TJam 01, Day -1

TJam 01. Thursday, Day -1

The Jamming Commences

More and more folks arrived during the course of the day. I think I counted at least 40-50 in the hotel lobby before I gave up for the night. Some folks where holding impromptu mini-classes around the lobby or in their rooms. Others were teaching, learning, or just goofing off. The hotel crew was starting to get into the swing of things, playing with (and popping) balloons behind the desk. I do feel sorry for the staff there. Late in the day some poor soul was pushing a big broom around the lobby gathering up stray scraps of popped balloon. No sooner did she leave an area before something would pop, explode, or leave some kind of dropping.

It was a day of gradual overload. As more and more folks arrived much of the stuff got more and more advanced. There was also so much going on at one time, it was hard to decide what to watch, what to try, who to talk to, and whether to have lunch or not.

The Pictures

This is what I brought to Austin with me, all neatly organized by color for the 260's, and by type for the rest.

And here are the bags colleted together on metal rings from the office supply store for easy transport

Last night I turned in before the rest of the crew. When I came downstairs to the lobby, this happy (?) face greeted me (and anyone else that came into the hotel) A Hans creation. Holland!

Someone had put a little frog in at the base of the big balloon clown made yesterday

Another thing that was down there was this wonderful little bluebird (something to make for Mr. Bob in Leechburg). Since I was up before everyone else (this was around 9:00 am), my first task was to try to duplicate it.

And here's a couple of attempts (the othe couple of attempts are hiding under the table.

I am definitely in the presence of genius down here. Raul came down, saw the birds I was making, and came up with this pigeon. First time (no practice models. He just did this one!)

And here's a front view of it.

A number of folks had home-brewed balloon keepers. There were tackleboxes with balloons, gym bags with solid color balloons packed end-to-end. Home-made aprons, pants with plenty o' pockets. And this one which is 3 gallon ziplog bags stapled in the center, forming a rigid freestanding structure.

Raul at it again, this time with happy early morning sunshine.

My second attempt at Raul's pigeon

Mark Verge was there in the morning too, demonstrating some things that can be done with the 321 bee-bodies, inclduing this dragon fly, a really cute ladybug, and a snowman.

Larry Hirsch demonstrating a small motor bike, designed by Russ Sutton of Arizona.

More dragonflies

Miscellanous debris during the morning jam.

One of Mark's V's 321 bugs. It's amazing the repertoire of bugs this guy has.

A quick-n-easy 6 balloon top hat (especially compared to a fully-woven top hat)

A hand puppet by Raul.

And a rattlesnake by Raul. Sugar was poured into the balloon and put into the rattle portion, making a pretty nice rattlesnake noise.

Larry showed us how to make pretty realistic balloon cigarettes. Some French dudes were making Chicken Run Hats. Larry combined them into this smoked chicken.

And another chicken. bawk bawk.

And a close-up.

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterhat.

Stacey Schmude building a large red ant. you can see someone else's attempt at Raul's pigeon sitting on the table.

Wearable angel wings and halo.

There was some kind of big corporation marketing / motivational / HR meeting going on at the Hotel meeting facilities while the day's playtime in the lobby was going on. I'm sure they thought we were nuts. Here is one of the lawyers attending the classes (or maybe part of the group putting on their sessions) taking a critter home for his kids. He tried (unsuccessfully) blowing up a 260, and I think he managed to make a 3-fold dog.

A couple of kids who wanted something, and picked out some goodies from the morning's discards

Since we had a native Australian there, I asked Lynn how she does a kangaroo. This is a 160 version. I did a 260 version too, and tried attaching a tiny 160 kangaroo for a 'pouch', but it ended up looking a little too obscene.

A Love Heart flower.

Amanda holding one of the little dragons that were really popular and ended up everywhere as the day progressed. I didn't have a chance to sit in on the making of one of them yet.

The Amazing Giant Goldfish Hat.

More and more folks arrived as the day wore on. The hotel finally got wise and provided a large trash container for the broken balloon scraps.

Raul at it again. This time a fish.

The fish in profile

Do not taunt happy fun fruit-head.

Monkey-up-a-tree hat.

More random jamming.

In the afternoon, T brough a quantity of the new BETALLATEX (not sure of the spelling) balloons, which were really strong, had nice colors, stand up to a lot of abuse, and were impossible (for me) to mouth-inflate. They're strong and longer than the Qualatex 260s. If they can keep the quality up, Qualatex may have a interesting battle on its hands.

Hans and his dog hat.

Hans and his cow outfit.

John Holmes' scuba diver, prior to completion (he added a face mask and hose from the tanks. There was a tiny face in the mask when he was done.)

Doug after a long away.com meeting.

Fred Hershberger making a big cartoon hat. When he was done, it had articulated arms on clear-260 supports, which made for some amusing marionette action.

This was probably the most amazing thing I saw today. Pull on the frogs's tongue, and it extends. Let it snap back, and it returns into the mouth. I have no idea how it actually works. The design of this has been attributed to Uncle Curt.

Some kind of weird dude.

Weird dude on a hat. These are

An angel done with (primarily) heart balloons.

Another balloon Harley (by John Holmes), being held by its new owner.

John Holmes and his Christ on the Cross. John was walking me and another through the building of this when he stopped to make the Harley (since the lady on the hotel staff would pay for it), which made for a pretty surreal time. Even if you're not into the religion thing, John's "JC" is an amazing study of doing a realistic human figure with balloons and contains a huge pile of advanced techniques.

Random bugs piled in the lobby.

Scorpion Hat.

Mark V's Gigantic Pelican.

Football helmet and dragon masks.

Yet Another Bug.

I went out to dinner with Rob Mayoff, a cow-orker at arsDigita who lives in Austin. When I came back to the hotel I saw this giant spider hanging from the ceiling. The Spider was Mark V's, and someone else did the web.

Other Random Notes

Got to jot these down before my handwriting becomes completely unreadable (I'm convinced it decays with time).

The Balloon Bird of Happiness is built from the tail-forward, bascially a bear head, bird body, the fold twist for the eyes, with the leftover nozzle for the beak (needless to say, balloon proprotion is paramount). The eyes are two white 260 bubbles (or an underinflated 5" round) tucked into the heat piece. The legs are 160's. I leave about a palm-lenght+ tail on the main balloon.
Another approach is to inflate the body balloon from the end, making getting the balloon proportions a lot easier.
Raul's Pigeon is built from the front back. Make the eyes. Tie the gray body-balloon onto the eyes and wrap around. Make a bird bidy, a pinch twist, then the twists for the perimeter of the tail ending up at the pinch twist at the base of the bird body, and take the remainder of the balloon back up to the end of the tail. Make the beak out of the tail portion of an appropriate color. The feet are 16's, make a triangle (three pinch twists and three bubbles alternated)
Larry's cigarette is a white stuffed into a little bit of gold/goldenrod. Coffee stirrer sticks are great for this. Put some air into the chamber, tie off, and use a sharpie to make little "ashes" at the end.
Raul suggest using a scrap of balloon for a 'ring' on a set of puppet eyes. makes them much easier to keep on the hands.
Mark showed a butterfly (basically like the one in Marvin Hardy's books), but with distinct bubbles in the wings (three per wing). Gives it a more defined 'butterfly' shape than the shaped round wings usually done.
Mark does a lot of wrist stuff - put the ladybug on the wrist, or the snowman on the wrist. it's acutally a really cool idea. The waitress at the restaurant was wearing one of his snowmen on her wrist. you can also put them on your shoes.
Snowman. White 321, plus a meep fluff for a hat.
The 6 balloon hat is a lot like the Sorrell gimping. Use 6 balloons. For the top, attach them and make the pinch twist to make it flat. Make equilateral triangles. Two bubbles with one balloon, and the third leg of the traingle with another ballon (and then this one bubble is the first of two for the next triangle, and so on). For a mad-hatter efect, put 350's around the end.
Holland!
Raul's sun. Get a happy face balloon. Tie 2 260s at the nozzles and onto the nozzle of the happy face. Then fold twist one of the 260's (for a sun ray). Twist 2 bubbles together, then another fold, then two more bubbles, etc around. May need additional 260's to complete the loop.
Silver thread can make a nice shimmering effect for magic wandas
Lynn's kangaroon. Pinch ears and long tail. Make it lean forward.
When making spirals, give them a little tug when winding them. Makes them wind up much tighter. (Thanks Fred)
for making very small bubbles, just pinch the balloon wihtout twisting first. (e.g. pinch, then turn, and end up with very small bubbles) (Thanks John)
Spirals make _great_ spears
When weaving, in the first course, make the spoke bubbles soft.

admin@badgertronics.com

	This is what I brought to Austin with me, all neatly organized by color for the 260's, and by type for the rest.
	And here are the bags colleted together on metal rings from the office supply store for easy transport
	Last night I turned in before the rest of the crew. When I came downstairs to the lobby, this happy (?) face greeted me (and anyone else that came into the hotel) A Hans creation. Holland!
	Someone had put a little frog in at the base of the big balloon clown made yesterday
	Another thing that was down there was this wonderful little bluebird (something to make for Mr. Bob in Leechburg). Since I was up before everyone else (this was around 9:00 am), my first task was to try to duplicate it.
	And here's a couple of attempts (the othe couple of attempts are hiding under the table.
	I am definitely in the presence of genius down here. Raul came down, saw the birds I was making, and came up with this pigeon. First time (no practice models. He just did this one!)
	And here's a front view of it.
	A number of folks had home-brewed balloon keepers. There were tackleboxes with balloons, gym bags with solid color balloons packed end-to-end. Home-made aprons, pants with plenty o' pockets. And this one which is 3 gallon ziplog bags stapled in the center, forming a rigid freestanding structure.
	Raul at it again, this time with happy early morning sunshine.
	My second attempt at Raul's pigeon
	Mark Verge was there in the morning too, demonstrating some things that can be done with the 321 bee-bodies, inclduing this dragon fly, a really cute ladybug, and a snowman.
	Larry Hirsch demonstrating a small motor bike, designed by Russ Sutton of Arizona.
	More dragonflies
	Miscellanous debris during the morning jam.
	One of Mark's V's 321 bugs. It's amazing the repertoire of bugs this guy has.
	A quick-n-easy 6 balloon top hat (especially compared to a fully-woven top hat)
	A hand puppet by Raul.
	And a rattlesnake by Raul. Sugar was poured into the balloon and put into the rattle portion, making a pretty nice rattlesnake noise.
	Larry showed us how to make pretty realistic balloon cigarettes. Some French dudes were making Chicken Run Hats. Larry combined them into this smoked chicken.
	And another chicken. bawk bawk.
	And a close-up.
	These are the voyages of the Starship Enterhat.
	Stacey Schmude building a large red ant. you can see someone else's attempt at Raul's pigeon sitting on the table.
	Wearable angel wings and halo.
	There was some kind of big corporation marketing / motivational / HR meeting going on at the Hotel meeting facilities while the day's playtime in the lobby was going on. I'm sure they thought we were nuts. Here is one of the lawyers attending the classes (or maybe part of the group putting on their sessions) taking a critter home for his kids. He tried (unsuccessfully) blowing up a 260, and I think he managed to make a 3-fold dog.
	A couple of kids who wanted something, and picked out some goodies from the morning's discards
	Since we had a native Australian there, I asked Lynn how she does a kangaroo. This is a 160 version. I did a 260 version too, and tried attaching a tiny 160 kangaroo for a 'pouch', but it ended up looking a little too obscene.
	A Love Heart flower.
	Amanda holding one of the little dragons that were really popular and ended up everywhere as the day progressed. I didn't have a chance to sit in on the making of one of them yet.
	The Amazing Giant Goldfish Hat.
	More and more folks arrived as the day wore on. The hotel finally got wise and provided a large trash container for the broken balloon scraps.
	Raul at it again. This time a fish.
	The fish in profile
	Do not taunt happy fun fruit-head.
	Monkey-up-a-tree hat.
	More random jamming.
	In the afternoon, T brough a quantity of the new BETALLATEX (not sure of the spelling) balloons, which were really strong, had nice colors, stand up to a lot of abuse, and were impossible (for me) to mouth-inflate. They're strong and longer than the Qualatex 260s. If they can keep the quality up, Qualatex may have a interesting battle on its hands.
	Hans and his dog hat.
	Hans and his cow outfit.
	John Holmes' scuba diver, prior to completion (he added a face mask and hose from the tanks. There was a tiny face in the mask when he was done.)
	Doug after a long away.com meeting.
	Fred Hershberger making a big cartoon hat. When he was done, it had articulated arms on clear-260 supports, which made for some amusing marionette action.
	This was probably the most amazing thing I saw today. Pull on the frogs's tongue, and it extends. Let it snap back, and it returns into the mouth. I have no idea how it actually works. The design of this has been attributed to Uncle Curt.
	Some kind of weird dude.
	Weird dude on a hat. These are
	An angel done with (primarily) heart balloons.
	Another balloon Harley (by John Holmes), being held by its new owner.
	John Holmes and his Christ on the Cross. John was walking me and another through the building of this when he stopped to make the Harley (since the lady on the hotel staff would pay for it), which made for a pretty surreal time. Even if you're not into the religion thing, John's "JC" is an amazing study of doing a realistic human figure with balloons and contains a huge pile of advanced techniques.
	Random bugs piled in the lobby.
	Scorpion Hat.
	Mark V's Gigantic Pelican.
	Football helmet and dragon masks.
	Yet Another Bug.
	I went out to dinner with Rob Mayoff, a cow-orker at arsDigita who lives in Austin. When I came back to the hotel I saw this giant spider hanging from the ceiling. The Spider was Mark V's, and someone else did the web.