August 31 - Gemar Purple

I only wanted to see you
Laughing in the purple rain

~ Purple Rain - Prince

When I think "purple" for balloons, I think this dark end of the spectrum - violet color, and seeing the comparison chart, wow this one has a great rich color. Is there such thing as a royal purple?  If so, this must be it.  

The balloons have a great feel, super spongey all the right ways, 

I made the usual suspects, but of course I had to make the unusual suspect as well.   What is Grimace even supposed to be?  Let's look together ... to the wiki! 

Grimace started as a four armed evil shake stealing villain and was rebranded and colored purple to be "the embodiment of a milkshake's taste"....  hmmm, arguably a pretty glorious heel turn marketing pivot.   

Overall assessment of Gemar Purple, I like them a lot - a great purple-y look, great purple-y feel, great purple-y blob.  

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Other "color day" balloons:

August 30 - Tiny Rose

Send her my love, memories remain
Send her my love, roses never fade

~ Send Her My Love - Journey

I was looking through some PDFs I have meant to work my way through and found "Balloons that Bloom" by Twistina.

Christine Belcher puts an incredible amount of detail into showing a good variety of unique latex flowers, but I've been a bit intimidated to work past this tiny rose.

But a tiny rose is a start, not sure where we will end up at.  

(view other flowers)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Twistina:

August 29 - Darry Potter

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."

~ Professor McGonagall (Sorcerer's Stone)

Gryffindor, if you're brave and noble.

Slytherin, if you're ambitious and cunning.

Ravenclaw, if you're brilliant and studious.

Hufflepuff, if you're into chocolate and big floofy pillows.

... I'm good with my choice. 

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Professor Darren Mortibus taught us these Harry Potter inspired young lads in one of his classes this Bling Bling Jam.   The cartoonish head has a great shape, and I could see this body/jacket style used in a bunch of ways as well.   He didn't draw any faces at the time, but I kind of like the abstract head since it has enough detail.

I was going for "polyjuice'd pig", but now that I look at the images I can't unsee Big Hero 6 flexing.   .. or maybe I just don't want to unsee.

(view other Harry Potter balloons)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Darren Mortiboy:

August 28 - Pac-man

"Waka Waka Waka!"

~ Pac-man ... or Fozzie?

I had Pac-man Fever.

I had a book that showed me the patterns for the early fruit levels, all the way up to the key levels.   Then it had patterns for the 9th key level and beyond.

It wasn't a complete clear, the patterns showed how to eat all the dots except for the four power-ups in the corners, which it assumed you would be able to do yourself.

... ummmmm, I need another quarter.

August 27 - Oompa Loompa

What do you get from a glut of IG
A pain in the neck and an IQ of three
Why don't you try simply reading a book
Or could you just not bear to look
You'll get no..
  You'll get no..
    You'll get no..
      You'll get no..
        You'll get no ad reels.

~ Oompa Loompa Song (modernized)

I typically don't like reboots, and I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to the Johnny Depp version of Willie Wonka, but it was a surprisingly great heartfelt re-imagination.

It was with this same hopefulness that I went to watch the most recent one which was ... some sort of candy factory war thing?

This felt like Hollywood was throwing together a quick trashy meal.  "What do we have in the fridge, Wonka License Leftovers?  Okay .. take the Diagon Alley set from Harry Potter, fry it up and we'll serve it with a glass of Chalamet - and can someone tell ChatGPT we need another script?"

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This was another example using Twistin' Sam's "Getting Over Overalls" class from Bling Bling Jam this year - he showed this Oompa head, I modified the body a bit as I went, but I do like the original chubby baby look as well.    

(view other Ooompa Loompa)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Twistin' Sam DS:

August 26 - Saxophone

Bom-bom-bom-ba-da-baaaaa!
Bum-bum-bom-ba-da-daaaaaaaa...
Bom-bum-bum-bada-buhhhh-buhhhhh-bah-buh.
Bom-bum bum bada dadaduh da-dadaduh da-daduhduhduhduh...

Way down here down in Baker Street.
Hmmm ... .mmm mmooor ...on your feet.
Mmmmmm ground mmmhmmmm around ...
mmmmhhhmmmm about everything.

