Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Balloon teddy bear


Supplies: balloons, an air pump, scissors and permanent marker.


Buy balloons on Amazon (paid link): 
 Buy an air pump on Amazon (paid link): 

Inflate a balloon leaving about 10 - 11 cm flat tail (Pic 1).

Twist the first about 8 cm bubble. Twist the second soft about 3 cm bubble. Twist the third about 6 cm bubble. Twist the fourth soft about 3 cm bubble. Twist the fifth about 8 cm bubble (Pic 2).

Lock both ends of the chain of the first five bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 3).

Lock both ends of the second bubble in one lock twist. Lock both ends of the fourth bubble in one lock twist (Pic 4). We have made the head.

Twist the sixth and the seventh about 12 cm bubbles (Pic 5).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last two bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 6). We have made the body.

Twist the eighth about 7 cm bubble. Twist the ninth about 3 cm bubble (Pic 7).

Lock free end of the ninth bubble between the sixth and the seventh bubbles (Pic 8). We have made one arm and one leg.

Twist the tenth about 3 cm bubble. Twist the eleventh about 7 cm bubble (Pic 9).

Lock both ends of the chain of the last four (the eighth through the eleventh) bubbles in one lock twist (Pic 10 and 11). We have made the other leg and arm. 


Twist the twelfth soft about 8 - 10 cm bubble (Pic 12). The softer you make the twelfth (muzzle) bubble the higher you would pull the nose bubble. Also, it's easier to force the nose bubble through the loop of softer bubble and to pull softer bubble closer to the head.

Lock both ends of the twelfth bubble in one lock twist (Pic 13). It is the muzzle.

Place the twelfth (the muzzle) bubble on the front side of the sculpture (Pic 14).

Place the rest of the balloon on the back side of the sculpture. Twist the fourteenth about thumb nail size bubble at the very end of the balloon. The rest of the balloon is the thirteenth bubble. In this example the thirteenth bubble is about 8 - 10 cm long. It could be of different size (Pic 15). Also, if there is any flat tail left you should move it between the thirteenth and the fourteenth bubbles. 

Force the last (the fourteenth) bubble through the loop of the first five (the first through the fifth) bubbles of the head (Pic 16 through 18). The thirteenth bubble should stay on the back side of the sculpture.


The fourteenth bubble should stay on the front side of the sculpture.

Force the fourteenth bubble through the loop of the twelfth (the muzzle) bubble (Pic 19). And then bring the fourteenth bubble slightly up. The fourteenth bubble represents the nose. Congratulations, we have made one balloon Teddy bear!

We can use a permanent black marker to draw the face of the bear: the nose, eyes and etc (Pic 20 and 21).


We can use different color balloons or scraps of balloons to make parts of the sculpture. In the following example I am going to use a brown balloon to make all bubbles except the nose bubble, the bubble of the back of the head and the two bubbles of the body (Pic 22).

I am going to use a pink balloon to make the missing parts of the sculpture: the body, nose and the back of the head. Inflate balloon starting from the opposite end of the balloon. Leave about 15 - 18 cm flat tail (Pic 23).

Twist the first pink about 2 cm bubble (Pic 24).

Force the first pink bubble through the loop of the brown muzzle bubble (Pic 25).

Force the rest of the pink balloon through the loop of the first five brown bubbles of the head (Pic 26 and 27).


Cut off the rest of the brown balloon (Pic 28).

Pull the pink balloon to bring the brown muzzle bubble as close to the head as possible. Twist the second pink bubble making it protrude about 3 - 4 cm from the back of the head (Pic 29).

Lock the free end of the second pink bubble between brown bubbles of the head and the bubbles of the arms (Pic 30).

Twist the third pink bubble making it about 2 - 3 cm longer then total length of one arm and one leg. In this example I twist the third pink bubble of about 12 - 13 cm (Pic 31).

Lock the free end of the third pink bubble between the brown bubbles of the legs (Pic 32). Twist the fourth pink bubble of the same size as the third pink bubble.

Lock the free end of the fourth pink bubble between the head the body bubbles (Pic 33).

Cut off the rest of the pink balloon and tie off the end. Congratulations, we have made the Teddy bear (Pic 34 through 35).


Use a permanent black marker to draw the face (Pic 36). We can make many variations of any balloon sculpture using different color balloons for different parts of the balloon sculpture!
 Have fun and happy twisting :)

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