August 17 - Cedric the Small

MONTESSORI SCHOOL OF RIVERMARK
FIELD TRIP PERMISSION SLIP

Name: ____CEDRIC THE SMALL____________________

Teacher: ____MRS. WILLOW_________________________

Destination: ____MT. CINDERPEAK______________________

Purpose: ____SLAY DRAGON_________________________

Bringing Maiden?
 ☐ yes   ☑ no   ☐ I AM the maiden

Next of Kin: ____FREDRIC THE TALL____________________

Lunch Provided?   
☐ yes   ☑ no

Known Allergies: __FIRE____________________________

Extra Class Credit: _PHYSICAL ED._______________

Parent/Guardian Signature:

_____MY DAD_HEDRICK HALL__________________

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Tuftex Rockstar

August 16 - Tuftex Rockstar

They'll get you anything with that evil smile
Everybody's got a drug dealer on speed dial, well
Hey, hey, I wanna be a Rockstar

~ Nickelback - Rockstar

Tuftex Rockstar balloons are bad.   Like the original bad, before it became cool.  

Rockstar isn't a color last I checked, and honestly 'pink chrome'?   Be better, Tuftex.  Be - better.

I don't want to be "that guy", but these balloons are lousy to inflate and annoying to twist.  The Bret Michaels of balloons.   They also have that "chrome effect" of puffing up to a size, but losing elasticity like a pair of over starched underwear.

I was happy to be done with these and will avoid in the future.

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Other color day balloons:

August 14 - Gorillas

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

~ Charles Darwin

Today was obviously inspired by yesterday's gorillas.

Geo balloons have been out of print for a while now, which has unfortunately made a number of older specialty balloon tutorials difficult to reproduce as originally taught.  Matt Falloon used them in quite a few of his designs.

So today's exercise was more of  a check-in that this is still viable.

As it turns out, there wasn't actually that much to reconfrabulate (technical term).

(view other gorilla)

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Other balloons by or inspired by Matt Falloon:

August 13 - Gorilla

"Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep."

~ Clive Barker

I have a dentist named Dr. Cheek.  I sometimes wonder if he was fated to be a dentist with a name like that.

I think the same think about Matt Falloon and balloons.

Falloon, as his gym teacher used to call him, is an amazing craftsperson, artist, and all-around cool guy.  

And attempting some of his designs was like trying to solve the Lament Configuration.

Good pain.  

Thinkback: April 4, 2016.

(view other gorillas)

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Other balloons by or inspired by Matt Falloon:

August 12 - Monarch Butterfly

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

~ Robert Collier

I'm playing around again with the ideas behind the Isopresso butterfly and thought to try a monarch.

I like how the upper wing turned out, but the curve on the lower wing probably needs another attempt or two.   I considered using a bunch of puff inflates to outline the wings, but that felt like too much when it was already not sitting right.

I'm okay with this being where I got today.

Tomorrow gets to start from here.

(view other butterfly)

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Other balloons by or inspired by Isopresso:

August 11 - Coffee Dawg

"Hell is - other people!"

~ Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit

Sartre was not simply saying other people were awful.

He was talking about how being observed by others changes the way we see ourselves.

Imagine you are alone in an elevator.  You're not particularly thinking about anything - just leaning against the wall, picking at the crumbs on your shirt, quietly humming the  song that's stuck in your head.  Whatever.  Being you.

Then the doors open and someone steps in.

Nothing about you has physically changed, but now there is another point of view in the room.  You become aware of yourself as something "viewed".  Do I acknowledge them?  Are they staring? Am I staring?  Well where should I look?  Why am I holding my hands like this?  

This is why we vertical commuters have collectively agreed upon the upward number gaze.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Celetex Coffee

August 10 - The Harvest Dancer

Mushrooms don't grow simply because of the rain.

Every autumn, when the rains have softened the earth, the Harvest Dancer returns.

With each pirouette, hidden threads beneath the soil awaken. Tiny caps push through the forest floor in widening circles.

Graceful steps coax clusters of mushrooms up through the moss, as if called to the dance in its wake.

By dawn, the Harvest Dancer has vanished without leaving a footprint, while the forest floor bears the only proof of the celebration.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Celetex Coffee