Balloon Fabrics

(Formerly Balloon Weaving)

The material here is excerpted from Attack of the 50 Foot Demon, a
CD-ROM by Larry Moss. More information about the CD, including ordering
information is available online.

• What is a balloon fabric? Background information on terms stolen from the fabric industry.
• Making balloon braids A simple beginning.
• 2-D circular fabrics The most common “weaving” technique.
• 3-D shapes based on circular fabrics Modifying what you already know.
• Tubular fabrics A faster technique for very large tubes.
• Criss crossing balloons Another general purpose technique
• Flat objects A special case of circular and spiral techniques.
• Tiling balloons Using hearts for balloon fabrics.
• Stuffing balloons in frameworks An interesting way to create texture quickly.
• Speed techniques
• Making repairs to large sculptures
• Other references
• A
  large scale example combining all of the techniques discussed here, and a
  few others not yet written up. 15,000 balloons were used in this project.
• Assorted pictures of “woven” balloons

[Next: What is plaiting]

Balloon fabric guide by Larry Moss.

This guide and the support material, including all of the examples found
here and quite a bit more , is available on the CD-ROM, “Attack of the 50
Foot Demon”.
The video clips found on the CD-ROM are
larger and more clear than that found on this site.
For more information about
the CD, check this
out.

Note: Special thanks to Mark Balzer for doing the background research used
in the terms section.

Last modified: 6 July 1999