Thursday, March 7, 2013

Balloon Santa Claus


Materials: balloons; an air pump; scissors and a permanent marker.


Buy balloons on Amazon (paid link): 
 Buy an air pump on Amazon (paid link): 

In one of the previously published instructions we have made a two faced head twisting bubbles from the opposite end of the balloon. Today we are going to make basically the same head twisting bubbles in a regular order—starting from the nozzle of the balloon. We could use either side of the head to make very different characters: moppets, human faces, elves, cartoon characters—you name it. Just for this instruction we are going to make faces of Santa Claus—Christmas is coming, we have to get ready! Inflate a balloon leaving about four—inch flat tail (Pic 1). 

Twist the first about seven—inch bubble to make the neck (Pic 2). 

Twist the second soft about one—inch bubble. Lock both ends of the second bubble in one lock twist (Pic 3). It is the nose. 

Twist the third about three—inch bubble (Pic 4).

Twist the fourth soft about one—inch bubble (Pic 5). 

Lock both ends of the fourth bubble in one lock twist (Pic 6). It is the ear. 

Twist the fifth about six—inch bubble. Twist the sixth soft about one—inch bubble (Pic 7). 

Lock both ends of the sixth bubblein one lock twist (Pic 8). It is the second ear. 

Twist the seventh about sixth—inch bubble (Pic 9). 

Lock both ends of the chain of the last three (the fifth through the seventh) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 10). 

Twist the eighth about sixth—inch bubble (Pic 11).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last two (the seventh and the eighth) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 12).

Twist the ninth about three—inch bubble (Pic 13).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last seven (the third through the ninth) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 14 through 16). The rest of the balloon is the tenth bubble. It is the second nose bubble.



Force the tenth bubble all the way between the seventh and the eighth bubble (Pic 17).

Force the first bubble between the eighth and the fifth bubble. There are variations of how far we force the first bubble. Let's force the first bubble about half way down (Pic 18 through 20). We have made a face.



Now, let's force the first bubble all the way down between the eighth and the fifth bubble. We made the second face on the back of the head. To give you a better view of this transformation, I have made two heads and put them next to each other (Pic 21 through 23). Congratulations, we have made the head. There are actually many more variations of this head. For example we can change size of some bubbles or make some bubbles softer. It all affects the shape of the head. Use different colors to make the head for different characters.



As I have already said, we are going to make the Santa Claus. Inflate a white balloon leaving about five-inch flat tail to make the beard and the mustaches. In this example we are going to use the second face that we have made previously. Lock the nuzzle of the white balloon with the sixth pink (ear) bubble. Twist the first white about six-inch bubble (Pic 24).

Lock the free end of the first white bubble with the fourth pink (ear) bubble. We have made the beard. Let's make the mustaches. Twist the second white soft about three-inch bubble (Pic 25).

Lock the free end of the second white bubble with the second pink (nose) bubble (Pic 26).

Twist the third white soft about three-inch bubble (Pic 27).

Lock the free end of the third white bubble with the sixth pink (ear) bubble (Pic 28).

Cut off the rest of the white balloon and tie off the end (Pic 29 and 30).


We can make the simplest hat or the hair in the same way as we did the beard. Simple twist about six-inch bubble of whatever color you want and fix it on the top of the head attaching it to the ears. Use a red balloon for the Santa Claus hat (Pic 31 and 32).


We also can make it more attractive in different ways. Here is the another simple hat. Twist the second red about six-inch bubble. Twist a chain of the next two (the third and the fourth) red soft about one-inch bubbles (Pic 33).

Lock all ends of the last two (the third and the fourth) red bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 34).

Twist the fifth red about six-inch bubble. Lock the free end of the fifth red bubble with the sixth pink (ear) bubble. Cut off the rest of the red balloon. Twist one white up to two-inch bubble and attach it at the top of the hat between the two small red bubbles. I use the very end of a white balloon to make the top of the hat (Pic 35 and 36). You can stop here and use a black permanent marker to draw the eyes and  mouth.


Or we can make the eye bubbles. Twist a chain of two white soft about one-inch bubbles. Lock all ends of the two bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 37).

Lock the eye bubbles with the nose (the second pink) bubble (Pic 38 through 40). Use the black permanent marker to draw the face. Congratulations, we have made the Santa Claus head. We can use it as it is, make it wearable as a bracelet or on top of the hat, or attach it to different bodies.



In this example I have attached the head to the body 12 (Pic 41 and 42).


Again, we can improve the body a lot by simply attaching the hands and the boots. There are many variations of hands we can use in this sculpture. First, let's measure the size of the arm you want to make. At this point we twist two soft about one-inch bubbles and lock all ends of those two bubbles in one lock twist. Cut off the rest of the balloon. Repeat the same steps on the second arm (Pic 43). 

Now we are going to use a white balloon to make the hands. Twist a chain of four soft about one-inch bubbles. Lock both ends of each bubble in one lock twist. Twist the fifth one-inch bubble. Lock both ends of the chain of the five (the first through the fifth) bubbles in one lock twist. Cut off the rest of the white balloon. We have made the hand. Attach this hand to the arm (right hand of the Santa Claus on the Pic 44). Or we can make simple hand. Twist soft about five-inch bubble. Lock both ends of this bubble in one lock twist. We have made the hand. Let's make it as a hand holding a snow ball. Twist the second soft about two-inch bubble. Lock both ends of the second bubble in one lock twist. Force the second bubble half way through the loop of the first bubble. Cut off the rest of the white balloon. Attach the hand to the arm (left arm of the Santa Claus on the Pic 44).

I use a black balloon to make boots for this sculpture. Twist a chain of two soft about one-inch bubbles. Lock all ends of the two (the first and the second) bubbles in one lock twist. Twist the third about two-inch bubble. Twist the fourth soft about one-inch bubble. Lock both ends of the fourth bubble in one lock twist. Twist the fifth about five-inch bubble. Lock both ends of the fifth bubble in one lock twist. Cut off the rest of the black balloon. Fix all bubbles in proper positions. We have made a boot. Make two boots of the same size. Attach the boots to legs (Pic 45 and 46). We can also add a belt.


Now I want to use the other side of the head to make the face. As I have mentioned before I made two heads for this purpose. One we have already used. So let's use the second head. Again, I use a white balloon to make the beard and the mustaches. This time I twist a chain of five soft about one-inch bubbles for the beard. Attach the chain of five bubbles on the bottom of the head between the ear bubbles (Pic 47).

I make mustaches for this sculpture in the same way as described before. The only difference is here we attache the mustaches to the tenth bubble (Pic 48). You may want to split the tenth bubble though.

Cut off the rest of the white balloon and tie off the end (Pic 49 and 50).


The hat is made in the same fashion as described previously (Pic 51 through 54).




Use the permanent black marker to draw the face (Pic 55 and 56).


Attach the head to the body (Pic 57).

Congratulations again, we have made two different Santa Clause heads (Pic 59)

The last head can be used to make two faces at the same time (Pic 60 through 62).



We can decorate the heads in many different ways. For example I use flat balloons to make hair. In this example I cut a black balloon on four parts. Then attached it to the second (nose) bubble of the head (Pic 63 through 65).



Use as many balloons as you want to make the hair. In this example I used two black balloons each cut on four parts (Pic 66). 
Have fun and happy twisting :)

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