Double Stuffing
Color Combination
Do you find that humidity and/or temperature affects the squeaking? Let us know.
On long bubble sequences, if you always twist the same way, you only have to hold on to the first bubble, and the last bubble. I hold on to the first bubble with my little finger and palm, then feed the bubbles through the thumb and first finger.
When I make mine, I start with the first three bubbles scrunched into my hand, then I sorta turn the 1st bubble around in my hand an grasp it with the ring finger and pinky with the rest pointing out and around from that side of my hand. This anchors the end, and frees my thumb and 1st two fingers (sometimes 3) to continue twisting. I do the same when making 'pearls'/'grapes' bubbles. This is the best way I've found to do long sequences of bubbles, and you also don't have bubbles come undone in the middle of a sculpture. (P.S. this is how I teach my students how to twist bubbles - i.e. a challenge, see how many bubbles you can hold)
The fastest way I have found to make a "string of pearls" string of small bubbles is to roll the body of the 260 down my leg with one hand while the other hand holds the bubble. The first bubble of the string also has to be held, either by the bubble hand or by being attached to a held sculpture. By rolling the body of the 260 the same distance down your leg each time you get a uniform number of twists between bubbles. If the twists aren't even the line of bubbles tries to make them even and some bubbles may untwist. The pearls hat is not the fastest hat to make but it is popular. I figure the pearls take about as long as a fancy poodle.
I inflate a 260 no more than halfway and begin twisting round bubbles. The trick is that you have to hold the first two until you reach the end and can twist the beginning to the end. I have a lot of fun saying that the purple strands are amythest beads, the reds are rubys, the greens are emeralds, etc... Girls of all ages love them. After all, "the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize" (Shirley McClaine in Steele Magnolias).
I would note that it is a bit tough on the wrist and can simulate a carpal tunnel syndrome, so be sure to flex your twisting wrist after each strand.
A variation on this is that I will inflate the balloon a bit over half and use the large section that you are unable to twist into pearls to become the head of a swan when I turn the strand into a bracelet.
The easiest way to get the neck to bend is to take the uninflated portion of the balloon (the part you left for the beak) and hold it against the neck, essentially folding it over where the air ends. Give the neck a quick squeeze forcing some air into the folded over section. This quickly forms the curve of the head. There are other methods you can use, but this one works every time for me.
You should choose which method you like, according to what your goals are. Personally, I like the general, softer-looking method for butterfly wings, and the heart-and flower combination creation. If you want to put a stand-alone heart on top of a pole or on a hat, etc. etc., the T. Myers method will make your creation look great!
To quickly make two balloons twisted tightly together, Tom mentioned in his newsletter to twist them in on each other as you twist them together. What I found that works really well for me is this: Twist a 1" bubble at the nozzle end of each balloon and then lock-twist them together. Start with the lock-twisted bubbles in your right hand (I'm right handed), and then open your left hand, palm facing the two balloons. Put the twist (the center where the two balloons are being twisted together in the palm of your hand which is facing to the right. One balloon is over the space between your thumb and forefinger and the other extends down the base of your palm towards the floor. Push in slightly so the balloons are almost at 90 degree angle from the twist being created in your right hand. Then start rotating your right hand to make the twist. To get a tight twist you have to push the crook of the twist a little into your tight palm and also use the friction of your palm or fingers (right hand) to twist each balloon itself as the two are being twisted together. Also, once you do a straight twist that is locked at both ends, the balloon makes a lovely twist in the air if you throw it like a spear. Or twist a hook into one end and it's a candy cane.
Royal Sorell demonstrated his spiral weaving technique at IBAC. Try this for starters:
Inflate 5 different color balloons (any number of balloons will work), leaving a 4"
nipple.
