Just sharing a few....

Hiya,

These are not my designs, but as I am learning I thought I would photograph and share.

Ariel, Generic Princess, Tinker Bell and Teddy Bear in Heart.

Nice work!

Try giving Ariel a blush coloured body - after you make her arms, leave a few inches of the blush balloon and twist that bubble into her tail.

Also, you can try adding legs to your Tink if you want! She holds on to her knees like she's sitting. Here's mine:


I like your backdrop - I need to do that!

I like your legs! I had some on mine, but they popped after I couldn't get them twisted properly so I am just imagining she is sitting on her legs. LOL


I like the use of the clear balloons as well.

I have lots of colors in 260's, but feel like I need to purchase some 160's and 360's, but only want the essentials right now. Any color recommendations for an order?

I don't twist... can't stand the sound of twisting balloons, but...

I like them, and the "generic princess" could look like Belle if the hair could be brown and the dress part could be yellow.

Great job Metina. Seems like you're having a lot of fun.

How difficult is twisting? I'm so thinking of ordering a dvd kit to learn.

For me there was a bit of a learning curve. The first week or two memorizing what the twists looked like was hard, but once I knew what a 1" ear twist meant and so forth, I could do it as the instructor called it rather than having to look at what they were doing.

I still get frustrated when I try something over my level, but you have to push yourself. I absolutely love it! Get all the free stuff off youtube before you buy. There are tons of super begining stuff for you to try.

As to the back drop. It is a black sheet thumbtacked to the wall. Make sure it is ironed and relatively lint free. Makes a great back drop. I pin it up in a corner with a chair under it and then a shelf on the chair for the creation to sit on. Seems to work pretty good.

Hahaha I pretty much only use my generic princess. Cinderella? Yellow and blue. Belle? Brown and yellow. Shazam!

For 160's if you only want 'essentials'...black (for antenna if you use bee bodies! Also for monkey smiles and dog ears/reindeer antlers), yellow for hair (and brown/red if you want) and clear for wings. I have all the 160 colours - but I also use them for the higher "icing" on cakes (I've changed my design a bit since that picture on my stickers), and I prefer 160's over 260's for hair.

I don't have a lot of 350's yet, myself (blush for wearable horses, brown and green from that display tree) - I use mostly 160's, 260's 5" rounds, 6" hearts and 321 bee bodies.

5" rounds - orange for Elmo noses, white for eyeballs, red for ladybugs and reindeer noses. I have others but could do without if I had to.

6" hearts - blush for hippos and giraffes, asst colours for princess wants.

Cabby - youtube! And order Qualatex/Betallatex balloons. I think Sempertex is popular overseas but I've never used them myself.

How long have you both twisted?

Me? Only about a month. I started really practicing over Christmas break with my kids. I just threw it on my business cards and said, well if they start calling for it, it forces me to learn it.

No looking back now!

Oh! Also blush 160's for princesses etc.

I worked at an event company for a couple years where we did VERY basic balloons - 1 balloon dog etc. I've been twisting on my own for a couple of years, but if you count those beginner basic days...4 or so years?

I began trying it over the summer and got hooked!!! I haven't done a real party yet - just for friends, giving away while in car line waiting at school and while kids play at the park (by the way where I do quite a bit of my practice these days!) (This is why I miss my ketchup bottle - I shoved about 10 to 20 balloons in it and popped the back end cap back on and stashed in my purse so I could practice anytime anywhere - the beauty of balloons is there is NO SETUP AT ALL - just start pulling a color or two and pump and twist away!

It took about 50 balloons before I started understanding about the air pressure and leaving enough of an uninflated tail to avoid the balloon getting too tight with more twists you have in a sculpture and "kapow!!! POP", how many times to twist a bubble so it would hold, how to hold it against my body or with fingers so it didn't unravel. I went thru my first bag of Qualatex balloons like candy!!!

I'd say I am better than a beginner and moving toward intermediate. I haven't been twisting much in Dec/Jan due to eczema - my hands are cracked and yuck and pop the balloons.

I will post some of my pics too! My avatar is the geo ball held by my daughter...

Wyndy,

You are right, these are other things to learn as well. I guess one of the greatest finds I found was a DVD by Rebecca Kanar at Fabulous. They were on sale for only $15 and I said what they heck. She shows each technique three times and goes really slow, shows what she is doing and explains like crazy. The DVD is low tech for sure, but she is super sweet and has a great teaching technique. I picked up SO much from this DVD that it has helped me pick up other stuff quicker. It also has almost 30 designs on it. It is called Really Cool Beginings and I think is $25 or so on her site, acbballoontwisting.net

Kristal,

Please post the picture of the cake!

Those are very nice Metina. I don't usually do stuff that big or detailed... it just takes too long with a line up. I have a couple of 3 balloon sculptures that I do and they are popular if I have the time to make them, but when I've got a line up it just isn't feasible.

