| The making of balloon animals and other shapes has | | | | to practice both the twisting and the 'patter' or story |
| been around for many decades. The art is called | | | | telling between the twister and his audience. The |
| 'balloon twisting' and is fairly self explanatory. The | | | | better this patter is the better the demonstration, |
| artist twists the balloons into many wonderful and | | | | audience participation and enjoyment of all. |
| different shapes, many of them animals. The balloons | | | | In earlier years balloon twisters inflated their balloons |
| used are usually latex and the most popular is the | | | | by mouth though this is rarely done now. It takes a |
| 260 - so called because it inflates to 2 inches by 60 | | | | good set of lungs to be able to blow up balloons |
| inches and is a good size for many shapes. | | | | over a 4 or 5 hour period. Also in today's society, |
| Most balloon twisters start of learning how to make | | | | many people are wary of taking something that has |
| one balloon shapes and need to spend many hours | | | | been in someone else's mouth. Most balloon twisters |
| practicing the various skills such as tying the balloon | | | | now use some sort of pump which can be a hand |
| one-handed, making balloons within balloons and | | | | pump, electric, battery or a compressed air tank. |
| holding the twists while making other twists then | | | | Helium is not suitable for twisting as the balloons used |
| twisting them all together. Once proficiency has been | | | | are too porous and the designs are too heavy. Apart |
| gained with making a variety of one balloon shapes | | | | from that, children especially want to hold their |
| or animals, more skill can be gained by learning how | | | | balloon animal or shape close and don't want the risk |
| to make shapes with two or more balloons. The | | | | of losing it. Children of all ages as well as adults love |
| types of shapes is only limited by the twister's | | | | balloon animals and shapes or twisting. |
| imagination and the amount of time he has available | | | | |