When you are done, each balloon will end up looking like this for a left hand spiral (note that for this discussion, my balloons start with a bubble denoted "!" and end with a bubble denoted "i"):
i_
|_
|_
|_
|_
!
or like this for a right hand spiral:
_i
_|
_|
_|
_|
!
and a planar, 5 balloon right hand weave will look like this:
_i
_|
_|_i
_|_|
_|_|_i
!_|_|
_|_|_i
!_|_|
_|_|_i
!_|_|
_|_| *
!_| \
_| \_______ This vertical is where you first get
! all 5 balloons connected into a circle
if you are making a tube.
To make a spiral tube:
To vary tube diameter, increase the length of the bubbles. To really change the tube diameter, twist more balloons into the centers of the long bubbles and keep saying "knit one, pearl two..." :-)
Royal and Patty Sorell use a weaving technique they call Gymping (remember Gymp in summer camp?) It's similar to Marvin Hardy's weaving with one major difference, you twist each balloon to the one next to it and constantly create tubes that spiral up. Kind of like those old knitting tubes. Each section is a tube of a different diameter. With weaving and our Gymp-ing methods, the key is when you start, use all separate colors so you can get the pattern down and understand what the balloons are doing. It's easy once you get the hang of it!
I have done a LOT of weaving of clothing for various costumes. (Wedding Dress for IBAC, Belle Dress from Beauty and the Beast for Halloween, Tuxedo for a Bridal Show....) As with any clothing, I suggest weaving it on the person directly. It insures a better fit. If you're weaving it for yourself, try to get someone else to weave it around anyway - it will still work better than trying to weave free-form.
For a vest. I start at the top, and work down. Start by forming the armholes and back of the neck with single balloons, and connect across the top of the shoulder. You'll want to connect across the front of the neck too, for the purpose of shaping. But, this balloon will be removed later, so make sure it's either a separate balloon, or that it's really well tied off. Create the "V" with two 'spoke' balloons. Using uninflated 260's to hold the front together after you weave a row will help with the shaping - just cut them out when you're done.
Tie on the rest of your "spoke" balloons across the shoulder and around the armholes. Then, start weaving! For me, the hardest part of weaving clothing is the inital structure. Once I have that set up, I can do anything.
To add white eyeballs try this: make two 1-inch bubbles with a white balloon. Pop-off and toss the rest of the balloon. Tie a knot in the remainder so the air doesn't escape, tie the two ends together, so the two bubbles are lock-twisted, and now add them to your creation where the eyes should go.
Use a yo-yo as the eyes. This gives a great eye-type look because the centers tuck in to form a pupil on each side. The groove that runs around the edge holds the crest balloon nicely! Also, you can put pieces of colored balloons, small round bubbles or something else in the dimples to make different types of eyes.
My favorite thing I picked up from T. Myers was using two small super balls in a clear heart or clear 260Q to make googley eyes. Google eyes with inserted superballs (or balloon balls) look best if you unwrap the clear latex cocoon from them after insertion.
Make a black balloon ball (just like you would make a pregnant poodle, but you detach it). Then you put the black ball into a blue balloon, but you don't push it all the way in; leave a small black circle showing. Detach it. Now you put it into a white balloon leaving the black, and some of the blue showing. Detach it. Voila! A very realistic eyeball!
Make a small black bubble with a tail of uninflated balloon on it and place it into the center of a tulip twist in a white balloon. You can also use this to make a snout with a black nose on the end. We can call it a black olive twist. (The green olive/twist is for a martini ;-)
Marvin's eyes: made from bee bodies with the ends cut off after inflating (in Pioneers' 321 book).
Inflate a 321 as you would to make an apple. Sqeeze a bubble into the colored tip (aka poodle tail). Tie a knot at the base of the small bubble so the air will stay in it. Now do your apple twist. Roll the apple toward the tip. The bubble will rest inside the end of the 'apple'. I think this makes a great nose or eyeball, depending on how it's used. The closest I've come to Pooh so far has used this kind of nose. I've tried a couple of other things with it too. You can attach it to a round balloon to get a big face with a snout, or you can make a standard teddy bear with this nose in the middle of the face. If you twist the little bubble in half before pushing it into the apple, you work it off to one side and you have a couple of nostrils for the snout of some animal. Actually, if you want a little wheel for say a carriage or lawnmower, this will give a little wheel and have a hub.
