From balloon-request@cvs.rochester.edu Thu Nov 9 10:29:49 1995 id AA10917; Thu, 9 Nov 95 10:19:47 EST Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 11:21:16 -0400 From: Mark Andrew Fogarty Subject: Catching up To: forum balloon Message-Id: I joined this forum a couple months ago and other then a short question early on, I've just lurked and mooched. You guys have tons of ideas. I wanted to add my 2 cents worth (even if they are Canadian cents) to a couple of things that have been brought up the past month. The first is in reference to the Genie as described in "Awesome Balloons by Flash". I believe it is the most impressive sculpture that I currently do, and receives the most oooohs & ahhhhhhhs. What I like to do, because I think the 'lamp' idea is sorta weak, I just do his head and short neck, and attach it unto a yellow balloon hat. When I am balloon busking that is the hat I wear because it immediately attracts attention. If put the genie on a hat, it also lasts longer then in a childs hands, and an event looks cooler with a bunch of genie hats bob bob bobbin' around which means more business for me. Concerning the needle thru balloon effect, here is my version. I realize that I may have thought I made this up myself, but probably 23 million other twisters thought of and have done the same thing. I use my needled balloon effect in my gospel presentations. What I do is put a 6" red heart inside a 9-11 green round, and these 2 are inside a 16-18" clear round. My presentation is that our lives are transparent to God, He can see right within us and see our motives, our hearts. I ask the children what is inside the clear balloon, and they tell mne a green balloon. I tell them that the clear balloon represents a person, and when I think of green I think of envy, so the green balloon represents sin in the life of a person. (Some people use a black balloon to represent sin, but I caution against it. 1st of all the bible never calls sin 'black', and 2ndly, your comments can be miscontrued as racist, or cause children at your meetings to tease darker skinned children, and I wouldn't want to be the cause of that.) When somebody accepts Christ as Saviour, I tell them, then I pierce the clear balloon and bust the green balloon. This leaves me with the needle inside the clear balloon with the red heart in there as well. I conclude by telling them that then when a person does die, because all do die, it is just their body that dies, and I break the clear balloon with the needle that is already inside the clear balloon, and I tell them that what is most imnportant is still there, our hearts coverd by the blood of Jesus Christ. I have never seen anybody else do this triple stuffing idea, but I sure there are many who do. I just thought I would share it. By the way, I use T Meyers needle and wand, really like it alot. The clown nose idea is very much like a fishing rod found in "Dewey's Zany Balloons" Ralph takes a bee body, inflates it half full, and does a basic apple. He then twists the apple in half horizontally. This gives the reel for the rod, and the 'apple stem' sticks out to be the crank for the reel. I sure that the rod needs no explanation. I've used this often for fishermen with great response. Next topic very quickly is concerning balloon prices and sales. Somebody asked if there was any other balloon venders on the forum. I do sell balloons but it would probably be only of interest to Canadian twisters. In my area it can be tough to get a good price on balloons, and to get things such as the 350's, 321's, geo's etc... you gotta order them from the States and pay through the nose at the border and add about 35% on the exchange rate. I got frustrated with this and started my own balloon sales. If I can be a retailer I get a better price for myself, and I can in return offer it lower to fellow twisters. This does not pay the rent, my entertaining pays the rent. This gives me freedom in having the balloons I want at the price I like. 1 gross of 260's is $8.75 plus p.s.t.. 10 or more gross and it's $8.25. I also will sell 350's, 321's, hearts, clear rounds, geo's, in bundles of 25 for the uninitiated to experiment with. With every one of my orders I toss in a 350, geo, and bee body because in our area very few use them and are afraid to order a whole gross. I also do it cause I wish somebody would have done the same to me when I was learning. I hope this wasn't too long, jsut wanted to cover several things that have been tossed around lately. Mark Fogarty 4 Mandaville Ct. Apt. 8 Halifax, N.S. Canada B3M 3H6