July 15 - Jojo Cat

"As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat."

~ Ellen Perry Berkeley

A certain amount of cat hair in my food is just a fact of life at this point.

I don't push them off the counter. I let them take an interested sniff from what I eat. I realize I am the problem.

Worth it.

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The tiger is one of Tobi Twists's Jojo Cuties, I thought "big cat" and a lion might work as well but ended up going for smaller ears because of the mane.

(view other tigers, lions or jojos

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Other balloons by and inspired by Tobi Twist:

April 24 - Li'l Big Cats

That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, "Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life."

~ Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Such a powerful movie and a moving scene, I need a moment ...  These are inspired by Jackie Ochitwa's class and a wavy orange balloon.

I wasn't content with how I got the ears to fit into the base, so I built lions instead using a similarly styled muzzle.

At some point Qualatex decided they needed balloons with waves on them and around that same point in time, my compulsion made me get some.  I have 4 bags of various colors, and I think I have probably used 4 total balloons out of them.

You can imagine how excited I was when I got to use one for this li'l tiger.   ... so .. 5.



(view other lions, tigers)

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Other Jackie Ochitwa inspired balloons:

February 25 - Dorb Circus Animals

When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.

~ Ethiopian Proverb

I've had these images for a little bit now and neglected to post them.  Here are some Dorb circus or safari-type animals using the basic design Buster Balloon shows in his latest tutorials.

The elephant is one that he demonstrates on the videos and the lion is one that he describes.  I thought I would make a quick tiger to lock in the design, as these use all the most generic body style.

My first attempt at the elephant I with for a basic 4-leg body, but the head assembly attachment point confounds it in a way as to have the head pointed straight down.  Adding a bit of a neck helped, but too much neck looked weird on an elephant and too little neck still angled the head weirdly.  I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board for that one I think.

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Other Dorb balloon designs:

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November 4 - Tiger

That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, "Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life.”

~ Yann Martel, Life of Pi

What a great book/movie, Life of Pi.  I welled up a little in remembrance reading all the brilliant quotes looking for one about the farewell to Richard Parker.  Enjoy the farewell video here but only click if you've seen the movie! (video link)

This tiger is based on a panther that Nao taught by video during a Steve Klein webinar.  Thankfully I took good enough notes and kept pictures enough to make something similar here.  I made a few attempts before getting this straight here and once it was built I felt there were far too few stripes made out of balloons and had to sharpie it up.

I like having 4 independent and movable limbs as it gives a good deal of flexibility to poses.  At first I was going to use the pouncing tiger for the Purple image, but then then look like they're having such a fun tickle fight.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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August 29 - Daniel Tiger

It's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
A land of make-believe
Won't you ride along with me (ride along)
It's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
So much to do, so much to see
Won't you ride along with me (ride along)

~ It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Happy Birthday Geo!

The third balloon I've made for people who won the auctions at our school gala is this Daniel Tiger.  This was a centerpiece for a birthday party the last weekend.

I had not heard of Daniel Tiger before this - but the internet provided plenty of information.  This is a program produced by the Fred Rogers Company and based on the Neighborhood of Make Believe from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. It's goal is to teach emotional intelligence and respect using guidelines set forth by Fred Roger's research in child development. This isn't just a goofy cartoon - this is the good stuff.

I had made a prototype face but had a crazy busy day - and the night I was going to build this I didn't get started until about midnight. There are things I would do different upon building it again. The stuffed geo head worked great for a nice round head, but it is a bit overinflated and oval in the final build. Also, the top half and the bottom half are a little mismatched. Instead of having a layer of red to give a bulk to the bottom of the sweater, it might have looked better and created a better transition if it were just a 260.

April 25 - Sweet Big Cats

Lady Samantha glides like a tiger
Over the hills with no one beside her
No one comes near
They all live in fear
But lady Samantha, she sheds only tears

Three Dog Night - Lady Samatha

Here are a couple big cats made with Eric Weinstein's Sweet Cheeks technique.

I don't really have a lot more to add to that, the technique is very simple and gives a great foundation for a face and body. Eric's original PDFs were the start of the sweet cheeks concept and I feel that it could work for a cartoon version of almost anything.

I used the random animal generator again, but I'm not sure that is the best way to select an animal because some of them are very specific and not so cartoon-ish - an Ibex, a Highland Cow, an impala, a dingo. Thankfully it also suggested a tiger, and even though I've built tigers using other techniques I felt it would be another good exercise for the sweet cheeks. I then used the same technique for the cheetah.

I'm actually not sure how many more Sweet Cheeks I will build because it's hard to remember exactly what I've created using the technique already ...

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Other Sweet Cheeks designs:


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March 5 - Rolly Pollie Tiger

Our noblest hopes grow teeth and pursue us like tigers.

~ John Gardner

I have been playing more with Dan Staples Rolly Pollie concept and Lindsey Foster's faces.

I have pulled out all of the random Big Bear Head balloons that I have amassed over the years from various jam packs and convention leftovers. So after watching the lion video, I noticed I had one orange one and thought I would try for a tiger. I think it ended up looking rather nice, but as I only had the one orange (and these aren't the most pose-able balloons for pictures), I figured I would make the lion as well for the added practice.

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Other posts with the Dan's Rolly Pollies:


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August 3 - Embraceables

“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

Have you ever said goodbye, and then had that awkward walk to the parking lot with that person?  I had just taken Tony Twist's class and was chatting with him briefly as we entered the elevator.  To my surprise, he got off on the same floor - and I'm not quite sure what he thought as I followed him through the hallway to my room which was situated right next to his.   #accidentalstalker

I have had his Real World Wow #2 - Embraceables DVD for a few months but I shamefully never took the time to build anything from it.  Tony uses a great idea for easy re-fastening arms for his gigantic base structure, but to use it involves making the arms extra long so they can hug around the recipient (hence the title).

He mentions in the DVD different arm styles, but it took meeting him at a convention and taking his class for me to embrace the idea (see what I did there?) and see what an awesomely huge structure you can build with relative ease.

This is another modular design from which you could build an amazing variety of creatures.  Proving his point, Tony's taught a tiger before pulling out a myriad of other constructions using his technique.

"Did you want to put on a shirt?"  "nahhh"	I don't do "embraces"!
Embraceables? They're grrrrrrrreeeaaat!

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Other posts with Tony's designs:


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