OK, how about making one of these eyes, stuffing it into a transparent balloon, peeling off the encapsulating layer of latex, and then twisting the balloon into a "seeing eye dog!" :-) :-)
When you try to tear something, most people just move their hands a couple of inches apart, as if tearing a piece of paper. This limits the amount of force that you are putting on the object, because you are subconsciously trying not to let your hands fly apart when the object rips.
Instead, do it this way: Quickly pull as hard as you can while thinking about spreading your hands, elbows and arms as far apart as possible (don't worry - your hands won't go flying off your wrists!) Get your shoulder muscles and the momentum of your moving arms into it.
Marvin said it's a martial arts thing - like the difference between holding up your hand and asking someone to punch it, and then on the second attempt, asking them to punch THROUGH your hand. The latter punch will always be more forceful.
I had lots of trouble with this myself until Marvin told us all why. Since then, it has worked for me every time and I no longer hesitate to do it. Additionally, if you make a twist and then break the balloon apart at the twist, the air can be released without a loud popping noise. This is good for when you don't want to disturb others, when you make a mistake or when the balloon has a hole in it.
A B C D
____________ ____ _______ ____ ______________
>(____________)(____)(___!___)(____)(______________)==
/ ^ \
/ middle \
/ of 260 \
/ \
hold this hold this
bubble in palm bubble in palm
of your left hand of your right hand
make sure you tightly hold the twists at points A and D when the
popped part deflates; it's your fingers that stop the deflation there.
Stick your thumbs in the middle part and hold them against your index fingers and with a quick 'snap' pull the balloon apart. If you put your thumbnails right up against each other, dig them in and yank them apart quickly, it's a snap. It pops easily, and you really don't have to pull too hard for it to work. The twists on either side will keep the two separated parts from deflating. Immediately after snapping it apart, pinch or hold tightly at points A and D and let the bubbles deflate. If it makes you feel more secure, you can take the part of balloon left between points A and B or points C and D and wrap it around a finger once or twice while you knot the now separated ends of whichever side you didn't wrap.
The idea is basically the same as for a pop twist, but you don't have to go to the trouble of making ear twists. Like anything else, it takes practice. After you do it enough times, you'll get to where you skip the A-B-C-D twist and just go for the middle and snap! You do not have to have any bubbles for this to work - just pinch the balloon between your fingers or finger and palm of each hand to prevent any air from escaping. I looks really COOL !!!! and I always get ooooohs because it looks like you did something great! Plus you get a nice POP for extra drama (you don't get the pop if you just twist and pull the balloon apart the Marvin Hardy way). It is really fun to hand one of the inflated halves of the balloon to someone and ask them to hold it. Of course, they can never grab it in time and it deflates leaving you with a great opportunity for humor.
Don't be limited by the belief that the length of one balloon makes a difference. You can add another balloon anyplace there is a knot or a twist. If you run out of balloon before you run out of creativity, deflate the balloon to the last twist, tie a knot, add another balloon, and continue. Two 350Q's make a 3-100.
There have been three hurdles I have had to overcome so far.
Mike Decker says to use that one extra balloon, it will make the customers seek you out among all the other Balloon Benders
Let your imagination and your creativity fly. They are the only limitations you have.
A wise man once said, "I can make 300 balloon animals - all of them dogs." There's some truth to this statement. Elongate the neck, and you've got a giraffe. Twist a pair of bubbles in the middle of the giraffe, & you've got a camel. Make a dog with long ears, short front legs & longer back legs, stuff the forelegs into the back legs, & you've got a rabbit sitting down. You're imagination can take it from there.
It is the smoothness of the performance that counts. If people are entertained by your performance, whether the figure you make is basic or detailed, the figure you end up with will not matter.
