September 8 - Owls

"The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders at our quaint spirits."

~ William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hearing an owl is like having hiccups.

I'll explain. 

There is a special thrill in hearing an owl, distinct from all other chattering/singing birds.  But there is a point in the silence that follows where you ponder the odd sound you just heard.  Waiting in cautious anticipation for proof that it's still there, kind of maybe wanting to hear a good loud one, wondering if that was the las... *HOOT!*  (-cup!)   🦉💕

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Sergey Loginov shared how he creates a one+ balloon owl.  I had almost forgotten how precise and well done his videos are, like a math professor showing some new trick with numbers.

(view other owls)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Sergey Loginov:

September 5 - Swan

"The swan, like the soul of the poet, by the dull world is ill understood."

~ Heinrich Heine

In Arthurian legend, Lohengrin, son of Percival was called called 'Knight of the Swan'.

Legend has it he arrived in a boat to defend the honor of Elsa of Brabant who was accused of murdering her brother.  He married her with the one stipulation that she never ask his name.

... and so she ended up alone.   Makes me wonder about her brother ...
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This design is one that Isopresso shared just recently on their channel, a quick build that captures the simple elegance.

(view other swans)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

July 25 - Bling Bling 2025

"I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them."

~ Sand dan Glokta, Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

I feel like before I use anything I learned at Bling Bling Jam 2025, I should at least say a few words about the experience.

"Pretty good?"

Look, I'm not the best yardstick here.  I have never entered a competition, I need to psych myself up before going to the jam room.  ... I did get like 30+ hours listening in on my audiobook series - which was simply amazing, The First Law trilogy.  *chefs kiss*

The instructors and attendees were great, that's the real heart of any convention and they make everything worth it.  I'll save any specifics there (for now) because I did have one significant "room for improvement" thing I feel I need to say before gushing any high praise.

The show seemed to be suffering from not having a "big name" balloon sponsor.  I certainly appreciate those that helped make the event possible, but it should almost be embarrassing to give a room full of balloon artists old fragile stinky stock balloons.  I know it probably wasn't every color, but half a worm is half a worm when you're eating an apple.  I don't think their whole stock is like this, but then again I'll never know now.

On the flipside, a few other classes used decorator-style balloons - thicker, more rigid, and "unforgiving to learn with" if we're being polite.  It's the excitement level of carob.  You'd eat it.  You'd smile.  But you'd secretly wish it was chocolate.

BYOB (alloons) for classes.  

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These were some "hotel room" doodles I made (Isopresso bird) until a severe pop made me feel like 8am was probably too early.  I included a picture of the baggage claim sign ...  Stay classy, Las Vegas.

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Other balloons related to Bling Bling Jam:

July 12 - Owl

"A wise old owl sat on an oak;
the more he saw the less he spoke."

~ Nursery rhyme

With eyes big as moons and heads that turn just far enough to see -everything-, owls have always been the quiet librarians of the night.  They watch.

They see your midnight snack trips, your questionable 2am purchases, your late night online gaming obsession.

Still, they keep your secret, "who?" Exactly.

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This design is one Isopresso showed a while ago that I've had earmarked to build forever ... which occurred yesterday.  

(view other birds or specifically owls)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

July 9 - Jojo Mallard

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots, the other is wings."

~ Hodding Carter

The mother mallard watched her little yellow ducky paddling circles in the pond.

She knew his feathers would change one day, and that bright little yellow boy would give way to new colors.  Change is, after all, inevitable.  

But that was a long while off, and for today, she would just enjoy the time with her little bouncing ball of sunshine.

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I was playing around with accessorizing the little ducky form from the Tobi Twist Jojo Cuties, and ended up making a couple mallard and then Daffy Duck.  

(view other ducks or jojos)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

July 8 - Jojo Ducky

"it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

~ e.e. cummings

The little ducky wondered why his feathers were so bright yellow, while his mother's were so different.

She said he was bright like the sun. She said it was because he was the happiest little ducky in the pond.

Would he stay this sunny forever? He didn't know - but as long as she was by his side, he supposed that was a good enough an answer for now.

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These little ducky's were part of the Tobi Twist Jojo Cuties collection - I'm really appreciating the way he creates his eyes, not only is it quicker but slight inconsistencies between the pupils are not as ... offensive? as long as the angles are similar.


(view other ducks or jojos)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

June 30 - Jojo Parrot

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

~ Douglas Adams

Rose up this morning, smiled at the purple one,
Three little birds, with drunken hiccups,
There were parrots, there was one red - one blue, 

And one white cockatoo-oo-ooo.

