Balloon Twisting From Scratch 14 - The Flower
Equipment:
2 modeling balloons
1 pump
Level:
Average difficulty
The editorial and visual content of this tutorial is produced and
published by Pierrick Le Brun under a Creative Commons
Attribution - Non Commercial - Share Alike license. You are
entirely free to share and publish it in part or in whole provided you do not use the
material for commercial purposes, that you clearly give credit to Môssieur Ballon and
provide a hyperlink to the original source of any content used.
This photo tutorial is a companion piece to the video tutorial Balloon Twisting From Scratch 14 - The Flower which you
can also find on Môssieur Ballon's YouTube channel.
This is the basic model for the balloon flower which is most widespread. Now, basic doesn't necessarily mean simple.
As such, all basic skills used to create this model have all been seen in the previous tutorials; however, the trick that
enables you to create 6 petals with a single movement will likely require some time to get used to and several practice
sessions.
So at the beginning, you may want to inflate the balloon rather a little less than a little more, to make things a bit easier .
1- Inflate one balloon all the way,
then let a little air out before tying a
knot, so that the balloon is more
supple and workable
2- Make sure that air pressure is
evenly balanced throughout the
balloon.
3- Pick up the tip of the balloon and
press it...
4- to push back a little air, in order to
reclaim a short length of latex.
5- Bring both ends of the balloon
together.
6- Tie both ends of the balloon
together to form a large loop
7- Bring each side of the loop flat
against the other.
8- Find the middle of the loop, across
from the knot, and form a crease.
9- Create two large bubbles at the
level of this crease
10- You should get this shape. This
next part will be a little complex; you
will likely have to try several times
before you get the hang of it.
11- Take the large bubbles together
in your hands, dividing their length
into three roughly equal parts.
Alternating each of your hands, you
need to press and twist both
segments around their base as if you
were making regular bubbles.
12- Only here, you're making two
bubbles at once, and on top of it your
hands aren't moving entirely freely,
since they're working more or less at
the same time on two different parts
of the balloon.
13- Once the bubbles are shaped to
your satisfaction, Arrange them in a
zigzag shape, like this.
14- Hold one end in place with your
support hand.
15- And compress the other end with
your twisting hand.
16- The idea here is to bring the
creases of the bubbles together, and
thus fold all 6 bubbles to turn them
into small loops (these will be the
flower petals).
17- Ultimately, the support hand will
have to grip all of the creases
between its thumb and forefinger and
be able to hold all 6 bubbles on its
own. It's a bit physical, but it's doable
after a few tries.
18- With the twisting hand, take the 3
loops from one end, and twist them
together at the base of the folds held
in the support hand.
19- Rotate several times until the
petals are all supporting each other
in place.
20- The petals are done, now let's
work on the stem.
21- To make the stem, inflate a
balloon, preferably a green one,
leaving a margin about 3 fingers
wide.
22- Start by making a tulip-twist.
23- Pull any 2 petals apart to insert
the crease of the tulip-twist between
them
24- To lower pressure and avoid
either balloon bursting, you need to
gently insert the tulip-twist forward in
a few successive circular motions,
rather than forcing it straight through
in one go.
25- Turn the flower over and do the
same with the rest of the green
balloon, so that the bottom of the
stem is also located right at the
center of the petals.
26- Make two small bubbles one
after the other.
27- Turn the second bubble into a
pinch-twist.
28- The idea is to have the stem
more or less in the same alignment
than the flower petals.
29- Push the air back to the tip of the
remaining length of balloon and
make sure the air pressure is
distributed evenly throughout its
length.
30- Bend the remaining portion of
balloon into a zigzag. The tip can
slightly stick outside of the zigzag.
31- Press and block the middle of the
zigzag in place and twist both sides
of the zigzag in opposite directions.
This gives us, in a single movement,
two loops of equal length that will
form the leaves of the flower.
32- Curve the top of the stem a little
to give it a more dancing, naturallooking shape.
33- Do the same with the bottom of
the stem.
There!
And see you soon!
For another lesson...
With Môssieur Ballon !