14th March - Adventurer Chris

Its Chris's 30th birthday today and I had to think long and hard as to what balloon to make for him so in the end I just decided to make  . . . . him.      A few years ago Chris went to Africa to work with school kids and to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, so here is what I imagined he looked like on his travels with his backpack on.

Adventurer Chris is made from 16 balloons, I started with his body and sleeves out of 2 x 260 balloons, then I added his shorts and legs from another 260 balloon with a belt from a 160, next step was to attach his arms and the straps to the backpack, both from 160s.

Now it was time to make the backpack, this was made out of a large 646 balloon with a green 340 balloon for the sleeping bag, this was then all held together with the straps made from 160s, I now attached the backpack to the straps fixing it to adventurer Chris's back.

The final steps were to make Chris's head from a 260 with a 160 for the hair and then a tiny bit of 160 for his nose, finally I added a pair of legs and a pair of shoes.

Adventurer Chris took me a couple of house to make and photograph, all that leaves me to do is to wish the real Chris a happy birthday.

Children's Party Entertainments

13th March - Anchor

Living in a very nautical city I have been asked to make an anchor once or twice in the past, usually when I am working in the dock yard or in any nautical themed location. This anchor is made from various different sized balloon, firstly I took a black 260 sized balloon and made the ring ring at the top, then worked my way down to the bottom, adding another 260 for the arms and another fir the cross section at the top. The rope is a brown 160 sized balloon and the grey rings are also a 160.

Finally I made the outer ring, using 1 yellow and 1 blue 160 sized balloon I spiraled them together and used another blue 160 to join them together at the bottom.

It total this is made from 8 balloons, 5 for the Anchor and 3 for the outer ring, it took me about 30 mins to make but I was doing other things at the same time so I could do it a lot quicker if I needed to.

12th March - Lobster

This lobster was inspired by the balloonist Pascal Grooten from Belgium, he makes some amazing models and it is worth looking at some of his work. My lobster is made from 12 balloons in total, this consists of 1 red heart balloon, 3 red round balloon, 5 x 260s, 2 x 160s and a black 260, he took me 90 minutes to make.

This lobster brings my balloon count up to 70 since January 1st and I am still going strong (I think) , if I want to do a year then there is only 295 days to go (eeek).

11th March - Little Octopus

Today is international day of the octopus (not really, I made that up) and this little octopus is made from just 3 balloons, a small round balloon, a 160 balloon for the legs and a small bit of a 260 for the eyes. He took me just a couple of minutes to make.

10th March - A Bear Holding a Heart

This cute bear was taught to me by Balloonatic Kevin from Weymouth, he kindly shared his balloon wisdom at a recent balloon modelling event so thank you Kevin.

Bear is made from 7 balloons, I started with a 350 for his ears, part of his face and his torso, then I added a small piece of a 260 and a round balloon, next I added the eyes, His legs are made from another 350 and his arms another 260, finally I added in a heart balloon.

Both my own Mum and Nats Mum (Annie) got one of these each for Mothers day today.

9th March - Ladybird

Its a fairly easy one today as I have just run in an off road race through forests, fields, mud, rivers, ponds, smoke and obstacles galore, its a ladybird (ahhh sweet) made of 3 balloons,

The red balloon is a heart, the eyes are a 260 and the feet (which you cant see) are a black 260 (which gets wrapped around the balloon making the black line.

8th March - Tortoise 2

I made a Tortoise a few weeks ago but he was a very simple tortoise, this one was far more complicated and I have to learn a new type of twist to make him. He is based on a Tortoise by an expert balloonologist called Pascal Grooten from Belgium, he makes some of the most amazing balloon models around (Google him - Pascal Grooten)

Anyway, My Tortoise took me well over an hour to make, I started with a 5 inch round balloon and I twisted 4 raisin twists into the balloon roughly where the feet were going to go. I then made 4 individual feet which are made from a brown 160, these are basically an elongated tulip twist with 2 pinch twists holding it together.

Next I added the green 160 for the rim of his shell and I added the head next which was a 260 and a 160, plus a black 160 for the eyes, in total he is made from 6 balloons.