Minimizing the deflation rate
When twisting, if you work with a tight balloon and keep bubbles as tight as possible the figure looks better, longer.
I find that greater pressure in any balloon does give it better longevity. However, they are also more prone to pop in the hands of ruffians, leading to higher attrition rates.
There are so many variables in dealing with balloons (thickness, imperfections,
temperature, pressure, etc.) that unless you have a test lab to work with, all you have
are *perceived* variations and conjecture. O.K., I perceive what appears to be a faster
rate of deflation in balloons with more twists than in balloons with few or no twists.
Scratch theory #1 that the balloon is stretched thinner at the twists. Hum... O.K., how
about "twisting bubbles tends to increase pressure in that area/ bubble, thereby
increasing rate of deflation due to combination of membrane stretched thinner (in body of
bubble, away from twist), and increased pressure." Practical experience: bear ears
tend to deflate faster than sides of head (due to higher pressure in tighter twist?) Or is
it just that the ears *appear* to deflate faster due to relatively smaller size/ volume?
Also Rate of deflation appears to vary. Ever notice how most sculptures tend to *droop*
relatively quickly, and then stay slumped for far longer than the initial rate of
deflation would indicate. I conjecture that as gas escapes, the balloon contracts,
membrane/ walls thicken and reduce rate of deflation. Or, perhaps as the outer surface of
the lava flow cools first, the still molten core drains away leaving a long hollow
tube...oops wrong channel.
Insight into soft and hard bubbles? O.K.... when they are soft the rubber/ color is
thicker/ darker than hard/ pressurized/ stretched-thin bubbles, therefore making them
harder to *insight* into. (sorry, couldn't resist.)
You can make a specific bubble (any bubble, not just ear twists) take more abuse by giving it more rubber. Twist the bubble larger than you need then untwist just enough to squeeze some air out of the bubble. The idea is to get the same size bubble with more rubber.
I'm not Looking!
Here's a tip that Marvin shared at IBAC - practice twisting figures blindfolded - entirely by feel. Then you won't have to watch what you're doing and can always be making eye contact with your audience....
I recommend that you practice making balloon figures blindfolded - not blindfolded balloon figures. Once you can make a good figure without looking at hour hands, you will be able to maintain constant eye contact with your audience. When you do that, each figure seems to appear as if by magic.
Rehearse everything you do in front of a mirror. When you can perform a trick well enough to fool the person in the mirror you are ready to do it for the public.
I like to watch my audience more than my twisting, so I usually inflate without looking, by feel. An easy measurement for sizes is using your hands, fingers etc. for different measurements, for example, the width of my fist, across the palm is about 4". If I hold the end of the uninflated balloon in my left hand, in a fist, with the tip just at the left (little finger) side and inflate it, I know I will wind up with a 4" uninflated tail. To the audience it looks as though I am stretching the balloon, while I am really just moving my hand away as I blow. I can feel the pressure change as the inflated section approaches the fist. Want 7"? For me, width of fist with thumb extended.
Was it Roger Seigel who in his book shows you how to blow up two 260's at once, tie one handed knots, and then twist a complete poodle in each hand without ever bringing your hands together? Now that's impressive!
I heard about one guy who twisted behind his back. I have done it several times and the kids get a kick out of it!
Ken "Flash" Stillman and I did a routine for the instructor's night show at the W.R.C.A. convention last November. Competing twisting balloons, inside a laundry bag, blindfolded, with thumb-cuffs on. Ken won.
Sometimes you see a twister make a multi-balloon sculpture, and because of the colors he chooses (or just pulls out of his bag without looking), it ends up looking very unappealing - sometimes even black, blue and purple like a bruise, or worse. To avoid this scenario, here are some tips for using balloon colors to your advantage.
First, some notes on color from the book "Design" by Gary Wells & Qualatex:
Seasonal colors:
warm colors (red, yellow) - advance or appear closer.
cool colors (blue, green) - recede or appear farther away.
colors can affect:
The Color Wheel consists of the 12 pure colors:
YELLOW
Yellow-orange Yellow-green
1
Orange 3 3 Green
2 2
\|/
Orange-Red 3 - o - 3 Blue-green
/|\
1 1
RED 3 3 BLUE
2
Red-violet Blue-violet
Violet
Primary colors on the color wheel are labeled with a number 1.
They are RED, YELLOW, and BLUE.
Secondary colors on the color wheel are labeled with a number 2.
They are created by mixing the neighboring Primary colors.
They are Green, Violet, and Orange.
Intermediate colors on the color wheel are labeled with a number 3.
They are created by mixing the neighboring Primary and Secondary colors.
They are Yellow-green, Blue-green, Blue-violet, Red-violet, Orange- Red, and
Yellow-orange.
Definitions:
Thus a "tint" color wheel could be constructed, as could a "tone" or "shade" color wheel.
Color Harmonies - how to use the color wheels:
Monochromatic Color Harmony - One hue + its tints, tones and shades
(white & black are the ends of this spectrum)
Analogous Color Harmony - Any 3 hues that lie side by side
on the color wheel
Complimentary Color Harmony - Any 2 hues that lie directly opposite
on the color wheel
Triadic Color Harmony - Any 3 hues that lie equidistant
on the color wheel
For the last three color harmony definitions, the word "hue" could be replaced by the word "tint," "tone" or "shade."
Qualatex offers round balloons in many colors. Unfortunately, the 260Q's and 350Q's are only available in:
Transparent colors - Qualatex Jewel-Tones: Diamond Clear,
Emerald Green,
Sapphire (Medium) Blue,
Quartz Purple,
Amethyst Violet,
Ruby Red,
Citrine Yellow,
Transparent colors - Q. Deep Jewel-Tones: Onyx Black,
Cocoa Brown
Opaque colors - Qualatex Standard Colors: Orange,
Pink,
Pale (Light) Blue,
White
Grey
Clear, White and Black aren't colors, Pink and Pale Blue are "tints," and I don't know where Brown fits in this scheme. Diamond Clear, Amethyst Violet, Cocoa Brown and Grey are not in the assortment bags. If you buy assortment bags but then try to hand-sort the balloons by colors, it can be hard to tell what the darker colors are (i.e. green, violet and black) without inflating them. One solution is to stretch them across the face of a turned on flashlight and the color shines through. A really easy way to sort the darker 260's is to take them into fairly bright natural light, and sort them while wearing "Blue Blocker" sunglasses. The glasses change the light patterns enough that you can see a very real difference between the colors.
After the long, but successful, campaign to get a grey 260, Pioneer Balloon began production of Grey 260Q's. This has led to yet another campaign to get additional 260 colors into production. Here is the status of these efforts:
Currently, there are 13 possible latex colors not available in 260's
One popular thought is: New shaded of green.
"I always get great reactions when I make flowers with different shades of green in
flower stems!"
As you may know, Pioneer Balloon is consolidating their manufacturing operations in 1996. As a result, they are experiencing shortages of certain products. Realistically speaking, it is pretty certain that Pioneer would not begin production on any additional products until they are caught up on their existing products. So, don't expect the new colors to pop up any time soon.
The Qualatex Color Wheel consists of the following pure colors:
CITRINE YELLOW
xxxxxx-xxxxxx xxxxxx-xxxxx
1
Orange 3 3 Emerald Green
2 2
\|/
xxxxxx-xxx 3 - o - 3 xxxx-xxxxx
/|\
1 1
RUBY RED 3 3 SAPPHIRE BLUE
2
Amethyst-Violet xxxx-xxxxxx
Quartz Purple
Here are the Color Harmony permutations possible with 260Q's and 350Q's:
Monochromatic Color Harmony - Sapphire Blue + Pale Blue (+ White
+/or Black)
Ruby Red + Pink (+ White +/or Black)
Analogous Color Harmony - Ruby Red + Amethyst Violet + Quartz
Purple
Complimentary Color Harmony - Citrine Yellow + Quartz Purple,
Emerald Green + Ruby Red,
Sapphire Blue + Orange,
Triadic Color Harmony - Citrine Yellow + Ruby Red + Sapphire
Blue,
Orange + Emerald Green + Quartz Purple,
Pink + Pale Blue + White 260Q's also look good together, though they don't seem to fit the scheme listed here. It must be a pastel thing... :-)
Additional colors can be created by Double Stuffing.
