August 22 - Baby Hearts

'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more

~ You'll Be In My Heart (Tarzan)
    Phil Collins (1999)

This baby heart technique is something I remembered learning ages ago, but a lot of techniques have little nuances to them - how tight you make certain things, etc. I feel like a baby one balloon heart is one of those techniques that I should keep fresh and get some reps in to practice making them great.

Antonio Bécares has a PDF that teaches it on his website (globosaltea.com) - which feels a bit retro at this point. But it fits, like a sweet fedora and a glass of red wine in an outdoor cafe. This one's good, not a lot of words but a ton of images.
(view other hearts)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Antonio Bécares:

May 19 - One Love

Jah is one perfect love, until the philosophy
Which holds one race superior and another
Inferior is finally and permanently discredited and
Abandoned there will war everyday
Jah is why we are all blessed, this Iniverse was
Created for man to live in peace concord
And happiness and the word of Haile Selassie
I's a blessing yes .

~ SOJA, Non-Partial Non-Political (link)

Technically I suppose it's Four Love.

As I watch these tutorials by Mr. Sung - I'm relying on technology for translations and I am tickled that the translation for this heart is "love".  So I can comfortably say last night I made love for well over an hour.  Tantric balloon art?

Weaving can be some mindless braiding at times, but this one does require some attention paid to pattern to get a good heart shape.

One of the fun things you can do with weaving though is to break from the pattern and make your own patterns with colors, it's like solving a crossword puzzle.  I thought it would be fun to make a rainbow, to me that is the symbol of purest "IDGAF what you think" kind of love -- and while making that, I was listening to Fantan Mojah so it felt natural to build One Love.

Let's acknowledge the corridor approach to creativity.  At the beginning of this exercise, I was building a heart.  Now that I've traveled some down the corridor, possibilities are visible that were not at the start.  I think it would be super cool to to make a giant "One Love" weave within the outline of Africa.  I have it on my Todo list now -- but if someone wants to take the baton and run with it, I have a great Spotify playlist for you to listen to while doing building. 😁 


(view other hearts)

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Other balloon designs or inspiration from Chun Lin, Sung:

July 9 - Mini Heart

“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

Antonio Bécares Rodríguez is able to do some amazing things with his balloon creations.

He is a wizard at developing new techniques, he has a DVD dedicated to the "pinch line" technique, and though I didn't attend the Twist & Shout convention, I saw images of some mind boggling spiral twisted balloons from a class he taught there.

I've already mentioned the neat trick he included with the helicopter design to make the propeller spin, this balloon is exploring a technique of his for creating miniature hearts out of twister balloons.  There are bigger hearts available to for purchase, and it's possible to puff inflate those for use in some situations, but these will last much longer and stand up to a good bit of abuse.  Perfect for putting on a ring.  I found the best results from 260's, but tried each size balloon to help learn the technique.

'Cause if you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it!	Just look casual!    Your on my hair!    Cheese!
I'm going to throw my hat into the ring ... scratch that ... reverse it.

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Other posts with Antonio's designs:


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February 5 - Giant Heart

Сергей Лещанов (Sergey Leshchanov) is another Russian balloon artist who frequently posts to his YouTube channel.  Though not as precise in his descriptive measurements as Sergey Loginov, he is easy to follow and his designs are all quite beautiful.  Between these two Sergey's, one could construct an amazing bouquet!

These hearts were requested as Valentine's Day decorations for a friend this week, as well as practice for a Valentine's pancake breakfast I am going to provide some balloons for next week.  

Hee-Haw!

February 4 - Heart

Sergey is a Russian balloon artist that posts interesting designs quite frequently on his YouTube channel.

This heart is from his collection and he has a lot of designs that are interesting weaves like this one.  In fact, one of his earliest videos is for a 'nanotube' I used frequently for practice when I started, it requires you to make 24 tiny exact sized bubbles.

One thing I really enjoy from his videos are that he uses a self-made foam bubble ruler to get very precise sizes to his viewers.  It speaks to my Origami-need-for-precision.