They are my penguin and monkey in a palm tree


I have several 2 balloon sculptures that I do a lot of though... my mentor clown usually prefers to use just one balloon things to keep it fast and simple, but just one more balloon can make all the difference in someone thinking you are just ok or really good. So I always try to add a leash on the poodle, turn the pony into a winged unicorn, etc.

Honestly, I haven't learned a lot of one balloon items. The person I started learning from at jams always stressed the "wow" factor that a two, three and more balloons offer.

I guess this is another aspect of the biz I need to figure out. How to still "wow", but get through lines. I have only done balloons as a add on at parties, so there was no stress of getting through tons of kids. We just had fun making the three or 4 large sculptures I had learned, making sure all the kids got something.

What is a reasonable time for each child in a line. What should I be shooting for?

-Metina

I've changed the cake slightly (I curve the top layer of icing and bubble the bottom), but this is more or less it:



I pre-make the cakes and bring one as part of the birthday package. (I've interchanged some - ie if they request a monkey (like from the window display thread, minus hat, plus candle) or similar I'm ok with that.

I pretty much never do one-balloon pieces anymore. The only exception is a sword - which I don't promote - but if I do, I carry a pack of glow sticks with me, break one and put it in, and call it a light sabre.

In general, I try to stick to 2-3 minutes per piece - so most of my 2-4 balloon pieces.

JBax wrote: "I don't twist... can't stand the sound of twisting balloons, but..."

That is so funny and true for quite a few people....

I don't mind the sound when I am twisting --- but it can be tough on some of the instructional videos - I am always turning the sound down...... "nails on the blackboard" might only be a peg up on the most annoying sounds in the world list!!

The hubby gets fed up on the long road trips after 49 "squeak a squeakas" and a few pops!!! and gives me that "give it a rest" look like I am a naughty 6 year old:

yes, I try to keep it to about 2 or 3 minutes per child, less if the line is really long... I had an event in November where the kids were waiting in line 45 minutes for a balloon!

Thanks for the dvd suggestion Metina! I only have 2 or 3 that a wonderful friend let me borrow! and another I found on clearance..... and I have a Ralph Dewey and a few other books. I like the books so I can pore over the design and my favorite DVD was Ed Chee's! He is amazing!! Flower on youtube has some good tutorials and Michael Floyd on balloon-animals.com is very creative!!! I like Don Caldwell too - a true performer. And Thelma Lovett is very very clever and quite original in her designs.

I don't feel I am "fast" enough for crowds or line work yet unless you just want a bunch of dogs, swords, flowers, rabbits, wands, horses, fishing poles and fish, ladybug or turtle bracelets and parrots on a swing!

I twist! I enjoy it on a relaxing level and it allows me to participate in an activity that my boyfriend loves to do. I learned balloons from Ryan(my bf) who just happens to be an AMAZING balloon guy.

I've been doing them for a couple of years now, and I do them once a week at a restaurant. I started out with a few one balloon things, but then I very quickly moved on to 3 and 4 balloon stuff.

I started out with simple things like these:

A wand-


A penguin-


Now I can do bigger things like these(which were just made for fun one day, not an actual event!)

A hat-


An Angler Fish... I tried to make him look mean-


I wish that I had a pic of the turkey that I made when I met Metina! He was pretty cute

OMG what fun - I haven't tried yet but an planning to...Metina you got my ball rolling.

Ashley- AWESOME ANGLER FISH.... I see you have crossed over to try your own modifications and designs. I want to reach that point!! Love the eyes on the penguin and angler!!!

Here is my dragonfly....(inspired by a balloon forum design)



and a Flamingo Hat....(from Ed Chee's hat dvd)

Wyndy, the dragonfly and flamingo are soooooo cute! I'll have to attach my hard drive and post a few pics. I use some designs from a very nice lady in England called Thelma Levett. I did a great killer whale from an internet video and was pleased to be able to adapt it into a shark. I'm on a UK based balloon forum and they have a model of the month competition, which is great fun. They post instructions at the end of the month so you can see where you went wrong if necessary.

WyndyO wrote:JBax wrote: "I don't twist... can't stand the sound of twisting balloons, but..."

That is so funny and true for quite a few people....

I don't mind the sound when I am twisting --- but it can be tough on some of the instructional videos - I am always turning the sound down...... "nails on the blackboard" might only be a peg up on the most annoying sounds in the world list!!

The hubby gets fed up on the long road trips after 49 "squeak a squeakas" and a few pops!!! and gives me that "give it a rest" look like I am a naughty 6 year old:

oooh yea. And the popping is worse... the pressure from my spinal fluid in my head pushes out on my eardrums... so the popping really hurts my ears! Balloons are now banned from my house. That was a sad, sad day.

Those are all so cool! I don't twist and after a hundred pops and broken balloons in one night my husband gave up too lol

So now we have alot of left over balloons just collecting dust.. Ashley- is it possible to explain how to do that twisty wand?? I hope its simple like you said I'd like to maybe make some of those to just tie on our canopy at gigs.