Balloon twisting

“I was working a regular afterschool job one afternoon (door propped open because it was a small town in the summer and that's the sort of thing you did) and a half-untwisted balloon blew across the threshold into the middle of the shop. It was dead slow inside because of the fair, so I had nothing to do other than investigate. I couldn't recognize what it once was (2-3 lock twists and the rest was sausage links) but I thought I could make something out of it. It was surprisingly satisfying—the next time I saw a package of twisty balloons in a store I bought them on a whim so I could play around with them some more....”

“I was feeling unprepared, so I kept twisting things in the car on the way to the party, (fortunately, I didn't quite cause an accident—no I wasn't driving, but the growing pile of balloons in the front seat did start distracting Stacy while she drove). On the way I figured out how to do a nice flower, (which, later at the party I made into a flower hat), and I also invented my first original design—a frog hat with oversized lips that can be squeezed to make it "talk".”

“One spring(2015) I decided to sign up for a Community Education Class for Basic Balloon Twisting. [...] When I went to that first class I was under the assumption that you got 1 long skinny balloon and you could make something out of it. A dog, or a sword probably. I had no idea that there were so many different sizes and shapes of balloons! I had no idea you could combine different shapes, sizes, and colors! People made creations out of hundreds, even thousands of balloons! Whole teams of artists from all over the world would gather to create giant installations! Wearable balloon dresses waltzed down catwalks and dazzled onlookers! I was hooked.”