May 31 - Geo Pig

Little Geo is a friend of mine
We get some money and we buy a cheap wine
Sit on the corner and have a holiday
Hide the bottle when the cop goes by

~ Billy Joel Half a Mile Away

This one is a bit bizarre.  Even though geos are a balloon type and not truly a concept, I still wanted to try a purple pig version as well.  The early results were a bit freaky, like goofy pop art as I used spare balloons in my first attempts.  I figured I might as well include them as part of the process.

The problem with building something in lilac geo is that geos are exclusively Qualatex and I really prefer Betallatex lilac.  The difference in colors is painfully obvious.  It was when I was building the dark purple version that it occurred to make a majority of him out of geos - so I then made the lilac version.  It's eleven total - I thought about making his legs and arms out of puff-inflated stacked geos, but I'm just not that crazy.

This is the last geo based design I'm going to explore for now, I didn't really have a plan when I started, but it's already the end of the month so I'm leaving a few more unmade.    I almost made it through those bonus bags of older geos, I played (and popped) a lot looking at different ways to distort or twist a different shape, but really they are an interesting and durable form as is.  They are a perfect base to mount a design on, they make things easy to attach to a headband or a candy cup, they can be weighted for table decorations, and they are probably the easiest flower or cake you could make.

---

Other posts specifying geos:

Show all

May 30 - Dinosaur

Some things start out big, and some things start out small, very small. But sometimes the smallest thing can make the biggest changes of all.

~ Dinosaur (2000) opening lines

Hervé Guyonnet is a newer balloon artist friend of mine from France.  I first met him in a Facebook group at the start of this year, he is on a 365-day balloon challenge.

His designs show off not only his skill as a balloon artist, but his creativity. As an example, his balloons for the challenge today was the Hindenberg crashing - before that was Alf I believe.  A month ago he started posting tutorials on his YouTube channel.  This dinosaur is currently the most recent (link) and uses a geo for the face, the perfect opportunity to try out one of his models!

Jeffrey Hayes was playing with this design and shared his version of a cow.  It's getting close to the end of this geo run, so I thought to include both designs in this one post.

Thanks guys!

---

Other posts specifying geos:

Show all

May 29 - Geo Turtle

See the turtle of enormous girth, on his shell he holds the earth. If you want to run and play, come along the beam today.

~ Stephen King The Dark Tower

This geo is from a couple of the designs shown in Juan Gonzales Extra Geo's PDF.

I'm still trying to use up the rest of these spare older white and green geos, so I was looking for green things to build.  The body was shown as the gator, but I wasn't really feeling the legs - they definitely work as a giveaway, but they don't allow for standing.  They poke out at an angle where the only pose you can use is sitting.

I added a shell and then changed the way the legs were mounted for the turtle.

---

Other posts specifying geos:

Show all

May 28 - Cupid

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

~ William Shakespeare

Another good use for geos, clouds.

This Cupid is one of the designs in Eric Weinstein's PDF Live Balloons Vol. 4 (link).  I've made this previously when I entered the Bling Bling Valentine contest last year.

This design speaks to something that Andrew Weaver brought to mind in a recent forum post, and that is "do you ever go back and binge watch old tutorials".  I enjoy and encourage it, there are things you probably miss if you are twisting while watching/reading.  When I first built this, I didn't notice he purposefully gave one arm a bend and kept the other straight to allow for bow usage.

Eric has actually been on fire recently with his new YouTube channel (link).  He has challenged himself to make 25 new designs in 25 days.  They are more of a quick linework style balloon, but Eric is an exceptional artist, and many of these designs are full of creativity - worthy of taking a look if you haven't yet.

