November 17 - Mouth

“A man should never miss an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.”

~ David Eddings The Treasured One

Antonio Bécares Rodríguez is one of those balloon creators that pushes things to the next level. He developed a new technique called the "Pinch Line Technique" where he easily creates a long row of pinch twists of any size.

Whenever someone comes up with a new technique like this, there is a moment of "how did I not think of this?" followed by "why would I ever do it differently again? I'm going to use this everywhere!". I was doing something similar previously with a row of double pinch twists, but not nearly as easily or reliably or with as much control as Antonio demonstrates.

Included on his DVD are a video series of images where he demonstrates the technique on a few different creations. This is one of those, a perfect gift to bring into the dentist office for my appointment.

I accidentally had them upside down for the pictures below ... which makes them look like they have a severe underbite.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Antonio:

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November 16 - Purple Pig

If you didn't care
What happened to me
And I didn't care for you

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 the pigs on the wing

~ Pink Floyd - Pigs on the Wing

Here we are at the final day of my exploration of the style of Nao Osaka (and my birthday).

It was a lot of work, Nao has an incredible style to attempt to emulate, very clean and precise.  I am grateful that he released some resources in order to help get me on the right path and thankful he has been a teacher at a couple of the Bling Bling Jams.  I do somewhat lament that I have never really 'met' him and have only had somewhat awkward exchanges - but that's the way I roll with people I respect I guess, keeping it weird.

Well once again it's time for me to attempt a purple pig with what I've learned and/or played with.  I tried to stick with a "classic Nao" style for this pig, using all 260's - one bit of cheating though to get it plumped up with a link a loon belly.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 15 - Nao's E.T.

Elliott: He's a man from outer space and we're taking him to his spaceship.
Greg: Well, can't he just beam up?
Elliott: This is *reality*, Greg.

 ~ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Last Bling Bling Jam, Nao Osaka was an instructor and taught both a chameleon (link) and cat (link) that I've built previously for this blog.

I attended every class I was able to at Bling Bling, but did notice people who skipped and stayed in the jam room had an opportunity for some private instruction from Nao - where he taught how to build this E.T.  Being an east coaster - classes ended at was my 3am, so I most of my jam room time was hours before anyone showed up in the morning.  I took a bunch of pictures of this E.T. in order to attempt it at some time in the future.

I'm happy that I've finally afforded myself that opportunity.  It was still a lot of work figuring out the puzzle and maze of twists, and took a couple attempts to get things at a point I was happy with them, but I really like how things turned out.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 14 - Nao's Turtle

Every ripple on the ocean
Every leaf on every tree
Every sand dune in the desert
Every power we never see

There is a deeper wave than this

~ Sting - Love is the Seventh Wave
   (Dream of the Blue Turtles)

A tutorial for this turtle design was on a DVD that was sold by Nao Osaka at Florida Super Jam a couple years ago that I was able to purchase after the fact from the person who runs the convention.  I would like to believe that the purchase money went back to him, ...

This turtle shell uses a weave that is reminiscent of the weave shown by Sabina Kellner, but is slightly different - it makes for a nice shell effect without having to create every section.

There's only one thing left to say:

"Righteous!  ... Righteous! .... duuuuuuude."

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 13 - Garfield

“I hate Mondays.”

~ Garfield

This is my attempt at making Nao Osaka's Garfield.

I believe I may have jumped down the wrong rabbit hole on this one.  Instead of trying to channel Nao's style, I tried to copy the way he created this form. 

He did a fantastic job, the way he gets the balloons to wrap around and form the main face structure caused me to scrap and try over and over again, popping and creating a Frankenstein-ish mess.  I started fresh after a number of attempts and made this one, but I'm still not 100% satisfied with how it ended up.

Nao truly is a master of capturing form with balloons.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 12 - Nao's Wasp

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”

~ Ray Bradbury Dandelion Wine

This wasp is very similar to the Nao Osaka's ant design.

My first attempt I made without looking at a picture of an actual wasp, I think (I hope) you can see the improvements I made on my second after getting some reference images and choosing more appropriate colors and getting the wings to lay flat.

I also tried a different limb style in the second build, I've seen Masayoshi Matsumoto do amazing things with his insects and I took a page and first attempt from his book for these.

I did have bigger plans for what I was going use as the main image, but time got away from me today...

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 11 - Nao's Crane

~ BBC Video: Trying To Save The Red Crowned Cranes Of Japan

This is a red-crowned crane - also called the Japanese crane, one of the rarest cranes in the world and a symbol for luck, fidelity and longevity.  This crane is based on an image that Nao Osaka shared on Facebook.

In all these balloon concepts, my goal is to get to a point where I am creating my own "in they style of" - but Nao has just so many amazing and creative designs that I am struggling to get to that point.  There are still more that he has designed that I would be happy to attempt.  He truly is a master of this artform.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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