Welcome Dan - i hope you have a good time here :-)

STITCH

I love this character from Lilo and Stitch. A really good head design. Fairly difficult to follow along with the instructions but I think I did OK. It's a little tricky to get the ears the same size for some strange reason. This one should get better when I have made it a few times - the end result isn't perfect.

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BENNY

This is another character from Dora The Explorer. An interesting head design using 5" rounds - looks great from the front but possibly a little odd from the rear. The body design is quick and easy and can be used for lots of different characters. Some nice elements to learn from here.

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That's brilliant well done.

SWIPER

"Swiper STOP swiping" - yes I have kids although too old to be watching Dora the Explorer now! Swiper is based on similar principles to Boots but with a completely head design. Getting the nose to sit tightly on the end of the 321Q yellow nose is fun. The perfect addition to your Dora collection.

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BOOTS

This is Boots the Monkey from Dora The Explorer. The head design is new and is used in many of Beatings models. The use of marriage twists to join many of the components together gives a nice neat finish. It stands tall, is well proportioned and looks brilliant. Obviously not suitable for line work or making 'live' but a lovely piece to sell as a delivery or as a pre-ordered item for a birthday party. Really nice.

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Beating includes variation for a party cup topper - the body is replaced with a clear balloon filled with sweets and the final model sits on top of the party cup - you will need to buy the book to see this!

Balloon Review 158 - Magic Balloon Design Vol 2 by Beating (BOOK)

Available from http://www.balloonconnexion.com - priced 76 singapore dollars (which includes shipping to UK) approx £41 GBP - you will need to email mailto:sales@balloonconnexion.com">sales@balloonconnexion.com to place an order which took about a week of exchanging emails (due to the time difference) and once the book was despatched it arrived within a week all in pristine condition and signed by Beating which is cool!

Beating's first two books were excellent so if you don't know about them checkout both my reviews in this forum.

This new book contains 14 characters with additional balloon ideas and variations. The book itself is 100 pages long in A5 format (or maybe slightly bigger). It contains 100s of colour photos and very LITTLE english language. All the descriptions are written in Korean (looks the same as Chinese characters). Don't let this put you off. Using the handy guide below you can work out the various colours and the number of pumps to fill each balloon. The measurements are given in centimetres. Most of the time I just looked at the photos to work out the design and the end result is similar to the original design.

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On the front cover of the book it says this is for twisters with upper-intermediate skills. None of the twists are that challenging you just need to be comfortable making up some gaps in the descriptions that you cannot understand.

If I managed it so can you...

Let's see what we have here...

If it is what I think it is I can't wait to see it!

Is it the E.T. neck? Or the Brucie chin?

Great to see you posting on the forum Patrick - i love your designs :-)

CUPID MINION

A fun one for Valentine's day. Fairly similar in structure to all the other designs except the lower portion.

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Great replies so far.

I don't think the awarding of grades/stars etc is a good idea for TBAG. What I like about the club is everyone meets as equals with no inner circles or subgroups for elitist egos. I feel this promotes a friendly environment where everyone cares and shares.

Technical ability should not be the way to judge how good someone is, it is how the range of skills, however small, are used and applied to professionally promote our art to the public and how you use them in an entertaining way.

There is no time period for learning our art. The learning never ends. Some of us may take a few years to twist a lobe on a heart, some may never achieve it yet are totally happy where they are on their journey.No-one should ever be judged by the distance they have travelled.

Wow this is getting deep!

My knowledge of Korean is improving!

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For the many years i studied card magic I measured my technical ability and progress by the various card sleights I could perform. I set myself a road map of skills to keep myself focused and to give my development some direction.

Now technical ability doesn't make you a better entertainer or balloon artist or increase the rate you can charge but it got me thinking about balloon skills.

Where are you on your journey? Are you still trying to master a particular twist? What are your technical ambitions?

I like to think technically I am competent yet I am still learning and would love to master the double frumple twist. I've hit a brick wall with one of my current reviews as I need to be able to do this. I won't give up!

Two princesses to go - just need to order a couple of colours I don't have in stock...