---

Other designs by Eric:

---

Other geo designs:

Show all

May 27 - Pole Dancer

She can dance a Cajun rhythm
Jump like a Willys in four wheel drive
She's a summer love in the spring, fall and winter
She can make happy any man alive

Sugar magnolia
Ringin' that blue bell
Caught up in sunlight
Come on out singing
I'll walk you in the sunshine
Come on honey, come along with me

~ Grateful Dead Sugar Magnolia

I always exercise better in a class, the comradarie and the accountability really help me keep it going.  I joined a gym last October, but my wife has been going to the same pilates course for over six years.  The people who run her Pilates studio also run the Pole Play Fitness center and were having an open house celebration, so I made this dancer for the event.

The dancer is actually derivative of the new girl video (link) released by Tatyana DjeTa Lyashko.  This is the first of Tatyana's video instructions, and it's well produced.  Her PDFs are fantastic, but it's nice when you're learning distortion techniques to have that additional visual aid.

I always learn a lot from Tatyana's instructions, and the way she creates the arms and legs is fantastic and adaptable - but the way she weaves the top is probably the big win for me here.  I won't spoil it here but she does something simple in hindsight but so helpful that I know all my box weaves will benefit from it.

This also shows probably the main thing I've used geo's for in the past, as a base.  It gives a perfect anchor point to tie anything to the center, and you can easily weight them.

---

Other designs by Tatyana:

---

Other geo designs:

Show all

May 26 - Drag Racer

Jerry was a race car driver
22 years old
Had one too many cold beers one night
And wrapped himself around a telephone pole.

~ Primus Jerry Was a Race Car Driver

I knew I wouldn't be able to resist building this dragster when I saw it in Pascal Grooten's collection.

Once again he creates a work of art.  Similar to the spaceship yesterday, the foundation is a geo, and the basics of the form are fairly simple - but there are judy so many special techniques that Pascal uses to give interesting texture to an image, and he does so with confidence.

Now that I've spent the time trying to copy this, I can appreciate the fine detail Pascal puts into things. I'm still learning by experimenting, so it's taking a lot of iterations, and although I could get "something" that looks close, the more I can try and copy what he did, the more techniques I can have in my bag of tricks.  It took a good amount of play to get that engine block the way I wanted it, and don't get me started on those engine exhaust pipes - Pascal must have spent a good amount of time himself getting such fine details so perfectly aligned.

---

Other Pascal designs:

---

Other geo designs:

Show all

May 25 - Spaceships

I am Groot.

~ Groot

Pascal Grooten is a daunting balloon artist to try and emulate.  I think I have just about every balloon image he has ever published in an inspiration folder.  His designs are pure art, unique and imaginative, latex poetry if you will.  If you attempt to copy it and don't do it well, it just becomes bad poetry.

These designs are copied or derivative of his line of spacecraft, and since the main form for the smaller craft is a geo - a perfect thing for this month's creativity challenge.

My goal was to try channeling the style rather than just copying the designs directly, but my first two at least ended up being bad poetry.  Pascal uses a lot of advanced techniques to get unique shapes and accessorize his creations.   Today was pretty busy and the daily deadline approaches - so after building a couple to get used to the process, I did my best to copy his air scooter (above) and space age (in yellow) designs.

---

Other Pascal designs:

---

Other geo designs:

Show all

May 24 - Geo Squid

"You can't fool me Plankton. I listen to public radio!"

~ Squidward

This squid is another Flower Bud from the Matt Falloon collection (link).

This is another one that takes some good amount of smashing together, so it was fun to do battle with the emerald green to hone my skills.   I also finally finished the last lime green geos from the pack and realize why they have lasted so long.  The original bags of geos were 100 instead of the current 50.

I remember building this one back when I first got Matt's download, but I never posted on the blog ... I'm not sure why, let me see if I can ... found them! Okay, I'm including one that I built back then.  The purple octopus is from back in April of last year, and hearkens to time before I started going a little crazy with my image editing.

---

Other flowerbud designs:

Show all

May 23 - Geo Bronto

If I had a brontosaurus
I would name him Morris or Horace;
But if suddenly one day he had a lot of little brontosauri
I would change his name to Laurie.

