Balloon Intimidation

[Sherry]

We had a big event this weekend on Saturday.  A company hired me and another girl that works with my company.  One was dedicated to face painting and the other to doing balloons.  It was a big Walmart back to school bash where they were giving away free school supplies and there were vendors set up all around.  We were working at one of the vendor booths.  Needless to say, there were HORDES of people!   

We decided to take turns doing the balloons, to save my fingers a bit.  I am such a newbie at ballooning.  I started in March and only really work on my balloons when I have a specific balloon event coming up.  So I'd watched a new dvd on ballooning the week before and was pretty proud of myself with my new technique of tying the balloon off.  I'm also terrible at flowers, but was getting pretty good at them toward the middle of the day, because they were so popular. 

Then, Skip the clown comes up (he was there on his own working the crowd for tips) to give me some advice on tying the balloon off.  He said he hates to see someone struggle.  I hadn't realized I was struggling!     So, I try to follow along with what he's showing me, it really does look like a much better technique and so simple, meanwhile I have a huge line.  I couldn't get it and in fact, my mind went completely blank on how to twist the flower I was holding in my hand.     So, now I really WAS struggling.  Until Skip walked away and my senses came back to me!  Super nice, helpful guy, but he had to come over when I was working on balloons and was so out of my league.   

I've learned that much like face painting, your ballooning really improves at these long events.  I'm much more comfortable with my flowers now... yay!   

[Alison]

Are you talking about the 6-petal flower, Sherry?

It doesn't work for me every time either,
but I have found that
Really pulling the 2 sides apart from each other
when you're doing that last center-twist
helps a lot.

Alison in NY

[Sherry]

Yes, the six petal flower is the one I did a lot of that day.  So, when you fold it up before the last center twist, you pull and stretch the sides?  My biggest problem seems to be having some of the petals pop as I'm doing the last twist.  It was rather hot out that day, so I think that helped keep my balloons from popping.  Not many did.

[Alison]

Oh yeah - I thought that was what you were talking about.
Because it happens to Everyone. 

Lol - I was working a Retail Event recently - One customer
was very patient - He let a whole group of people have a
turn between his 2 kids.  When I finished the demanding
group of 9 kids, I thanked the man for his patience.
He said  "It was fine.  I like watching how you do
your business."

I had to laugh when I realized that what he watched
included things like seeing me pop balloons and start again -
It still happens to me a lot.

But I do find that when I've made a lot of them
over and over at one time, I do get better results
for a while.  It becomes so easy that it would almost
get boring.  'Almost' is the key word here.  Because it's
still difficult enough to make me proud.

[Kristal]

I find the jewel toned balloons pop the easiest, especially when it's hot out. For that reason, I'm thinking of cutting most of the jewel tones out of my next order and sticking with the standard and fashion colours.

You ladies are braver than I! I am not a fan of the 6 petal flower. Nor the 4. I do a 5 petal one, and handily enough, if I get a request for a star...voila!

[GaFacepainter]

Not only do they pop, but I hate when I put some out to attract attention, they wilt after a while in the sun. Has anyone come up with something to help w/that, or just make another round for display?

[Alison]

Question - do we leave wilted balloons in our display -
figuring that we Just made them?
Or do we discard them - before people see what could
happen to a balloon?  They're usually not just standing
there in the sun like we are, so theirs usually last longer -

[GaFacepainter]

I take them down. I think if it looks bad they would be less inclined to buy one.

[Alison]

Likejavascript:void(0); duh -
Thanks for the wake-up call.
We 'waste' balloons while practicing at home.
We shouldn't be displaying crap.

[Twinkles]

The 6-petal flower has a lot of resistance working against you (rubbing against itself)...
and isn't the most user-friendly design, if you're using 260s...

Try using 160s instead... All your regular balloon suppliers will carry them... They're super easy to work with when making flowers...

[Sherry]

Thanks for the tip!  I'll have to try this with my next order and check out LA Rocks too.