Tuesday, December 1, 2015

How to make balloon crown


Supplies: two balloons, an air pump and scissors

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

This instruction is my answer for a couple questions that I received with regard to previously published instruction "Balloon crown" - the old king crown. I am using 260's balloons brand "Qualatex". I am going to make this crown using 2 balloons. Inflate two balloons of the same color leaving about 17 cm flat tail (Pic 1). 

Always keep in mind that fully inflated even the same brand balloons of different colors may have different size. To make this balloon crown the inflate part of balloons should be about 42 - 44 cm (Pic 2). Making inflated part of balloons any shorter will result in small size crown.

Tie nozzles of two balloons in one knot (Pic 3). The crown will have the top and the bottom row. We are going to work both rows at the same time.

We are going to twist all bubbles of the same about 3 cm size. Twist the first two bubbles (Pic 4).

Lock both ends of the second bubble in one lock twist. Twist the third bubble. Twist the first two bubbles of the bottom row (Pic 5).

Lock free ends of the third bubble of the top row with free end of the second bubble of the bottom row (Pic 6). We have made the first segment of the crown. Our crown will have total of nine segments.

You have to make all segments of the same size. You have to alternate balloons for making each segment: use the balloon with the longest inflated part to make three bubbles of the segment and use balloon with shorter inflated part to make two bubbles of the bottom row. Check length of inflated parts after making each segment (Pic 7). You should twist each bubble by making no more then a couple twists. Remember: making every twist shortens the flat end of the balloon! The more twists you make the more flat tail you will need and vise verse. It is very well known trick of the balloon twisting trade. You should use it to make all sculptures. At the beginning of any balloon twisting instruction the artists usually show the size of the flat part of the balloon using fingers, palm or ruler. It gives us approximately estimated size of the inflated part of the balloon. The size of the inflated part is the most important. Be course that's what we make the sculpture out of. The size of the flat part is less important - we can twists each bubble less or more times to regulate the size of the flat part. Unfortunately, there is no simpler way to show the exact size of inflated part of the balloon necessary for any particular sculpture. You will find the most accurate size by making sculptures. It comes only with your experience. 

You have to make nine segments of the crown working in the same fashion as described above (Pic 8).

Cut off the rest of the balloons and tie off the ends (Pic 9 and 10).


Tie nozzles of balloons between bubbles of the last (the ninth) segment (Pic 11 - 16). Congratulations! You have made the crown using just two balloons. With some practice it would take about 3 to 5 minutes to make this crown. This crown fits person with small or even medium size head. Have fun and happy twisting :)





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