January 12 - Stingray

now i can’t believe—
that the bible and qur’an and bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom
used to & exhaling from their mouths “make room for wonder”

~ Renée Nicole Good
   On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs (excerpt)

You can't be mad at that one stingray.  

Put in a strange threatening situation, it reacted the only way it knew how with no other options.

You would have to be a very special kind of monster to have a hand in creating the situation, other options, and yet still pick deadly violence.

A monster.

(view other Scoobie Doo)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

January 11 - Limbo

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December 31 - Frodo

"I'm old, Gandalf. I know I don't look it but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel all thin... sort of stretched, if you know what I mean. Like butter that has been scraped over too much bread."

~ Bilbo

Nothing lasts forever.   

We learn that early and we repeat it often.

We pretend it prepares us.

It doesn't ...

I don't say goodbye, I prefer to think of this as more of a "setting down carefully" for a bit.  

I love making up art and stories, and I imagine I will continue to do so.  The daily beast is fantastic at making you run, but is equally relentless in the pursuit.  I make my peace with it before letting it pass.  

"Good hunting, friend."

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(view other humanoids)

December 30 - New Years Good Luck Bag

"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings."

~ Lao Tzu

Fukubukuro is probably the most fun word you'll hear today. Bonus: it's also fun to say out loud.

One of the joys of following balloon artists around the globe is stumbling into cultural gems like this. Fukubukuro ("lucky bags") are how Japanese stores clear out inventory at the end of the year - with surprise gift bags full of mystery items and ridiculous discounts. Sometimes you get something practical. Sometimes you hit the jackpot. Either way, it beats the American equivalent of running with the bulls on Black Friday.

This balloon design was shown on the Creative Balloon Handmade YouTube channel - I thought the design looked interesting, like a bouquet of gold - curiosity got the best of me.

 

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Other balloons by and inspired by Creative Balloon Handmade:

December 29 - Red-eyed Treefrog

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."

~ Will Rogers

When she kissed him, the princess thought the frogs eyes were simply a biological trait.

It quickly became clear they were the result of poor sleep, late-night binges and entirely too much of the "frog juice".

The curse, as it turned out, was not the problem.

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This red-eyed treefrog is one shown in the Isopresso members section, and though it shares many characteristics of the original frog - the added bit is an advanced bit of twisting that could easily be part of a Matt Falloon video. 

(view other frogs)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso Balloons:

December 28 - Kalisan Dusty Rose

And it's laughter that I feel when I think of you
It's one more dusty rose about to turn
I'll see you when I reach New Mexico
If I'm in the mood to crash and burn

~ Pat Travers Band - Crash and Burn (1980)

I'm not sure what I was thinking of when purchasing "muted pink" as a color.  Was I going to build a giant earthworm?  Was it on sale?   Was it new?  Was it an impulse buy for the free shipping?

The balloon texture is actually fairly nice with one notable exception.  I know I've used a lot of highly technical terms when talking about about these balloons but I need to add another one to the list.  Snap-back?

The texture of these balloons was fine - but when it came to tearing them, it was just shy of dangerous.  Not only was I getting painful snapbacks, but little bits of debris were flying off consistently enough that I was turning my face away when I did it.

Overall impression of Kalisan Dusty Rose - I will be avoiding getting more for a number of reasons.

Other "color day" balloons:

December 27 - Cardinal

"Listen to the birds. That is where life begins."

~ Alfred Hitchcock

The official state bird of North Carolina is the Northern Cardinal.

Something about growing up where they weren't common perhaps makes them seem more exotic to me, but they're such brilliantly red bursts of color in a tree, unsubtle as the leaves change around them.

Like royalty, it presides.  

No bob-bob-bobbing, no chirp chirp here or there - just a final, unapologetic red as the year comes to a close.

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This design is based on the cockatiel design from Isopresso's channel, and something that I always meant to try to build.

(view other birds)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso Balloons: