August 25 - Baby Picos

A baby will make
Love stronger
Days shorter
Nights longer
Bankroll smaller
Home happier
Clothes shabbier
the past forgotten
and the future
worth living for.

Here is the cold splash of reality.  As nice as the simple face is on these prints, it really is just a simple face - the real value added is the launching of the idea space.  The thrifty among us will realize that a bag of these prints is $12, while the same sized bag of blush or mocha rounds is less than half that.

Rachel Ripkin posted an extreme downsizing of the baby though and I wanted to try it out as well.

I made three, they got progressively smaller -- the first two are the basic form downsized, the last uses Matt Falloon's Pico techniques to get super tiny.

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Other babyface designs:

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March 25 - Pico Purple Pig

We would zig-zag our way
Through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain
Wondering which of the buggers to blame

And watching ... For pigs on the wing

~ Pink Floyd Pigs on the Wing I

Here is the final entry exploring Matt Falloon's Pico concept. The DVD (link) was well worth it, I'm glad I got a chance to play with the idea - Matt has a next level approach to things that is inspiring. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Every balloon concept I explore this year needs it's purple pig entry, so here is Pico Purple. It took a few tries to get something I was satisfied with. First I tried with nostrils in the nose, but that elongated the face too much. I then had a couple attempts similar to the fat faced pig, but I realized he still needed some sort of muzzle. I finally settled on what you see in the upper picture and made a purple version of that. I think the blush ended up the better of the two.

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Other Picos:


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March 24 - Picoteel

When birds burp, it must taste like bugs.

~ Bill Watterson

This is a Matt Falloon pico design from Balloon Magic Magazine #85, where he shows a couple designs from his Picos DVD (link) as well as this new one.  It's definitely more fun to learn these from his DVD, though the instructions are clear in the magazine, they lack Matt's goofy charm.

Picos are currently one of my favorite things to do with the random extra 160s that accumulate outside my organized rolls.  They are the perfect thing to build while you are in the car waiting in a parking lot waiting to pick up your kids from school or some event because you can make due with even a little scrap.

It's unfortunate that 160's don't keep inflated as well as the larger sized balloons, that's the one bummer - they typically do not last much more than a day or so without something getting weird or soft.

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Other Picos:


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March 23 - Little Lion

Hela hey mamela, hela hey mamela
Hela hey mamela, hela hey mamela

He lives in you, he lives in me
He watches over everything we see
Into the waters, into the truth
In your reflection, he lives in you

~ Lion King He Lives In You

This lion is one of the last couple of Matt Falloon's Picos I'll be doing. I really do love the challenge of doing them and they're fun to build.  They would be perfect for any sort of quick work situation, and truth told I'm probably spending more of my time playing with image programs than I am building balloons.

I thought a lion's mane would be another good use of the way Matt gets ears to fit and give an interesting shape to the bear. I ended up struggling a bit on the yellow lion to get them to pressure fit, but I think I like them even better on the inside.

The Purple of Life

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Other Picos:


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March 22 - Wittle Walrus

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

~ Lewis Carroll The Walrus and The Carpenter

I thought a walrus might be a fun thing to attempt with Matt Falloon's Pico concept (link).

It took a few attempts to get it small enough for me to consider it Pico, perhaps it's still Nano or Micro - but it's as small as I can get it without compromising more of the body. I like the smooshy shape of the muzzle in the final (mocha) form.

I do like the dark brown one a lot, and think the form might be well suited for a bigger sculpture.  I gave up the poofy chest and weave to make it smaller -  but I think I might be able to keep the poofy chest with a thin squishy balloon.  Also it might look good with a blush/peach-blush muzzle.

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Other Picos:


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March 21 - Pico Puppies

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.

~ Ben Williams

These puppies are based on an image I saw posted by Anthony Lena.

The giraffe I made is similar so I don't mean this in a bad way - though they are technically 'pico', they do lack that bit of pico-jazz soft-bubble stuff that many of Matt's designs have.  They are a micro-sized normal dog.

I haven't yet really gotten "off the page" as it were for using the Pico designs, I hope I am able to before I finish off this balloon concept!

Pico-lifford was an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it's obvious without a giant Emily Elizabeth sock next to it.

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Other Picos:


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March 20 - Pico Giraffe

All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it's full of your friends
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.

~ Roald Dahl The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

April the Giraffe still hasn't had her baby at the time of this blog post (link to live-cam), and I thought it would be interesting to try and make something notoriously so big - so small.

Things came together quite easily, a testament to how well Matt Falloon's Pico designs work (link).  I first made the orange and then the yellow to try and get the shape of his head a bit better.  I didn't change much from that (though I did try to make one even smaller...)

It occurs to me that I don't have anything to give perspective on how big this is.  To give myself some sanity while posing them for pictures, so it wouldn't fall over - I tucked a penny between the back legs -- I would say it's about 5 pennies high and 1.5 pennies wide.

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Other Picos:


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March 19 - Cannonball Flyer

When he got loaded, the human cannonball knew there were not many men of his caliber.

~ George Carlin

This Pico is actually from early last year when Matt Falloon participated in the Frequent Flyers project.

Frequent Flyers is a balloon DVD concept, championed by the indominatable Phileas Flash, designed to benefit WarChild.org.uk, an organization that provides support to children who's families and community have been torn apart by war. Matt's offering was a cannon that shot these little flyer guys.

There is a link on the right to all of my entries into the contest that they had to support the project.

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Other Picos:


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March 18 - Teensy Teddy

I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.

~ Sun Bear, Chippewa

I figured it would be good to have another look through Matt Falloon's Picos DVD (link) as a refresher, and realized I had skipped making his bear last year.

Matt once again shows his amazing deftness in making these to get such an interesting shape.  Pressure fitting, soft balloons and working with such tiny bubbles - it's inspiring to watch, he does a great job.

This one took a couple tries to get, and still I never got the nose to sit as well as Matt does.  Picos are probably one of the hardest things to recreate with any sort of accuracy...

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Other Picos:


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March 17 - St. Patrick Pico

May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

~ Irish Blessing

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's time for me to start trying to explore the next balloon concept, this time it's going to be Matt Falloon's Picos.

I really love Picos. ... or Me encanta Picos according to google translate. It's a brilliantly obvious concept in hindsight, making things as small as possible, and Matt has some great techniques to help bring out nice shapes. But in the end, it is practice, trial and error, and a bit of compromise that gets it done.

This design is an attempt to copy an image Sam Cremeen's posted recently. #InspiredbySam

One important thing to note about Picos is that since you're dealing with such a small form, size and air pressure are critical components.  I could make 10 and they would probably all be different until I dialed correctly on what I like.  While I'm practicing and don't really know, I end up with a good variance of features.

I made three total - the first one was rather experimental and misshapen, not worth showing here unless as an example of what not to do - I had to put it out of it's misery. The second one has beefy arms that needed to be tied down and I wasn't content with what was going on with his hat.  The third I gave a chubbier body to and perhaps too big of a beard, but I got the arms and hat the way I wanted them to be.

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Other Picos:


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December 24 - Pico Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads

~ Twas the Night Before Christmas

Matt Falloon is an brilliant innovator and creative genius, he reaches beyond the perceived limits and creates what he needs to realize his future vision. His balloon setup is somewhat of an Inspector Gadget of organization, he has used his 3D printer and other tools to great effect - not only making both an R2D2 and a BB8, but putting such details into them as distressing the metal structure for authenticity.

His balloon designs are no less creative. I've already worked through most of his Picos DVD in this blog (link), but recently he took a mini (pico?) world tour, visiting as guest instructor to a number of balloon conferences. It was in a montage of pictures that I saw an amazing Pico version of his Santa and I knew I had to try it.

Picos are one of my favorite things to do with those random bits of balloons and scraps that I tend to amass. It's the perfect concept to work with when you're waiting in the car to pick your kids up from dance or swim practice as it doesn't involve massive or even fully inflated balloons, it's precision details as oftentimes you are dealing with partially filled lower pressure bits that require more finesse than you could easily define by measurements. It's a bit of a trade-off - a larger balloon requires details that a Pico does not, but a Pico requires precision that a larger balloon doesn't. A pico with details -- well then that's pure gold.

Actually I'm more frightened if they have a dog ...

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Other posts with Matt's designs:


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November 19 - Pico Kitties

“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.”

~ Jim Davis

We go from gigantic turkey to a micro kitty.  These are the next designs from Matt Falloon's Picos DVD.

Picos are a fun challenge to get right.  You don't have the same flexibility as you might when making a larger size balloon.  One of the things you need to learn when twisting is that it's not only the size of a balloon, but it's the relative pressure you need to be in control of when you are creating things.  A tight 1" bubble that you pinch twist looks very different than a soft 1" bubble than you pinch twist.

When you are working with Picos, you are working with the smallest sized balloons making tiny adjustments - it's much less of an exact science and more of a "feel".  It actually forces you to twist the way I believe you are meant to - watch the video first, then attempt (rather than trying to twist along with the video).  I built the designs that Matt showed on the DVD, but also had a corny idea of doing an invisible cat and giving it a Cheshire grin.

Hello Itty Bitty	Kwazii Cat - Octonaut meets Micronaught
I'm taking these mini-cats to meet Minnie Mouse

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Other posts with Matt's designs:


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November 12 - Picos Too

From Wikipedia:
Pico- (symbol p) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting one trillionth, a factor of 10−12 (0.000000000001).

.. this is three units smaller than a millimeter. It goes milli, micro, nano, pico ..

I took a voyage further into the Pico-verse, exploring a few more of Matt Falloon's mini creations.

While I was waiting to pick my oldest son up from swim practice, I picked some random balloons from my miscellaneous jumble of balloons and decided to make a fly.  This was before I realize there is a fly on the DVD.  I might not make it for the blog, but I really like how he leaves the nozzle on for a disgusting sucker-like mouth on his.

I really enjoy the two eyestalk creatures in this batch.  The snail is especially out of the box thinking, and full of Matt's complexities, frumples and raisins and deep tulips.

Mini crabs - something you never want to see	Itty bitty, too small for the kitty - mouse
I found this fly by the seat of your pants...

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Other posts with Matt's designs:


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