Balloon ball

Materials: six balloons; an air pump and scissors. 

Buy balloons on Amazon (paid link): 

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 Buy an air pump on Amazon (paid link): 

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The base of the sculpture is a pentagon shape. We use each balloon to twist two connected pentagons. It makes a digit 8. We have to twist five digits 8 to make the helmet. And we have to twist six digits 8 to make the ball. All digits 8 are connected to each other. Be aware of the tricky simplicity of the pattern: it could be a very confusing job to make this sculpture using only one color balloons. We are going to twist all bubbles of the same size. It could be any size up to three—inch. You have to twist the right size bubbles to make the right size helmet. For example: helmet made of one—inch bubbles hardly would fit a head of two years old child (at least it does not fit my kid). The helmet made of three—inch bubbles is large for my medium size bold head. Though, it would fit perfectly well the same medium size head with a pony tail. Inflate all balloon leaving a five—inch flat tail (Pic 1).

Let’s start with the blue balloon. Twist the first bubble (Pic 2).

Twist the second bubble (Pic 3).

Twist the third bubble (Pic 4).

Twist the fourth bubble (Pic 5).

Twist the fifth bubble (Pic 6).

Lock both end of the chain of the first five blue bubbles in one lock twist. We have made the pentagon. (Pic 7).

Twist the sixth bubble (Pic 8).

Twist the seventh bubble (Pic 9).

Twist the eighth bubble (Pic 10).

Twist the ninth bubble (Pic 11).

Twist the tenth bubble (Pic 12).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last five (the sixth through the tenth) bubbles in one lock twist. The rest of the balloon is the eleventh bubble (Pic 13).

Cut off the eleventh bubble and tie off the end. We have made the second pentagon and the digit eight (Pic 14). Twist the first yellow bubble.

Lock the free end of the first yellow bubble between the first and the second blue bubbles (Pic 15).

Twist the second yellow bubble (Pic 16).

Lock the free end of the second yellow bubble between the sixth and the seventh blue bubbles (Pic 17). You have to force the yellow balloon through the loop of the five blue bubbles.

Twist the third yellow bubble (Pic 18).

Twist the fourth yellow bubble (Pic 19).

Twist the fifth yellow bubble (Pic 20).

Lock both ends of the chain of the first five yellow bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 21). We made the first yellow pentagon.

 Twist the sixth yellow bubble (Pic 22).

Lock the free end of the sixth yellow bubble between the second and the third blue bubbles (Pic 23).

Twist the seventh yellow bubble (Pic 24).

Twist the eighth yellow bubble (Pic 25).

Twist the ninth yellow bubble (Pic 26).

Twist the tenth yellow bubble (Pic 27).

Lock both ends of the last five (the sixth though the tenth) yellow bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 28). The rest of the yellow balloon is the eleventh bubble.

Cut off the eleventh bubble and tie off the end. We made the second digit eight and attached it to the first digit eight (Pic 29).

The next two balloons we twist and attach in the same fashion. Use the gray balloon to twist the third digit eight and attach it to the yellow balloon (Pic 30 and 31).

Use the pink balloon to twist the fourth digit eight and attach it to the gray balloon (Pic 32). We can use this pattern to make fabric for various sculptures of very large size. So far, we attach all digits side-wise. 

Our next step is to link the top of all four digits with one pentagon. Twist the first brown bubble (Pic 33).

Lock the free end of the first brown bubble between the third and the fourth blue bubbles (Pic 34).

Twist the second brown bubble (Pic 35).

Lock the free end of the second brown bubble between the seventh and the eighth yellow bubbles (Pic 36).

Twist the third brown bubble (Pic 37).

Lock the free end of the third brown bubble between the seventh and the eighth gray bubbles (Pic 38).

Twist the fourth brown bubble (Pic 39).

Lock the free end of the fourth brow bubble between the seventh and the eighth pink bubbles (Pic 40).

Twist the fifth brown bubble (Pic 41).

Lock both ends of the chain of the first five brown bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 42). We made the first brown pentagon.

The next step is to make the second brown pentagon and connect it side-wise with blue and pink balloons. Twist the sixth brown bubble (Pic 43).

Lock the free end of the sixth brown bubble between the fourth and the fifth blue bubbles (Pic 44).

Twist the seventh brown bubble (Pic 45).

Lock the free end of the seventh brown bubble between the ninth and the tenth blue bubbles (Pic 46).

Twist the eighth brown bubble (Pic 47).

Twist the ninth brown bubble. Lock the free end of the ninth brown bubble between the eighth and the ninth pink bubbles (Pic 48).

Twist the tenth brown bubble (Pic 49).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last five (the sixth through the tenth) brown bubbles in one lock twist. The rest of the brown balloon is the eleventh bubble (Pic 50).

Cut off the eleventh bubble and tie off the end of the brown balloon. We made the helmet (Pic 51 through 54).

The helmet is fun by itself. The helmet also can be used as a base to make other sculptures:
vases, hats, wigs, bags and etc. We are going use one more digit eight to make a ball. Twist the first green bubble. Turn the helmet upside down. We see a chain of three blue (pink) bubbles and chain of two brown (pink, yellow and gray) bubbles (Pic 55).

Lock the free end of the first green bubble between the eighth and the ninth blue bubbles (Pic 56).

Twist the second green bubble (Pic 57).

Lock the free end of the second green bubble between the eighth and the ninth browns bubbles (Pic 58).

Twist the third green bubble (Pic 59).

Lock the free end of the third green bubble between the ninth and the tenth pink bubbles (Pic 60).

Twist the fourth green bubble (Pic 61).

Lock the free end of the fourth green bubble between the fourth and the fifth pink bubbles (Pic 62).

Twist the fifth green bubble (Pic 63).

Lock both ends of the chain of the first five (the first through the fifth) green bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 64).

We made the first green pentagon (Pic 65).

Now we are going to make the second green pentagon and connect it with all balloons. The ball can be used as a hidden place for a smaller ball or any item of a smaller size than the ball we are making. Just make sure it would not fall through the holes in our ball. Place the item inside of the ball now if you want to lock it inside of the ball. Twist the sixth green bubble (Pic 66).

Lock the free end of the sixth green bubble between the eighth and the seventh blue bubbles (Pic 67).

Twist the seventh green bubble (Pic 68).

Lock the free end of the seventh green bubble between the third and the fourth yellow bubbles (Pic 69).

Twist the eighth green bubble (Pic 70).

Lock the free end of the eighth green bubble between the third and the fourth gray bubbles (Pic 71).

Twist the ninth green bubble (Pic 72).

Lock the free end of the ninth green bubble between the third and the fourth pink bubbles (Pic 73).

Twist the tenth green bubble. Lock both ends of the chain of the last five (the sixth through the tenth) green bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 74 through 76). Cut off the rest of the green balloon and tie of the end. Congratulations, you have made the ball! This ball is fun to play even indoors. We used six balloons, to make total of sixty bubbles. The pentagon shape is the base of the pattern we used. Obviously we can use more (up to sixty) balloons to make balls of much bigger size using the same pattern. Well, I always try to use the less possible number of balloons to make each sculpture. I found it is possible to use four or even three balloons to make a ball using the pentagon pattern. Is there a way to make it with two or just one balloon? Have fun and happy twisting :)