July 31 - Nao's Bird

~ Jeff Buckley - Bluebird Blues

I think I might be the perfect person to eat dinner with celebrities.

Let me explain, I get it in my head that people have probably been hounding them all day, and they want to eat in peace.  I might catch an eye and smile politely, but unless you came and sat next to me I would keep to myself.

Nao Osaka is a celebrity to me, he is so skilled that I don't feel worthy of wasting his time, like asking Jimi Hendrix to teach you how to play one of his songs.  It took 3 days for me to approach and mumble "thanks, I .. you have are cool" or something to that effect.  So I'm sure I look like a crazy person to him.  He seemed like the nicest guy, I saw him in the jam room a few times already in conversation/teaching with a number of people - so yeah ... I smiled and melted into the wall.  I'm such a dork.

He taught two classes at Bling Bling Jam, his fish and a crab. I also heard a few people were able to learn his bird in the jam room.  I found a picture online of his and thought I would try to copy it. I have to confess, it feels great - like solving a balloon Rubix Cube. But .. in some ways, I still have those bluebird blues ...

Somewhere over the rainbow ...	青い鳥
Follow me to the hobbits!

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Other posts with Nao Osaka designs:


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July 30 - Bling Bling Pigs

"Everyone wins at Bling Bling Jam!"

 ~ Steve Klein

Purple and I have returned from Las Vegas with our fingers aching but our latex energy renewed.  Bling Bling Jam was awesome, and I got to meet some of my balloon heroes as well as discover a few more, but probably best of all - I got to reconnect with my amazing balloon friends.

Steve Klein and his crew of helpers, vendors and teachers put together an amazing event; but the heartbeat of any convention is the people.  (The complete opposite of every tech conference I have been to.)

I will resist the temptation of going into details on the various instructors in order to save that for the upcoming days blog entries.  Suffice it to say, they were each and all - fantastic.  JJ, David, Aaron, Jan, Eve, Silvia, Addi, Pip, Tony, Nathalie, Patrick, Nick, Diane, Scott, Brian, Paul - and everyone in the jam room who was so willing to share, THANK YOU!

While not in class, or working on something else, I figured I would try building a few purple pigs. I'm giving my fingers some well deserved rest today and showing those. I really was just playing, and I don't have the best staged pictures as well as excuse excuse and excuse for them not being better.  Also missing from this collection is are a few that didn't make it back to the room because people in the casino were so excited to have them, and that just makes me glow.

I told the artist that drew my caricature he had free reign to do what he wanted, so he decided to make it glorious.

My plane left at 12:30am last night, I might have slept - but it felt like I just sat up and closed my eyes for 5 hours.  I can barely think, I'm just going to post pictures and let my brain curl itself into a ball and rest in the corner.

Eric was making some amazing looking sweet cheeks, I had to throw this in (lopsided cheek .. le sigh...)
When it came time to tear down everything, one of the UC Santa Cruz students wanted this. :) <3	FuDD's was a member of the Night's Watch, it was awesome to be "off schedule" and wake early enough to hang out.
I think I'm going to make a pig of myself ...

July 29 - Longhorn Skull

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a
thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is!
~ Hamlet

This skull is a creation of Pieter Van Engen, from his DVD Balloon Art #2. 

Pieter frequently contributes to Balloon Magic Magazine, and I have enjoyed his airplane video from the Frequent Flyer's project, but this is the first time I've used one of his DVDs and it's fantastic.

A few of the designs on this are meant to be paired with others on the DVD.  For example this one would look great with the Pieter's vulture perched on top of it.  This is the last of the balloons that I have set to go while I am at Bling Bling Jam, and it's getting late and I have to get up at 3:45 AM to get to the airport - so I decided to explore building it a few ways rather than spend the extra time setting up a scene.

No-body has been here for years...	Hooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk! (Big horn?  .... it's late ...)
This is a bonafied longhorn skull!

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Other posts with Pieter's designs:


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July 28 - Shweet Sheep

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

~ Alexander the Great

This is the final day of Bling Bling Jam, but I have one more post set to go because I'll be getting back late tomorrow.  I'm writing this the night before I'm leaving, so I hope I've learned a bunch of new fun things to share when I get back!

This sheep is another from the Eric Weinstein Sweet Cheeks collection.  This is one of my favorites of the series, I thought the face looked a lot like Shaun the Sheep, so I tried making them with actual legs instead of just feet - and I love it with legs.  I kind of want to go try the others with more leg.

