (____).... tail tail 3-part body __ ________ ________ More visual SWAN .(__)(________)(________) \__________________/ bend this bubble until it _______| looks like a swan neck. ______/_ _______________________ (________)(_______________________)... neck ____________________ ______/______ ____ ____ \ SNOOPY .(_____________)(____)(____) | \__________/ | wrap around and tug half-way |______/ __ ____ ____ (__)(____)(____) \__________/ \__ (notice the direction here _____|____ is signficant, that's why ____ /____ ____\ a vertical bar is used) (____)(____)(____) Start: Start by describing how much air to inflate. This is a complete example. TEDDY BEAR start with 6" of uninflated balloon. ear ear nose __ __ ____ ____ /__\ ____ /__\ ____ .(____)(____)(__)(____)(__)(____) \ \________________________/ \________________| __ ___ ___ (__)(___)(___) neck and arms \___/\___/ __ ___ ___ (__)(___)(___) body and legs \___/\___/ _ (_). tail ***************************** Legend for method 4: n A number representing a length in some standard unit. inches? n, not surrounded by anything is a bit of uninflated or deflated balloon. (n) A bubble of length n. X A letter [A-Za-z] representing a twist. This can be anywhere except inside a bubble. Actually I suppose this can be defined as a letter or nothing so that we can say X is always between bubbles. [n] A bubble that's been folded in half or an ear twist. n can be followed by optional modifiers when inside a bubble: @ Apple twist. ! This bubble gets popped. Hmm, n doesn't need to be present in this case. *****************************END OF BALLOON FAQ**************************