September 17 - Caterpillar Bubble Buddy

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."

~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Inside the chrysalis, its whole body melts into a bug soup.  A few tiny discs survive that build themselves into a butterfly.

It sounds impossible, it sounds like science fiction.

But it's caterpillar puberty.

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Just a doodle when playing with the Balloon Brothers Bubble Buddy face/body design.  Using white gives a bit of a cartoonish look to the head, this might have worked well sitting up as kind of a Jiminy Cricket.

(view other caterpillar)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

Septermber 16 - Bubble Buddy Seal

"If the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air."

~ Chief Seattle

Harp seals start out as little fluffy marshmallows, but their name actually comes from how they look after they outgrow this whitecoat pup stage we all know them for.

As adults, their fur changes to a silvery gray, and a typical fur pattern has darker patches wrap over their shoulders and down their sides, forming an elongated C - like the neck and pillar of a harp.   

I feel like they kind of look like a pair of dark wings, I would have gone with "blubber dragon".

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This seal is using the Bubble Buddy form from the Balloon Brothers instructions.  I think the front flippers gave good elevation to the head.

(view other seal)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

September 15 - Lion Bubble Buddy

"The holder of authority is like the rider on a lion - he is envied for his position, but he well knows his position."

~ Ali ibn Abi Talib

English has narrowed the meaning of "jungle" over time to be a dense tropical forest.  But it was originally used in reference any wilderness or uncultivated lands.

Also, "King of the Jungle" sounds a lot more regal than "King of the Scrublands".

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Here is another Bubble Buddy example from the Balloon Brothers, this oversized lions mane works well for the head, and using a wider body base helps balance out the body.

(view other lions)

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Other balloons by and inspired by The Balloon Brothers:

September 14 - Celetex Light Purple

Yeah! Purple haze all in my eyes
Don't know if it's day or night.

~ Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix

These balloons are frustrating - Celetex gave me a new pet peeve.

Staring with the positives. Celetex light purple has a great color, nicely opaque, the balloons have a good feel and a nicely elastic. They are so close.

.. but. They don't hold friction well. It's simply maddening to have earlier pinch twists keep "fwip fwip fwip'ing" themselves loose. Trying to get all of those balloons in the woven circle/heart to sit correctly was ... an episode.

Overall impression of Celetex Light Purple, I had three balloons left and instead of putting them into my random bundle, I put them in the garbage. Great color but unusable except by a monk guided by inner peace. 

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Other "color day" balloons:

September 13 - Bear Bubble Buddy

"If you're not a little afraid of a bear, you probably shouldn't be out there."

~ Bruce Smith

I don't typically watch a nature cam, I'll watch a highlights reel instead.  The prospect of tuning into a nest to see if maybe something is there doesn't compel me.

That was before I saw the National Park Service bear cams set up at Brook Falls in Alaska.  Multiple camera angles watch, where the bears are lazily catching the salmon that are shooting out of the river. 

Chat is into it too.  "Hey is that #86?  Nice to see he's back this year"  "no no that's #110, check the grey left ear, but #86 was around earlier".  

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This is a Bubble Buddy taught in the Balloon Brothers download for the concept.  I struggled a bit with this one, the chubby body made it seem like I was constantly re-adjusting the face to look up.

(view other bears)

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Other balloons by and inspired by The Balloon Brothers:

September 12 - Bunny Bubble Buddy

"It is a happiness to wonder; it is a happiness to dream."

~ Edgar Allan Poe

I just learned that rabbits get a special kind of zoomies - called "binkies".

It's when a bunny is so ridiculously happy that it launches itself into the air and does a little mid-leap spazz-out that it just can't contain.

Chaotic joy.

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This is another one of the designs taught by the Balloon Brothers in their Bubble Buddy assortment, the larger feet help give a little space to lift the head.

(view other bunnies)

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Other balloons by and inspired by The Balloon Brothers:

September 11 - Fox Bubble Buddy

"The fox changes his fur but not his habits."

~ Proverb

What does the fox say? ..

... did we ever get the answer?

I suppose while I'm asking, was it live or was it Memorex?    

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This fox design is another showcasing the Bubble Buddy design from the Balloon Brothers collection.

I spent some extra care trying to get the head attachment angled better this time, but still any head-on pictures are simple "all face".

(view other fox)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

September 10 - Husky Bubble Buddy

"Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place with curators in museums; others we take for walks."

~ Roger Caras

Husky dogs have a vibe.  I'm into it.

The ancient soulful eyes of a wolf, a powerful bloodline of arctic survival, and a scream-song at 3AM because 'noise'.

When it comes down to it, I'm definitely more of a Labrador.

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Bubble Buddy is one of the balloon designs from the Balloon Brothers collection and this Husky is used to show the main concept.  They have a 'tsum-tsum' look to them, giant head on a loaf-of-bread body.

The way the head attaches forces a low profile.  You can angle the head into a kind of sitting or begging pose, but it didn't really photograph well.  This is all about the giant face, it's meant to be held.

(view other dogs)

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Other balloons by and inspired by the Balloon Brothers:

September 9 - Crysanthemum

"Why don't you get a haircut? You look like a chrysanthemum."

~ P.G. Wodehouse

Usually learning something makes you feel a little smarter.

The exception to this is when you learn something so simple that you did not realize until that very point.

I was today years old when I learned that mums ... are chrysanthemums.  For some reason I never made the connection and just assumed it was a different type of flower.

Next I'll find out you can call my plate of taterno totomasticatius "tater tots" or something.
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This chrysanthemum design is one taught by Isopresso in the member section, kind of a "bloomin' onion" of petals in this one.

(view other flowers)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

September 8 - Owls

"The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders at our quaint spirits."

~ William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hearing an owl is like having hiccups.

I'll explain. 

There is a special thrill in hearing an owl, distinct from all other chattering/singing birds.  But there is a point in the silence that follows where you ponder the odd sound you just heard.  Waiting in cautious anticipation for proof that it's still there, kind of maybe wanting to hear a good loud one, wondering if that was the las... *HOOT!*  (-cup!)   🦉💕

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Sergey Loginov shared how he creates a one+ balloon owl.  I had almost forgotten how precise and well done his videos are, like a math professor showing some new trick with numbers.

(view other owls)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Sergey Loginov:

September 7 - Gemar Ivory

With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring

~ Jolene - Dolly Parton

Yas Queen!

Ivory is a color that I rarely use, even for things that are ivory colored, unless there is a good enough reason to have multiple colors of white on something - these get left in the kit.  So it's no wonder I would have a bag of these untouched for use on color day.

They have just a slight transparency to them that I don't really want in a balloon unless I intentionally want it in a balloon, and honestly the color is a bit 'bleh' by itself - a dirty yellowish white.  I ended up using the button technique to try and make one of the chess pieces that Juho Hokkanen demonstrated at Twist & Shout this year with most of these.

Overall impression of Gemar Ivory - not a big fan of the color nor the ever-so-slight transparency, but the balloons handled well despite "5 years locked away".

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Other "color day" balloons:

September 6 - Trypanohyncha Ocellus

"Game over, man! Game over!"

~ Hudson - Aliens (1986)

It's called Alien Earth - and shame on me for assuming it would be about the original Xenomorph because certainly one of the stand out creatures in the show has been this little guy (nicknamed 'the Eye Midge').

Trypanohyncha Ocellus is a hyper-intelligent alien cephalopod that can use it's limbs to ... ... replace it's hosts eye with its own body.   In doing so it takes complete control of their circulatory systems and pilots the corpse like a marionette.

Move over Giger, make way for Eye-ger!

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Other aliens: