Ori has kindly agreed to do the interview for us all between 16/22nd Aug. I have met and worked with Ori a few times at various conventions and balloon festivals, he has some amazing balloon dresses on his website and has appeared in his own TV show in Israel.
Portfolio; http://ori.balloonhq.com/ You will look at his bike for ages and still wonder how it can only be made of balloons, it's stunning.
Website; http://www.balonim.co.il/ Be warned if you click through to the website you will spend hours viewing his work.

Ori, welcome to balloon chat.
I love all of ur work you are to be counted as one of the living balloon masters;)
1) How did you get ur gig on tele, you have appear on uk TV which me and my 4 year old girl loves:)
2) Where do ur ideas come from?
3) What's the biggest single piece you have ever made?
4) Are u coming to the millenium jam?

Regatds
,Normski

Hi Ori,

I completely get that wearing gloves cuts down on the squeak when twisting. I've tried a couple of times with gloves and can't even get as far as tying off the balloon but after that yes, it definitely does make a difference. Do your customers / clients realise or know why you do it, or do you use it more as a trademark?

Thanks

--Neil

Hi everyone!
first of all i want to thank Graham for the honor and i apologize for taking a few days to get to this !
so here we go!

1, What road led you into balloon modeling?
after finishing my 3 years in the israely army i worked as an entertainer in a group in a hotel in tyberias (at the sea of galeliy ) when i first went in to the wardrobe room i found a bag of qualatex balloons and i somehow knew how to mouth inflate and make a dog so i did some balloons for the hotel guests and the hotel loved it so much they bought me a box full of balloons and i spent 2 month entertaining and twisting, after the summer ended i continued with the balloons and here we are 12 years after that !
2, when did you get started with balloons?
a funny story, after working with balloons for about 4 years i met an old friend whom i haven't seen since elementary school, he asked me what im doing so i said am studying engineering and i have a balloon company, he said "oh your still with balloons?" so i asked did you here about my balloons? and he said "no i remember in 5th grade i had a birthday party and the magician tried to teach everyone how to make a balloon and no one made it except you!, i didn't remember any of this but as a kid growing up i always looked for the long twisting balloons which were hard to come by and i guess somewhere along the road i learned to mouth inflate and make some shapes

3, What’s your best twisting experience?
during my 3rd year of engineering school i went for a "pay my way with balloons " trip to new york , during my busking experience , i had a family with a6 year old girl and a 4 year old boy sitting in a baby stroller which seemed odd, anyway, i made butterfly for the girl and when i asked the boy what he wants, his parents told me he has some kind of communication problem but he loves "elmo" i never made elm before but i knew how he looked like, so i made it and the boy reached out his arms and said"elmo" his parents told me you will not believe this but the only word he says is "elmo" at that moment i knew that balloons is what i need to do for the rest of my life, because nothing can break the invisible barriers of man kind like balloons!

4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?
i twisted balloons in a jewish orthodox wedding and the mother of the bride who hired me was dancing and i came up to here with a balloon to measure her head and when i took the balloon off to make the loop i took it with her wig !!! it only moved a bit and she got it before it fell but that was a very embarrassing moment...( at the end i even got a tip..., i don't know why .... but....)

5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?
making people who don't communicate in a regular way(special) to react and smile

6, What's your favourite age to entertain?
i love all ages, really i do! as long is they are entertained at the end....

7, Do you have the same act but vary the presentation for all ages or do you have set acts for different ages?
basically its the same, i vary the difficulty of challenges and presentation according to the age


8, What’s your favourite thing to make at the moment?
i love a big penguin !

9, What is the most asked for model?
thats easy! the one hay saw the kid before them get!!!

10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?
i have a rule i try to uphold i never make the same thing twice, that makes the audience think and try to challenge me, i do brake the rule if there is a crying kid who only wants a spiderman like his brother but other than that...

11, Who is your market aimed at?
i do all kinds of gigs and services but mostly private

12, What kind of work do you do mostly - parties? Corporate? Etc
as i said its mostly private but that varies depending on season and demand

13, What is your favourite/ideal gig to do?
high-end cocktail adult party( for payd gigs) and my comedy show for kids (for a voluntary work for sick kids) to be able to take their mind of the sickness for evan 5 minutes is a real blessing

14, What irritates you most at a gig?
Violence(verbal and physical ) from the parents waiting in line, very rare but sometime you run into an insane customer that wants a balloon now!!!!
and the most common irritant is parents wanting a balloon for a baby evan after i tell them its dangerous


15, How do you book yourself?
i have a company that dose the booking for the corporate events and an assistant that deals with private events, the assistant is a new thing i used to book everything myself but this way i can focus on work

16, What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever made?
i don't know..... theres the longest time... the biggest in size.... the most balloons... the biggest project.... i think its a dog!!

17, What has been your proudest achievement in our wonderful world of twisted latex?
im very proud of the commercials i made for orange, the won the advertisement company a siver medal in a prestigious award festival, but the 2 TV series have to be my biggest pride and joy, in general i love a good challenge, if its never been done before im there, after its done its fun but thats over and im on to the next challenge

18, What advice would you give to someone starting out, or wanting to increase their business?
never compromise on quality , professionalism , and your standards, always give a120% for any job, and do not do something you are not 100% comfortable doing

19, What road in latex do you see yourself taking in the future
i don't know but it will probably be stretchy.....

20, What is your personal goal when you set off to work? Is it money or to entertain etc?
that is a mixed answer, some of the jobs have a bigger part of $ and some have a bigger part of in them, the underline of all of my carrier is to make people happy , if i can make a living out of it, and support a family, that is it for me

21, What are your balloon goals for the future?
make more people happy in amore efficient way

22, If you could start all over again, would you change anything?
NO!!!
the path that led me to this calling was crazy in the circumstances and i do not regret a thing!

23, How would you like the future of balloon modelling to develop?
i think that any movement forward is good, the balloon world is flying forward and balloon modeling is setting the pace, creating bigger better stuff, i would love to go 10 years ahead in time to learn some new stuff from the beginners of today, im sure they will have some new tricks up their sleeves !!

24, Who's the most famous person you have made a balloon creation for?
my mom!

25, How do you keep the enthusiasm going & what still excites you about our great world of latex
i think im driven by challenges that costumers give me and ones i set myself, i think that a day you donned move forward is day you fall behind so i constantly look for new ideas and goals and that keeps me excited

26, What inspires or is your thought process in coming up with a new design
that is a hard one to answer, it could be anything really, a T shirt, an odd request, an experience, or evan a dream....

27, Who would you like to work with dead or alive?
leonardo da vinci

28, What makes you laugh?
funny stuff! but seriously i love a good pun , i love satire humor and family guy
and small kids that crack up laughing during my show, i end up laughing more than them

Ori also has another website which is in English, http://www.balloonfashion.com/