~ Shel Silverstein If I Had a Brontosaurus

I have to say that some of the coolest things I have learned that use geo balloons are Matt Falloon's flowerbuds.

I built most of the designs he has tutorials for last year, but I noticed this brontosaurus hadn't been shown, and bonus that green is the ideal color.

I made a few versions using the emerald green to re-familiarize myself with the flowerbud form and get my bubble sizes right before trying it with the few remaining lime geos from my older stock.  Since the only emerald green balloons I own are these geos, I made due with a geo shaped head, which looks pretty decent if a bit large.

---

Other flowerbud designs:

Show all

May 22 - Geo Troll

Sandra’s seen a leprechaun,
Eddie touched a troll,
Laurie danced with witches once,
Charlie found some goblins gold.
Donald heard a mermaid sing,
Susy spied an elf,
But all the magic I have known
I've had to make myself.”
~ Shel Silverstein - Magic

I'm continuing my journey of playing with the multitude of ways you can use a geo balloon when I saw something that looked like a face, so I wandered down that road for a bit.  The basic shape is very close to the starter form in the geo frog/dinosaur flipped upside down.

I started with the toothless one below, and decided he needed to look angrier, so I built a few more with different teeth ideas.

I felt it needed more shape to the face and tried a couple ways to add a nose.  Using a sidewall bubble (which I had to use a sturdier color for after a couple emerald pops) changed the mouth into an OOO shape, which actually might work really well for a toothless little old man.  Using a raisin to attach an eyes/nose structure kept the face shape fairly well.  I added tusks.


This was all pretty much "free play" experimentation and it could probably have used a final form build, but I didn't start with any set of goal in mind.  I like the additional nose though I would put the raisin further down the face to make room for angry eyebrows.  I had an earlier version with longer tusks that I liked better as well - and I think the big foot body (similar to a Jeffrey Hayes monster body) works best.    

---

Other posts specifying geos:

Show all

May 21 - Geo Snail

Good travels at a snail's pace. Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires a long time.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Before Juan Gonzales was making videos, he made a couple PDFs that explored a bunch of different ways you might use a geo (link).  This snail is a bonus image included in his "Extra Geos II".  A geo makes a perfect snail shell, I tried adding something to the center section to give a rounder look, but I don't really like it as well as the unusual look of the plain.

I opened up the other bags of 7-year-old stock geos, the white seem perfectly normal, but the emerald green are off.  They seem .. thin(?) and smell terrible by comparison.  A number of them popped in my face while inflating and they don't seem to take the punishment of a distortion or sidewall bubble as well.

That said, I think it's actually pretty good practice to use them.  They force you to be much more careful and decisive.  Though it's a bit like eating mustard on your french fries -- it makes you really appreciate ketchup.

---

Other posts specifying geos:

Show all

May 20 - Geo Babies

Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart.

~ Winnie the Pooh

I was browsing images in the balloon forums recently when I stumbled across some images posted by ‎Rosaleen Burkholder.  Probably because of this recent geo-playing I've been doing, I recognized them as inverted geos.

Rosaleen does a great job at making these into cute little quick creations, yet they are probably the easiest balloon I've ever made, there is not one twist!  Yet still, being a geo it has an interesting abnormal shape, and the ears add to the effect. The only bit of struggle is that it's more difficult to draw on such an under-filled balloon as it tends to move with the sharpie.

Rosaleen credits Jeanine Von Essen Sharpen.  I have used a couple of her designs on this site already (link), so I did a little digging through her photo archives.  These are attributed to a mini-jam in San Jose around November 2012.  Jeanine does sell some PDFs on her website (link) but it's a bit hard to tell if these are currently part of any collection.

I'm now down to the last few of these extra green (and I still have bags of emerald green and whites!).  I guess I sort of stumbled into "geos" being the second balloon concept for May - I will need to go back through time and see if I can correctly label any previous geo based creations.  Though it's not a concept in itself, the unique balloon shape really gives an interesting workspace to create with.

---

Other posts specifying geos:

Show all