March 7 - Iso Vulture

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

~ Confucius

They might not win a beauty contest, but there's something captivating about a vulture -- the featherless head, the hunched posture, the air of grumpy patience. They are ... fantastically unusual?

This vulture design comes from Isopresso's YouTube channel. It only seemed natural to pair it with another of his tutorials - a longhorn skull - to complete the look.

(view other vultures)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

September 14 - Pieter's Vulture

Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togethew today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam. And wove, twue wove, wiww fowwow you fowevah and evah… So tweasuwe youw wove.

~ The Priest The Princess Bride

This is Pieter Van Engen's vulture from his DVD Balloon Art #2.  It pairs perfectly with the longhorn skull he teaches on the same DVD.

It seems that one of the most common connection points in almost any balloon is at a pinch twist.  It creates some awkward and irregular bumps, but there are relatively few ways to avoid it and keep things tight.  You can see on the sides of the skull or the top for that matter.

Pieter uses marriage twists to great effect, and it creates a much more organic connector.  Done correctly, you can play around with the way the attachment sticks out giving an almost ball-in-socket joint.  The vulture's neck looks fantastic the way he designed it - I love the way it's set in there as well, shaped a teardrop.

Proud to be bald, but I'd like some hare ...	Do you think clowns taste funny? ... I'm going to talon your for that joke.
He flies cheaply - all his luggage is carrion.

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Other posts with Pieter's designs:


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May 13 - Vulture

"If your friend is already dead, and being eaten by vultures, I think it's okay to feed some bits of your friend to one of the vultures, to teach him to do some tricks. But only if you're serious about adopting the vulture."
~ Jack Handy

This is the next offering from Eric Weinstein's Live Balloons Volume 6 -- a vulture.

I avoided building this one for a while because it seemed pretty close to an ostrich, and I didn't imagine thrilling anyone by a surprise vulture, "I'm not saying you look of death!"   Too much explanation.

I thought the first build of the vulture (orange beak) looked a bit too tall, so I gave him shorter legs an an extra long neck the second time.  Plus I found my yellow 646's.  I toyed with the idea of glue dots to keep the shape, but in the end I don't think the straps are too noticeable. I like the head and neck, but I think he could still use a bit more body shaping, definitely bigger wings and his legs need to be position higher next build.

Keep Calm and Carrion!

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Other posts with Eric's designs:


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