Singing, "Where's wormy?  Roundish thing?

We're not the early birds, but we've been up all night!"

Singing, "Hey wormy!  'Ring-a-ling!'.

I think that was your clock, and I see sunlight!"

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I have no idea what I'm doing anymore.

Something to do with parrots drunkenly hitting on the early worm I think.  That's a thing, right?  

Made in Tobi Twist's Jojo style!


(view other birds or jojos)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

June 28 - Jojo Penguin

"Change is inevitable;
Growth is optional."

~ John C. Maxwell

"Another penguin?"

... if I were a polar bear, I would say "yes please!"

... if I were a conservationist or research biologist with a grant to burn, I would shout "Hooray!"

... if I were a documentary narrator with a velvet british accent, I would shout "my word!"

... if I were a snowball with sentience, pondering upon life and existence during the dark winter storms, I would project *delighted apprehension!* with a flurry of flakes.

... alas I am but a balloon artist. Penguins are my inevitability.

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This is one of the starter designs from Tobi Twist's Jojo Cuties collection.  Like every modern rock album needs a ballad, every balloon design needs a penguin.   Rock on little bro.

[Truth told - I actually do enjoy building a new version of -any- animal.  This blog makes it easy and really fun at this point to look back and see the others that were built over time, and significant or subtle differences between them (links on website only unfortunately).   This is the 13th "penguin" post by my count.   Lucky!]

(view other penguin or jojos)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

June 26 - Jojo Chicken

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

~ Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night

We lost a lot of good birds that year.

I don't think the cows were evil - just confused.  Corporate mercenaries given their own raw deal.   We could have stopped it, if only we had read the signs correctly.

"Eat Mor Chikin."

We thought it was a joke.

How would the humans fall for something so ridiculous?  

We laughed at the grammar.  

We laughed ...

... We lost a lot of good birds that year.

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This is another of the Tobi Twist "Jojo style" introductory critters, and it got me thinking about the Chick-fil-A cows in their ad campaign.  What a horrible misdirect, when the message could have simply been "eat less cow?"  

(view other chicken) or jojos)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

June 20 - Rainbow Penguin

"When you put love out in the world, it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected."

~ Laverne Cox

A normal bird would have made much more sense to have in rainbow colors, but the image of all these guys lined up kept pinging and pinging around my head.

So I let the ping win.

[runs away]

[car door slams]

[tires screeching] 

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(view other penguin)

May 27 - Japanese White-eye

"Blossom by blossom the spring begins."

~ Algernon Charles Swinburne

This bird kind of looks like a repeat, I built a Tody bird based on the Kingfisher design, and this Japanese white-eye is fairly similar, but there are some differences - and not just geographically.

Instead of the sharp beak of a flycatcher, it has a soft bill.  Instead of a tropical itty-bitty chonk, it's sleeker and more streamlined.  And more notably, it has that distinct white eye ring that gives it a kind of permanent wide-eye surprise.

This design comes from Isopresso's members channel and shows a nice variation o the general bird form to suggest the White-eye.  If I build something like this again, I'll definitely double or triple-stuff the black pupil balloon to prevent distortion when adding outer layers.   It also helps keep the eye from bulging out like it's under balloon hypertension - especially when there's a tighter iris pressing on it.

(view other birds)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

May 19 - Anna's Hummingbird

"To name a thing is to bring it into being."

~ Terry Tempest Williams

"Anna's Hummingbird" isn't exactly the most scientific of names.  I looked.

Apparently it was named in 1829 after Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli, whose husband had one of the most extensive private bird collections in Europe at the time.

Reasons aside, this is certainly a brilliant way to get your entire operation funded.

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This hummingbird is one of the few species that stick around all year on the Pacific coast.  It uses the Isopresso hummingbird design base from the members section.

(view other birds)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

May 12 - Hummingbird

"The hummingbird competes with the stillness of the air."

~ Chogyam Trungpa

Hummingbirds are in a word - awesome.  In a few more, they are little aerial acrobats that can hover, dart sideways, or even fly backwards - something no other bird can do.  They don't flap their wings, they trace a tiny figure-eight, more like a swim stoke in the air?  You know...  awesome.

This design was featured on the Isopresso members channel. I used shiny/metallic chocolate (Kalisan) for the wing feathers instead of standard chocolate, but a basic color contrast would have given a different texture.  

If everything is shiny - nothing looks shiny.

(view other birds)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso: