Hiya Norm,
i really miss TMJ and to meet all that professional twisters... it was unique, we still have Euro Jam and some other Balloons events but i really will love TMJ to come back... Yea Balloons all day and night!!! hehehe
you asked:
-----So how do you come up with your own unique designs?
i really love the Balloons to play because there are not too many chances of things that can be done with them (more and more things as lots of creative people are playing and developing but nearly all its based in 7 or 8 things that can be done with a balloon) so that means a "easy puzzle" with small amount of pieces you can create thousand of shapes and that its so much fun, so to star creating first rule its to play, once you play with the balloons you find on the way new shapes and torsions that remains you some part of an animal or thing and from there on you develop the rest of the design, in a workshop of Mr Rainbow he say that its a good idea to play using a different balloon color for each balloon you use in a figure that you are working out so when its finished its easy o follow the steps and to change the possible mistakes you find, its a great idea but on top of all to play and look for the things you cant twist jet, i try to get out of my comfortable zone learning difficult twist and techniques to use them in my balloons if i fail its ok i considerer it as rehearsal never as a lost of time, of course i don´t rehearsal in front of the audience, there its a time and place to play and a time and place to be professional and twist the things you already have under control, the second part of creating a new design its to check that the design doesn't exist before, in my opinion even if it existed before doesn't mean that you didn't came up with it but it does mean that you can not claim it like your design, its a petty but its the same way in many things in life great ideas still great even if some one have published them before... so if you have a great new design and you ask the people from the industry and you find it new then you make a great thing for the balloon community, if it was already out there you did a good work for your self , i mean you never loose by playing and experimenting with new shapes and torsions, one thing that make me change allot the way to think in ballooning was to stop thinking in 1 balloon or 2 balloons and thinking in balloons like lines of colors that can be erased (popping the rest of the balloon) can be different colors and different size lines (260 160..) and when you start drawing with those air filled colorful latex you can draw anything, all depends on the scale and the amount of time and balloons you can use for the design, there its always a middle point between the nice and the effective balloon figure, as more sugar more sweet but sometime you need to walk to the corner shop for one extra spoon of sugar and that doesn't deserve the walk....
always try to make it the nicer for your self, if you like it , i mean really like it more people will like it too!!!
---------How do you stop copying other peoples ideas and create your own?
nice question,i will just talk about how to create you own, to stop copying its a personal chance and not always good idea, some how to let that clear i will say i love when people copy my designs if they do in they work, if they do in the net i like to be mention but even when its not like that i fell honored to see my design its been choose by some one as a nice thing so somehow i am helping that person and the people that looks and enjoy the balloon and you know , money its not all in life!!!
how to create, if we compare it with music its easier to understand i think, to play an instrument first you need to learn the notes, then the scales , then the rhythms and once you have those things you start playing the classics... i mean Happy birth day to you, and some other classics that let us use the knowledge we got and to practice the scales and rhythm in a song that its already made , so more or less we copy the song played in the begging bad but with some time of try we master the piece and we can play decently 1 song so we can change to next one and next one ... each song will be easier to learn because your scales and rhythm its been perfected and there are many many great songs you can play form other people but there its one day that you start to express your self with the techniques you earned playing other people songs and that day you make your own song, a song that talks about your experiences and maybe its not a great one but its yours and that first song will take you to others and by practice again on the process of expressing your self in a song you will get a great song maker, well with balloons some how its the same way, to be able to create you need to know the techniques and the behavior of the balloons and the best way to do that its to make figures that are out there and not been your own designs they are good ones and helps to amaze your audience but at same time to improve your skills, one day and other and other until you have a back up of techniques and torsions that you control perfectly, then you can play and create you own designs and any thing can be done with balloons.
----------Whats the best sculpture you have ever made?
hum that its a beat difficult to answer, first of all i am not a big fan of the factor "best" some how i thing the best thing can be just really bad one in the wrong place, i hope you understand but if i have to answer i will let clear that some really nice ones that i do they aren't my designs so i will focus on mine,i am really proud of the butterfly in the mirror and the all mirror concept, i am also really happy with the vespa, but if i have to chose just the one i like the most to do and give away its the Altea Rose, every time i give it away i get a huge reaction its a flower but at same time its a strong symbol for people around the world.
----------Who do you think has inspired your work the most.
hey lots of people have to be in the list but starting from the people i learned from in my first balloon meeting all of them.
and specially i have lots of things to thank to the amazing Balloon Artist Sabina Kellner
she teched me the sensitivity on balloon figures, but some how every one of my friends that are twisters have influenced my art deeply, each of them in different aspects and the combination of all makes the one i am now, and lots of my non twisters friends have also inspired great ideas, some how all the workshops i went to, all the great collages that shared with me they knowledge and esthetics's point of view have inspired and will always be an inspiration, Thanks to all of them, and thanks also to some of them that are not my friends but they are great artist...