Proportion for color use:
Keeping in mind ROY-G-BIV (a mnemonic device for remembering all the colors of the light spectrum in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) when making balloon sculptures, I think of a color line - a belt of color that changes one strip at a time:
Onyx Black, Grey, Diamond Clear, White, Pale Blue, Sapphire Blue, Emerald Green, Citrine Yellow, Orange, Ruby Red, Pink, Amethyst Violet, Quartz Purple, and Cocoa Brown.
I put Onyx Black, Grey, Diamond clear and White on one end, because they are what I would call non-colors. They are either all colors or the absence of colors, depending on whether or not you are talking about light. I put Cocoa Brown after Quartz Purple, because brown has some red qualities, and it is, also a good overlap point on our way back to Onyx Black.
On my color line, neighboring colors look good together.
However, a few other color combos also work. Any of these combos look good:
Quartz Purple + Amethyst Violet + Orange + Emerald Green + Sapphire Blue.
My personal favorite is Ruby Red + White (peppermint)
I mostly use brown as an accent: It's the teddy bear holding on to the heart, or the coconut on an all green teensy, one-balloon palm tree. it's a muscled black man sitting on the hat or swinging from the vine on a bachelorette's hat, or Mini-Taz swinging from a vine as well.
Combining colors is easy if you know what colors make what other colors when you mix
them. Two Primary Colors create a Secondary Color:
RED + BLUE = Violet, BLUE + YELLOW = Green, and RED + YELLOW = Orange.
You can combine colors that are not quite right if you remember my color line sequence and keep unlike colors apart on the same sculpture. For example, blue and orange don't look great together, because they have nothing that draws them together; no common color that gets you from one to the other in one easy step. But if you remember, how to get from blue to orange, you can make a pretty good hat. Maybe, start with blue as the base hat, allow a feeler of green and a feeler of yellow to extend upwards, curving this way and that. At the top of the feelers, you can now put an orange spiral, that looks like electricity connecting two posts. All the neighboring colors match, so nothing clashes.
Brown should only be used as an occasional accent. After all, brown, black and green look good together, but they hardly make a festive hat, so you shouldn't try that one.
Ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. Think of a theme, and the colors may well follow:
What about the kid who asks for the pink, light blue, orange and black hat? If you're careful, you can combine these so that they work. I usually do this: Lt blue hat, w/a pink fishing pole, a black fishing line and an orange goldfish. the kids love it because all the colors they demanded are together on the same hat, and the parents are happy because you still managed to make all the colors go together. With a little ingenuity and my color line you can make things go well together that don't normally go well together, because you know which colors need to keep separate. Give me a list of colors and I'll give you a way to combine them effectively.
A tool for color design for balloon decorators:
I've found the Qualatex Balloon Network Color Kit to be very effective. We have one for
each size that we frequently use (5-, 11-, 16-inch; and 3 foot). The only drawback is that
it's tempting to use the sample if the client wants to see a certain color balloon
inflated... then you'll need to replace it. The QBN Color Kit is a great on-site tool when
the client has not selected a color scheme. It would be great to have a kit like this for
imprint balloons from Pioneer.
The process of putting one color inside of another to get a particular color is commonly called "double stuffing" in the balloon decorating side of the industry and has been used very successfully with round balloons for some time. I use it a lot with 260Qs for a variety of purposes besides the color. It often makes it possible to match a particular wedding color for instance. (This could be the solution to those bags of lesser quality balloons.) Following are some hints and then some color combinations that work well.