Short Cheeks	Ewe mad, bro?
N-n-n-no ... I d-d-d-on't have any more w-w-w-wool, thank you!	All's wool that ends wool..
I see ewe naked!

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Other posts with Eric's designs:


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July 27 - Princess Aurora

For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
At whose approach ghosts,
wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards.
   ~ William Shakespeare
    A Midsummer Night's Dream

Princess Aurora is Briar Rose's evolved form.  Shown here as another cutie doll and wrist wearable by the amazing Shana Brenion.

Princess Aurora is probably the least known of the Disney princesses.  Everyone knows her by the name of the movie, Sleeping Beauty.  That must get frustrating ... like George Takei being called "Sulu" everywhere he goes.  It also must be tough to get a good night's sleep without someone trying to wake you with a sloppy kiss (again, much like George Takei.).

The doll and disembodied head were again built earlier in a flurry of cutie doll practice earlier.  I tried recreating Aurora using a basic princess design for this post.  The skirt area is based on a quick princess design Dustin Query showed in a webinar - I toyed around with a couple different ways of putting the chest area together using my notes from that webinar, but ended up making way too bulky of a midsection and weird skinny arms (like William Shatner).

I also tried using the cutie head style for the body, the hair looks off.  I think I prefer the vertical princess face style I used on Cinderella on a taller body like this.

My name is not Sleeping!	Going through her awkward phase...
I'm AWAKE!  Sheesh...

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Other posts with Shana's designs:	Other Disney designs:
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July 26 - White Chicks

How much would you pay to NOT have to watch this movie? 

White Chicks is actually another in the Sweet Cheeks line by Eric Weinstein.

The name is begging to be teased, but the design is very cute. ("Hush Fifi!  Don't bark at the nice man!") Eric really is the master of these chubby cheek designs, they're very quick to make and really are smooshy-cool. ("Have you like seen my other yoga pants?") Despite the name, I built a brown one to show it could work well with any color. ("I'll have a non-fat no-whip decaf machiato tall with a dash of cinnamon in a grande cup.  Thaaaaaaaaanks.")

These are definitely some hot chicks!

Beethoven, Beethoven, Beethoven	Bach, Bach, Bach
Just let it go, we crossed - it's over, quit questioning motive!
They lost their friends in Nom.  Nom nom nom.

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Other posts with Eric's designs:


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July 25 - Ladybug

A small speckled visitor
Wearing a crimson cape
Brighter than a cherry
Smaller than a grape
A polka-dotted someone
Walking on my wall
A black-hooded lady
In a scarlet shawl.

 ~ Joan Walsh Anglund

I know I've said it before, but Helen Budinger is one of my most favorite people in all of balloon-dom. I would challenge you to choose any day this year, she was there being supportive, and it was she who first challenged and inspired me to share what I thought were my woefully inadequate balloons.

When we met at the Florida Super Jam in 2015, I was feeling nervous about having entertaining things to twist at my one gig, she shared her ladybug design.  Helen couldn't make it to Bling Bling Jam this year - so I saved this post for today, so you're here in our hearts!

I do very little twisting for people or parties, but I know I've made so many ladybugs since then that I've had to re-order these polka dot prints, so there have been at least 100!

Once again these are pictures from a little while ago, and I was experimenting with not having a painted white eye highlight while taking the picture.  It's not right, they stare directly into your soul like that.

A lovliness of ladybugs (source)	Ladybug Ladybug, fly away home!
It's a polka party!

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Other posts with Helen's designs:


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July 24 - Cheeky Dogs

“I believe in integrity. Dogs have it. Humans are sometimes lacking it.”

~ Cesar Millan

This marks the first day Purple and I will be away at Bling Bling Jam. I expect since you're reading this that things have been set up correctly to post while we are gone. I should be able to monitor things remotely, but I don't imagine having much time to pontificate, so I'm having a plentiful portion of pertinent pontification presently. Please pardon the poor puns, patchy prose, preposterous postulations and purile parodies, people. Peace out!

These dogs are from the most recent Eric Weinstein collection, Sweet Cheeks.

I have been a huge fan of Eric's chubby cheek designs from the get go, so I enjoy seeing all that you can create from it.  I've always thought of these as a "quick version" of his earlier PDFs, which they are - but they somewhat of a refinement of the process as well.  

