My Art

When I first moved into my apartment, my sister bought me some supplies and an instructional video so I could learn how to make balloon art.  She thought it would be something fun I could do to entertain kids.  I thought it was a nice idea, but that I'd probably never do it.

Then this week, I got bored.

My Art

So now I know how to make your basic animals.  Dogs of several types, giraffes, swords in 2 varieties, love birds kissing inside a heart, and a teddy bear holding a tulip.  I'm particularly proud of the kissing birds inside the heart.

These are some other things that I think I can make, but I haven't really practiced.  A pig, a T-Rex, a bunny, a couple types of hats.  I can also make a big flower and a tiny mouse.

I enjoy making the sculptures more than I thought I would, and kids seem to like them.  Evelyn asks for one pretty much every day now.

It wasn't really that hard to learn.  There's really only 3 or 4 basic structures.  There are more complicated sculptures than the ones I know, but even those are really just elaborate combinations the few basic steps.  The hardest thing about it is figuring out how much of the balloon to leave uninflated.  Every time you do a twist, it pushes the air down, so the more twists you want to put in a balloon, the less air you can put in it.  If you put too much, it will pop, and not enough will leave a tail at the end.  I've discovered that some small children really don't like it when you pop a balloon loudly.

So that's what I've been doing with my time this week.  I guess now I'm available for parties.