November 12 - Alligator

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

~ Plato

Like all great stories, this one started with a pig and an alligator.

Today I'm thankful for Eric Weinstein.

A design inspired by Eric Weinstein's "Live Balloon" collection was what started this journey all those years ago. Eric collection of creatures was also where I kind of finally understood the value of balloon concept vs. a balloon design.  Following a design vs. making things.

... and just think how close the blog came to being called The Grinning Gator's Latex Factory!
(view other alligator)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Eric Weinstein:

January 5 - Unsmooshable Gator

I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning And throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.

~ Muhammad Ali

This is the next attempt at implementing the Unsmooshable idea - an alligator.

This one uses the face from the Juan Gonzales wrist wearable crocodile design (link). and just uses the top of the head for an attachment point for the eyes.

The first one I made in this batch was the smaller gator. It was a bit small and chubby for the form, so I tried seeing what I could come up with using a 646 using a similar structure.  I opted not to give the big guy angry eyebrows, but with his hands clasped he looked worried - adding the flower makes him seem more shy than concerned.

You've got to kiss de girrrl....

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Other 'Unsmooshable' posts:


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May 22 - Gators

Down in Louisiana,
where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a girl, that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame
Polk salad Annie, polk salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her momma was a
  workin' on the chain gang
(A mean vicious woman)
~ Jim Belushi & Dan Akroyd
   Polk Salad Annie (link)

I was just listening to the latest Jam Room podcast, Juan Gonzales was the guest and I was reminded that I wanted to build this.   Juan (pronounced John) is a frequent and creative contributor to the Facebook balloon forums, he is an amazing sharpie artist who would frequently post his "practice" balloons.  He once made a white round into the Violator from Spawn.  So yeah - Good.  I used his "I Hate Sharpie Art" book when I first started trying to practice eyes.

There is an efficiency in Juan's creations and he explains everything very clearly without making it tedious.  You can tell this is the product of a good deal of trial-and-error, there is no struggle to get the main structure to fit into one balloon..

This is from his most recent collection of videos.  The typical alligator balloons look a little klunky to me the way the feet/leg hang off them, it's hard to get them short and stubby and not silly, so having this lurk in water is brilliant.  With this platform, you can mount this on anything you want as well - hat/bracelet/accessory/etc.

I made a 160 baby version and I'm sure this would easily transfer to 360 as well.

They seem so angry...
It's later, here we are!

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Other posts with Juan's designs:


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January 1 - Aligator

January 1, 2016

Alligator inspired by Eric Weinstein "Live Balloons" - watching Mr Robot with my sweetie, playing with blogger app.

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Other posts with Eric's designs:





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