These were left with "Take Me" cards at a local shop.

Mrs. Hubbard actually had 206 bones ...	Oh where, oh where, will this little dog go? Oh where, oh where will he be?
Postus Interruptus --- Dog Selfie!
He says his name-o is *clap* *clap* *clap* G-O?

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Other posts with Eric's designs:


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July 23 - Cinderella

Salaga-doola, menchika-boola, Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
Put them together, and what have you got?
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
Salaga-doola, menchika-boola, Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
It will do magic, believe it or not,
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
Now, "Salagadoola" means, "A-Menchika-boola-roo,"
but the the thingamabob, that does the job,
is "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo."

~ Fairy Godmother

This time I did some proper research.  Cinderella is the princess that saved Disney.

The company was millions of dollars in debt, if this movie had been a flop they would have gone out of business and how different would the world be today?! It was their biggest hit in 13 years.  It allowed them to create their own distribution company instead of using RKO, finance their next several films, launch a successful television production and build the Disneyland theme park.

No wonder her castle is the iconic symbol of Disney!

Some other interested facts I discovered when reading about her history -- Cinderella has a bunch of European versions, but the one Walt chose originates as a French fable, which is why you can see her topiary at the Epcot French Pavillion. Her name is based on the French word Centrillon, or "little ash girl" - and at 19 she is the oldest Disney princess.  ... wait what?  ..

Once again, the doll and the wrist wearable are from the Cutie Doll series from Shana Brenion. Truthfully those two were built much earlier this year, but I'm trying to make up some time since I'll be out of town to the Bling Bling Jam for a number of days.  I rebuilt a princess version for this post using the princess design that Nathalie, Miss Ballooniverse, shows us on Tony Twists Real World WOW DVD #1.  I went a little wild with the hair, but I think it ended up nicely messy.

After midnight I turn into a rubber band	"A dream is a wish your heart makes." Apparently my heart wishes I at school about about to take a test I haven't studied for, and I've forgotten to wear pants.
Me and the fellas are auditioning for the bibbidy crew.

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Other posts with Shana's designs:	Other Tony designs:

July 22 - Biplane

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your stewardess speaking... We regret any inconvenience the sudden cabin movement might have caused, this is due to periodic air pockets we encountered, there's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your flight... By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

~ Airplane!

I have oftentimes confessed that I don't know my balloon history.  David Grist is man referred to with great reverence and I had no idea who he was.  So when I saw his DVDs were just recently provided as digital downloads, I figured I would give him a watch.

Wow!

I'll say it again.  Wow!

This guy was obviously a forerunner to the amazing balloons we see today.  I feel like I just learned who Bob Dylan was.

This biplane takes a decent amount of time to weave, but the results are amazing.  I only built one, but I can imagine how I would modify it to make a number of styles of planes (not just biplanes).

We have clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?	I am serious!  And don't call me Shirley!
The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now now... Here's looking at you, kid.

July 21 - Squirrel

Rocky: And now...
Bullwinkle: Hey, Rocky!
Bullwinkle: Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat.
Rocky: Again?
Purple Pig: SQUEEEAAL!
Bullwinkle: Oops .. wrong hat.

Andrew McDonald sounds like he would be a pretty cool guy.  I only say it this way because I've listened to his voice for hours on end as the host of The Jam Room Podcast, my favorite listening material when twisting balloons.  I love hearing twister origin stories and anecdotes, there is a Pavlovian effect, I want to build things!

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Edit:
Andrew McDonald makes the MacPump balloon pump.  Shame on me for mooshing these guys together in my head.   Mea culpa, I think this might qualify me for a job as a speechwriter though...  Sorry Andrew, love the squirrel!  Sorry Andrew, love the show!
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When I was looking through some older Balloon Magic Magazines (#56) and saw he contributed to the designs, I knew I had to try one.  This is his squirrel which was a competition winner at Twist & Shout in 2007.

There is nothing too complicated with this form, it all comes together fairly easily. The way he has the cheeks aligned add to the smile, so they need to be massaged into "happy" shape, the first build initially looked pretty mad.

I introduced my first build to the backyard squirrels to establish contact and set up initial trade negotiations.

Sag meinen Namen! (link)	I, for one, welcome our new latex overlord.
He swims on his back to keeps his nuts dry.