November 8 - EVE

"EeeeeeeVE-ah."

~ WALL-E (2008)

Balloon artists from other countries bring with them such interesting perspectives and styles shaped by their cultures.  

Today I'm thankful for Nao Osaka.

Nao was the international guest instructor at several of my early balloon conventions, a bubbling fountain of joy whose designs were a masterclass in weaving.

Before writing this post, I looked back through the blog to revisit the creations he inspired (there is a link on the blog itself).  The man was amazing.

This design is based on a Blooper model he once shared as a PDF that you can still find on floating around some Pintrest boards.  

EVE - Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator

NAO - Novelty Air Organizer

(view other Disney)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Nao Osaka:

November 16 - Purple Pig

If you didn't care
What happened to me
And I didn't care for you

We would zig-zag our way Through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain
Wondering which of the Buggers to blame
And watching the pigs on the wing

~ Pink Floyd - Pigs on the Wing

Here we are at the final day of my exploration of the style of Nao Osaka (and my birthday).

It was a lot of work, Nao has an incredible style to attempt to emulate, very clean and precise.  I am grateful that he released some resources in order to help get me on the right path and thankful he has been a teacher at a couple of the Bling Bling Jams.  I do somewhat lament that I have never really 'met' him and have only had somewhat awkward exchanges - but that's the way I roll with people I respect I guess, keeping it weird.

Well once again it's time for me to attempt a purple pig with what I've learned and/or played with.  I tried to stick with a "classic Nao" style for this pig, using all 260's - one bit of cheating though to get it plumped up with a link a loon belly.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 15 - Nao's E.T.

Elliott: He's a man from outer space and we're taking him to his spaceship.
Greg: Well, can't he just beam up?
Elliott: This is *reality*, Greg.

 ~ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Last Bling Bling Jam, Nao Osaka was an instructor and taught both a chameleon (link) and cat (link) that I've built previously for this blog.

I attended every class I was able to at Bling Bling, but did notice people who skipped and stayed in the jam room had an opportunity for some private instruction from Nao - where he taught how to build this E.T.  Being an east coaster - classes ended at was my 3am, so I most of my jam room time was hours before anyone showed up in the morning.  I took a bunch of pictures of this E.T. in order to attempt it at some time in the future.

I'm happy that I've finally afforded myself that opportunity.  It was still a lot of work figuring out the puzzle and maze of twists, and took a couple attempts to get things at a point I was happy with them, but I really like how things turned out.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 14 - Nao's Turtle

Every ripple on the ocean
Every leaf on every tree
Every sand dune in the desert
Every power we never see

There is a deeper wave than this

~ Sting - Love is the Seventh Wave
   (Dream of the Blue Turtles)

A tutorial for this turtle design was on a DVD that was sold by Nao Osaka at Florida Super Jam a couple years ago that I was able to purchase after the fact from the person who runs the convention.  I would like to believe that the purchase money went back to him, ...

This turtle shell uses a weave that is reminiscent of the weave shown by Sabina Kellner, but is slightly different - it makes for a nice shell effect without having to create every section.

There's only one thing left to say:

"Righteous!  ... Righteous! .... duuuuuuude."

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 13 - Garfield

“I hate Mondays.”

~ Garfield

This is my attempt at making Nao Osaka's Garfield.

I believe I may have jumped down the wrong rabbit hole on this one.  Instead of trying to channel Nao's style, I tried to copy the way he created this form. 

He did a fantastic job, the way he gets the balloons to wrap around and form the main face structure caused me to scrap and try over and over again, popping and creating a Frankenstein-ish mess.  I started fresh after a number of attempts and made this one, but I'm still not 100% satisfied with how it ended up.

Nao truly is a master of capturing form with balloons.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 12 - Nao's Wasp

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”

~ Ray Bradbury Dandelion Wine

This wasp is very similar to the Nao Osaka's ant design.

My first attempt I made without looking at a picture of an actual wasp, I think (I hope) you can see the improvements I made on my second after getting some reference images and choosing more appropriate colors and getting the wings to lay flat.

I also tried a different limb style in the second build, I've seen Masayoshi Matsumoto do amazing things with his insects and I took a page and first attempt from his book for these.

I did have bigger plans for what I was going use as the main image, but time got away from me today...

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 11 - Nao's Crane

~ BBC Video: Trying To Save The Red Crowned Cranes Of Japan

This is a red-crowned crane - also called the Japanese crane, one of the rarest cranes in the world and a symbol for luck, fidelity and longevity.  This crane is based on an image that Nao Osaka shared on Facebook.

