August 28 - Fabrizio's Mouse

“Any cat may stare into a fire and see red mice play,”

~ George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

This mouse is a mini one of what was shown by Fabrizio at Bling Bling Jam this year.

I think there is something both beautiful and terrible about Facebook bringing together balloon artists.  Beautiful in that it's a great place to share ideas, and terrible in that by sharing it kind of homogenizes things.  There is little incentive to come up with your mermaid when you've seen a bunch of efficient ones shared.

Brian Potvin spoke on this briefly in one of his lectures about how he had to distance himself from social media in order to develop his own style.  There are many artists who elevate themselves above this and you can know by their style.  It would be a disservice to make a list, because I would inevitably leave of a good number of people that deserve this kind of recognition.  The rest of us are a melting pot of the creative forces that effect us.

Fabrizio embodies this individuality.  All of his designs I found to be characteristically "him".  This mouse is a prime example.

---

Other balloon designs from Bling Bling Jam 2017:

---

Other balloon designs from Fabrizio:

Show All

August 9 - Danger Mouse

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

~ Desmond Tutu

Though Fabrizio Bolzoni only taught us the monkey in class, he demonstrated how he makes a number of other things.

When attempting this mouse in the jam room between classes, Fabrizio suggested a few things to make it more like his, I'm not sure if his a specific mouse.  I built another thinking to try for Danger Mouse.

I don't remember one thing about Danger Mouse. But I must have seen an episode or something because I knew it was a white mouse.

I was getting into a pretty good routine going at this point of taking my pictures and then getting the balloon down to the giveaway pile.  It meant that I now traveled both up and down the elevator now with arms full of balloons.  Every ride was typically:
1. quick awkward silence held the entire trip
2. 30 second interrogation

---

Other balloon designs from Bling Bling Jam 2017:

---

Other balloon designs from Fabrizio:

Show All

August 7 - Fabrizio's Monkey

Monkeys are superior to men in this:
when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.

~ Malcolm de Chazal

I knew very little about Fabrizio Bolzoni before walking into this class. I should have taken an Uber instead of a hotel bus and made it to his first class if I had known.

Fabrizio is not only a talented balloon artist and teacher with a distinct style, but he has a good eye for making a balloon into a scene. This monkey vine is a good example of it, not only on a tree, but it's a jungle vine with drippy flowers. Fabrizio's was even more detailed with a few of the monkey's holding bananas.

---

Other balloon designs from Bling Bling Jam 2017:

---

Other balloon designs from Fabrizzio:

Show All