Try the following combinations using the current 260Q colors:
Inside Outside Result
------------- --------------- ----------------
Ruby Red Amethyst Violet = Cranberry
Orange Amethyst Violet = Watermelon
Orange Citrine Yellow = Golden Orange
Ruby Red Citrine Yellow = Yellow Orange
Pink Citrine Yellow = Sunshine Yellow?
Light BLue Citrine Yellow = Neon Green
Onyx Black Emerald Green = Chrome Green
Onyx Black Sapphire Blue = Chrome Blue
Onyx Black Quartz Purple = Chrome Purple
Onyx Black Clear = Chrome Grey
Onyx Black Ruby Red = Dark Copper
or Metallic Maroon
Pink Amethyst Violet = Hot Pink
Ruby Red Sapphire Blue = Navy?
Sapphire Blue Amethyst Violet = Purple Taffeta
The color mix isn't always great though; for example, black and white do not create gray, but a pearlized black or a cloudy looking white. The clear colors (Jewel tones) mix better than the translucent colors (Standard colors).
But, if you've ever wished that some of the jewel tones were more opaque, then try stuffing a white in them. The resulting colors are much more intense (an added plus) as well now being opaque.
I hope that some of you are already seeing the possibilities of metallic colors for motorcycles, rockets, spaceships, guns, swords, etc.
You can also use any color inside of any color for two-colored figures. When inflating, blow up a one inch bubble in the outside balloon, then inflate the inner balloon. For instance put a white 260Q inside of a black 260Q and make a figure as you would normally do. As you twist the bear, squeeze the air in the black, so as to leave an air pocket between the inner and outer balloons. Now, with the greatest of care take a needle and carefully prick the outside balloon. It's fairly easy to do at one of the wrinkles formed at a twist. (I've gotten to where I can pinch it with my fingernails). When you prick the outside balloon it will immediately pull away from twist to twist, leaving you with a white segment - leg, neck, etc. while the rest of the balloon remains black.
For example, make a teddy bear and break the outside ear bubbles, the nose, the top & sides of the head, the neck, the belly, and the tail bubbles to create an awesome panda bear.
Stuff a 130 inside a clear 260. Inflation is harder because you have to inflate the 260 before the 130 without letting the 260 deflate. But, try making a poodle inside of a clear 260 (the famous "poodle under glass") Use a white 130 with the clear 260 and it's an X-ray of the poodle. Any other color 130 inside the clear and the poodle is wearing a space suit.
I have made light sabers with a yellow outside and a black or brown inside. The darker color for the handle looks cool.
Multi-colored figures take a bit longer, but they are awesome. I use them a lot in balloon art exhibits and private parties when there is time to entertain rather than just make figures. The possibilities are endless.
Granted the time spent stuffing one balloon into the next is prohibitive to mass balloon work, but when ever you're looking to add a bit of flair and creativity to what you are doing, double stuffing is certainly worth trying.
Q: I have a quick question on double stuffing. I've tried several times and have the darndest time getting the second balloon inside the first! Does anyone have any suggestions, tricks, or secrets?
A: I'm sure that anything thin, round, smooth and fairly sturdy can be used as a stuffing tool. Thread the straw inside of one balloon and stretch the balloon out so that the lip end hooks over the open end of the straw. Insert the balloon and straw inside of the second balloon. Grasp both balloons together at the end of the straw and hold them while removing the straw from the inner balloon. Grasp the lip end of the outer balloon and stretch it out until the two lip ends are together. After two or three tries you will be able to do this quickly. To put 130's in a 260 you need only drop the 130 in. To inflate a double stuffed balloon you do need a pump and they are definitely harder to twist.
A: Others have suggested powdering the balloons a bit, but for me it's easy. It's mostly a matter of getting it started.
A 'balloon straw' and a 'soda straw are two completely different animals, just in case you didn't already know.