In all these balloon concepts, my goal is to get to a point where I am creating my own "in they style of" - but Nao has just so many amazing and creative designs that I am struggling to get to that point.  There are still more that he has designed that I would be happy to attempt.  He truly is a master of this artform.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 10 - Nao's Crab

There are souls which, crab-like, crawl continually toward darkness, going back in life rather than advancing in it, using what experience they have to increase their deformity, growing worse without ceasing, and becoming steeped more and more thoroughly in an intensifying wickedness.

~ Victor Hugo Les Misérables

This crab was a design that Nao Osaka came up with specifically to teach at Bling Bling Jam 2016.  According the Steve, there was a miscommunication or misunderstanding as to where the convention was going to be, and he built it thinking we were in ... San Francisco?  I might be mistaken of the location, but it was a place famous for it's crabs..

I didn't take pictures at the time - I have one blurry one while a bit of the shell weave, I was busy trying to keep up with the instructions at the time!  I was able to piece it together from some images that Nao thankfully shared on Facebook.  I built the red first when trying to figure out or remember how it was all put together, but tightened things up a bit when making the maroon.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 9 - Nao's Gecko

Democracy is all about not electing the wrong man-eating lizard.

~ Douglas Adams

This gecko design is something that Nao Osaka shared and I have saved in my balloon inspiration folder for a while.  I changed the toes slightly because I like a more rounded pad, but tried my best to copy the swoop of the body that Nao had because it adds so much to the design.

I tried for a crested gecko in honor of my son's (now deceased) pet, Kaiju.

It was only after I had already taken these pictures that I realized I didn't make the index toe super long... next time!

I have a number of maroon left over (one of Qualatex's new colors), so I decided to build using that.  I know I've mentioned it in earlier posts but I really enjoy that since Nao primarily uses one size balloon, it's easy to down/upsize the creation so I made a smaller one in toffee as well.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 8 - Nao's Bunny

My wife says "maybe we should park
We could just go eat inside"
I said I'm wearin' bunny slippers
So I ain't leavin' this ride

~ Weird Al Trapped in the Drive-Thru

This bunny body is based on the cat that Nao taught at Bling Bling Jam (link to blog entry), it's a great non-traditional seated animal design that can be made fairly quickly and has a nice arched back shape.

The first I made was the grey to refresh my memory of the design and the only real change was adding the bunny head, having the arms on the side like that make it a bit anthropomorphic or perhaps cartoonish.  When I built the brown one, I fixed a few things in the head design to give it a better connection and decided to give it front arms that stretched to the ground.

I imagine this design could be it's own balloon concept...

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 7 - Cardinal

A cardinal sang just for me
And I thanked him for the song
Then the sun went slowly down the west
And I had to move along

~ Johnny Cash Flesh and Blood

This cardinal is another one of the balloons that Nao Osaka has shared on his Facebook page.

Now that I have built a number of Nao's designs, it's becoming a fun puzzle to attempt to figure out how he builds these.

This one was slightly different from what I would call his typical designs because it uses some 160's as well.  I did try a few times to stay "pure", but he gets such a nice pose and face out of this balloon that I ended up just doing my best to copy it.

Nao really does have an exceptional eye for creating balloon art.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 6 - Hypno-toad

“The young girl believed and the frog became a prince. Belief made the difference to the frog and he believed. We become who we think we are.”

~ Brent M. Jones

These frogs are an attempt to copy an image Nao Osaka shared. Once again it's "classic Nao" in that it only uses 260s and yet still makes an elegant design despite the limitation.  I really like the way his style gives texture to the vocal sac under the mouth.

I thought it might be fun to make a hypnot..  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 5 - Nao's Spider

Somehow the killing of a giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of a wizard or the dwarves or anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath.

~ JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit

This spider design is one that Nao Osaka teaches in a PDF I was lucky enough to have shared with me.

The design reminds me of a tarantula or wolf spider and has a nice sculpted thorax and bulbous abdomen.

Qualatex released two new colors that I purchased recently to try out, Maroon and Navy - so I built one in each.  I don't think I will be adding the colors to my "everyday" bucket, but they are nicely different from existing colors and worth keeping around for special occasions.  There is a satisfying tactile sensation in twisting them, perhaps it's the freshness of the balloons but they are nice and squishy but still seem strong.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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