Ok, the background to me making this was a last minute party that came in for today as another entertainer had let the client down. She phoned me in a panic last night to see if I was free, I was so booking taken.
The party was a Disney princess themed party and the Birthday Girl had her heart set on having a Belle princess balloon. I thought not really a problem but I'd like to do something a bit special so I retain the client's services for any other bookings :-)

So using a combination of the great program on Ken Stillmans website (Thank you Ken.... it was invaluable, will put the link when I re-find it again) and armed with an image I found online pic 1 (image credit to Balloon artist Brandon Ray's creations, including a life-size rendition of Beauty & the Beast's Belle.) I attempted the life size version of Belle.

Just a couple of points to make before the images.

I didn't have the 16" hearts to make the body, so I improvised with a little weaving. I think her waist is too narrow lol.
I have no idea how to make the shoulders and neck, so again I played about and did my own thing.
The rose is the first time I have attempted this particular style of rose, not to shabby for a first attempt. (I only had one red 260 so had to get it right lol, Typical that my balloon order arrive after I'd left for today's first gig, plenty of red now)
Again, I didnt have the correct balloon for the head, so I used a 5" pink round and put a raisin twist in the top to secure the hair at the top.

All in all I was quite please with myself, but the facial artwork (leaves a lot to be desired) does make her look a little stern lol. (I think Twistina should put out a dvd full of pdfs on how to draw character faces HINT HINT ;-) lol )

The Birthday Girl was over the moon and all the parents just burst into applause when I revealed the model onstage (hopefully the Birthday Girls parents will send me a copy of the photo to use as publicity) and I got 3 instant bookings from it, so chuffed to bits.

I did have a chuckle to myself when packing down as the Birthday Girl came up and asked me to "magic Belle to my house as Shes to big for me to carry"

Anyway enough of me rabbiting on, here's the images, Thoughts and comments welcome (yes I DO intend on getting Kens Princess DVD). More images will follow in next post :-)

Hello everyone :-)

I have been making models in my childrens shows for a few years now (Thank you Graham Lee for pointing me towards the wonderful David Grist DVD's at a kidology conventions a few years ago). After a few years I now have a very good repertoire (still can't make a bicycle tho ... those pesky wheels!) with the smaller models and some larger ones. Now I'm hungry to learn more about all things 'balloony' and to learn a few tips and tricks that make a good model a fabulous model :-)

Please forgive me if I don't reply straight away to messages and posts, I'm away a fair bit and at present seem to have this battle with my internet provider providing a sub standard service or more recently ... no service at all. However I will reply :-)

I would just like to say thank you to you all as I've been reading through several topics and already am learning new methods, tips and hints :-)

Kind regards

Damian Jay :-)