Friday, August 28, 2026

August 28 - Hammerhead Shark

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names."

— Confucius (attributed)

This weeks practice is from the Isopresso balloon channel.

A hammerhead shark has a head shaped like a hammer.

A sawfish has a nose shaped like a saw.

A narwahl has a wahl shaped nar.


(view other sharks)

Other balloons by or inspired by Isopresso Balloon:



Thursday, August 27, 2026

August 27 - Tim

'Cause I've seen, oh, blue skies
Through the tears in my eyes
And I realize
I'm going home

~ Tim Curry I'm Going Home

When making a D&D character, you roll three dice and add them together to determine each of your statistics.

The scale runs from 3 to 18 - applied to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma.  An 18 is extraordinary - think Herculean for strength, or Einsteinian for intelligence.

We just lost two people who had rolled natural 18s in Charisma.

This Frank-N-Furter was originally made as decoration for a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Thinkback: October 31, 2017.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

August 26 - Rainbow Lorikeet

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

~ Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho

I was trying to unravel the color puzzle of a rainbow lorikeet. 

I got some of the pieces in roughly the right neighborhood.

Looking at it now, I know what I'd want to change: more green in places, and maybe forest green would work better than lime...

That's the annoying thing about hindsight.  

It never seems interested in helping out on the first one...


(view other birds)

Other balloons inspired by Isopresso Balloon:



Tuesday, August 25, 2026

August 25 - Pink Blush Dawg

"These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb."

~ Najwa Zebian

I love this quote.

It's strange how easily old experiences become things we carry around.

Not because we need them, necessarily.  They just became baggage somewhere along the way.

But there is a difference between remembering what happened and continuing to carry it.

You don't have to forget something to put it down.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Kalisan Pink Blush

Monday, August 24, 2026

August 24 - Fear of Snakes

Fears you develop as a child are often rooted in tolerable insanity.  

Thirty seconds earlier I had been crashing through the woods with the complete confidence of an eight year old idiot.

I was halfway over a fallen log when I caught sight of a coiled snake on the other side.

My body convulsed backwards like it had been yanked back with a cord, and I reversed direction to sprint towards safety.

... because NOW there were snakes everywhere.

I couldn't see any of them, obviously. That's how they work.


This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Kalisan Pink Blush

Sunday, August 23, 2026

August 23 - Kalisan Pink Blush

I'm making you a coat of pink cashmere
You got to know how I feel about you
How I always want you near

~ Prince - Pink Cashmere

Kalisan Pink Blush is one in the "flesh" colors I looked into as a replacement for my beloved Qualatex Blush, but the color is actually a bit lighter for a skin tone.

The balloon texture is fantastic.  I typically associate Kalisan balloons with being fairly stiff, so perhaps I'm just enthusiastic that these were hardy without being too firm.  (I still don't think I could inflate any Kalisan by mouth.)

Overall impression of the color though?  Not the new king.

It's very light on the blushiness spectrum.  Barely embarrassed, really.



Other color day balloons:



Friday, August 21, 2026

August 21 - Dolphin

"There's nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you've been missing the whole point of the ocean."

~ Dave Barry

This week I was doing my homework, watching Dave's weekly free twisting jubilee when he made a dolphin.  

He built a larger dolphin than he usually does, saying that he likes to make things bigger for the camera.  It makes sense.

I tried to build the original size.

So - for clarity, the size of a dolphin only matters if you're on camera.

 ... or if you're a hungry orca.

 ... or you're shopping for an aquarium.

 ... or if you're Jon-Eric Sullivan.

 ... or if you're choosing the mesh size for a tuna net.

 ... or if one jumped into your kayak.

You know, there are a surprising number of situations where this actually matters ...


(view other dolphin)

Other balloons inspired by Dave Brenn: