Further techniques

The following techniques are used to connect and/or separate balloons. These are:

Tearing off balloons

In order to tear off a balloon that is not needed any longer, tear off the balloon over the fingernail of your right (left) thumb (figure 1). Make sure that the piece of the balloon that is connected to the sculpture is secured well enough.

[Abreissen eines Ballons]
Figure 1: Tearing off a piece of the balloon that isn't needed anymore.

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Securing torn-off balloons

Once a piece of a balloon was torn off, the rest of the balloon that is connected to the sculpture needs to be secured (figure 2).

[Sichern eines Ballonrestes]
Figure 2: This balloon piece should be secured.

In order to do this the rest of the balloon is pulled upwards (figure 3) and then knotted around its twist (figures 4 to 7).

[Sichern eines Ballonrestes 2] [Sichern eines Ballonrestes 3] [Sichern eines Ballonrestes 4] [Sichern eines Ballonrestes 5] [Sichern eines Ballonrestes 6]
Figures 3 to 7: Knotting a torn-off rest of a balloon.

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Making a pinch twist at the beginning of a balloon

To make a pinchtwist at the beginning of a balloon, create a small bubble right at the mouthpiece. Then the mouthpiece is pulled to the bigger bubble of the balloon and held in place. Now twist the smaller bubble just as you would do for a pinchtwist (figure 8).

[Pinchtwist am Anfang eines Ballons]
Figure 8: Making a pinchtwist at the beginning of a balloon.

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Connecting balloons

There are two possibilities to connect a new balloon to a sculpture: On the one hand, you can knot the mouthpiece around an existing pinchtwist or on the other hand, the beginning of a new balloon can be connected in form of a pinchtwist to an existing balloon. For this put the pinchtwist underneath the twist and then turn the top of this twist around (figure 9).

[Einhängen eines Pinchtwist]
Figure 9: Connecting a new balloon to the existing sculpture.

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Dividing balloons into two parts

To divide a balloon at a certain point, create a small bubble between two safe pinchtwists (figure 10). This little bubble can now easily be destroyed without risk to divide the balloon (figure 11).

[Trennen von Ballons 1] [Trennen von Ballons 2]
Figures 10 + 11: A balloon between two safe pinchtwists can easily be destroyed.

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