When you wake up it's a new morning ...
The sun is shinin' it's a new morning.
Your nohmmm, go mohmmm oooooon.

Bom-bom-bom-ba-da-baaaaa!
Bum-bum-bom-ba-da-daaaaaaaa...

~ Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
   (lyrics as sung by me)

I saw an image of a saxophone similar to this on Pintrest but wasn't able to find anyone in a reverse image search to give original credit.  (If anyone knows who to credit with this or anything I haven't credited in previous posts, please list them!)

The saxophone has a reputation for being a sexy instrument for some reason ... when I close my eyes and think about the sound it makes, I hear 'conversational goose'.  

(view other musical balloons)

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August 25 - Baunnies

Alice: "How long is forever?"
White Rabbit: "Sometimes, just one second."

~ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Bling Bling had an interesting set-up in their jam room - instead of a sponsor, they had 3 balloon companies with their wares set out in front of them and All-American Balloons set up right in the middle of it all.

Ignoring the fact that there was an actual vendor in the jam room, the fact that each of the tables had a representative at them made me feel like I was ... sampling product rather than playing?

I can't simply "use" the balloon, I have to consider it. Note the yellowness of the color, the texture - the pressure, the length. Stare at it like a woodcarver trying to see the little wooden boy inside. THEN twist.  Its way too many steps for one prone to overanalyze things...

These bunnies were something that the always amazing Dennis Bauyon threw together in the Bling Bling jam room, two-balloons only if you practice!  (or if you're been saving your scraps like you should be!)

 

(view other bunnies)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Dennis Bauyon:

August 24 - Gemar Mocha

Gitchi-gitchi, ya-ya, da-da
Gitchi-gitchi, ya-ya, here
Mocha chocolata, ya-ya
Creole Lady Marmalade

~ Lady Marmalade

Digging through some other browns, I've had this bag of mocha for a while.  The color is fairly close to the old Qualatex mocha, but I had a bit of a frustrating time working with these.

I could tell on initial inflation they had aged poorly, like they were inflating fully stretched out.  I might have given up completely had I not been chuckling to myself about making that big Brown E first.

It was on me to use them, complaining about them not standing up to the travails of time would feel hypocritical at this point in my life.

Overall assessment of Gemar Mocha - I'll give them pass on the fragile because of the box of ignore I stuffed them in for so long.  Gemar has been fairly consistent on the feel of their balloons overall.  In a blind test it's the best looking mid-brown like this (chart on blog).

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Other "color day" balloons:

August 23 - Grapes

"When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become."

~ Henri Nouwen

These grapes were a design shown on the Isopresso channel, one of his 'beginner' series.

Honestly, this is a great beginner balloon.  Making twenty similar sized bubble grapes smooshed together like this feels like I'm practicing musical scales - or I'm doing a good workout at the gym thinking about the process.  I'm sculpting for the future if not for today.

They're probably not ripe anyways...

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso:

August 22 - Baby Hearts

'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart
From this day on
Now and forever more

~ You'll Be In My Heart (Tarzan)
    Phil Collins (1999)

This baby heart technique is something I remembered learning ages ago, but a lot of techniques have little nuances to them - how tight you make certain things, etc. I feel like a baby one balloon heart is one of those techniques that I should keep fresh and get some reps in to practice making them great.

Antonio Bécares has a PDF that teaches it on his website (globosaltea.com) - which feels a bit retro at this point. But it fits, like a sweet fedora and a glass of red wine in an outdoor cafe. This one's good, not a lot of words but a ton of images.
(view other hearts)

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Other balloons by and inspired by Antonio Bécares:

August 21 - Ugg Boot

"Ugh, as if!"

~ Alicia Silversone - Clueless (1995)

This is just a reskinning of a Santa shoe/winter boot design.  

"Reskinning" is a modern and socially accepted tech word, anyone who has played Fortnite or used Winamp knows it.

But when you're talking about replacing an actual something with leather, I suppose you are being literal ... 

... and have the lambs stopped bleating, Clarice? 

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This uses a bit of that Tuftex Cocoa from last weekend's color post, but since it's a separate design from the Isopresso channel, it felt worthy to stand (heheh, that one's for me) on it's own.  A fun build actually, and you can see the difference in color - that 160 is Sempertex coffee.

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Other balloons by and inspired by Isopresso: