Tuesday, August 21, 2018

balloon figures for smaller children

I am working on offerings for the smaller kids. Too often the smaller children drop their balloons and we have a crying child. This is because the balloons we typically build use balloons that are a bit too large for the hands of the smaller child. I am building figures using smaller balloons and they seem to be working. here are a set of figures using what are called "160" balloons.




Friday, August 10, 2018

Want to entertain people? Treat them like they are interesting! Turns out that they are!

I am not in the habit of daily posts. My web designer says that I should do so.

I do post when something really catches my attention AND I am on line.
In this case I wanted to mention a delightful encounter at South County Commons last night.
I do balloon twisting while the band is playing from 6 to 8 on Thursday evenings.
After the band ended and I was packing up a gentleman came up to me and told me how much he enjoyed what I was doing.
I thought he meant the balloon figures themselves. He did not.
He started to talk about how the audience interacted with me and vice versa.
He found it fascinating that children he had seen bouncing around the site would stand around me as I worked,
I told him that they paid attention because I spoke with them. Not TO them; WITH them.
I sometimes tell them a story about what I am building.
I sometimes tease a bit (if they seem to have a good sense of humor).
Last night I was asking the kids about what was the best book they had read this summer.
If they had one, I asked them why it was so good and they would tell me.
Low and behold, people like it when you listen to them.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Santa in July at a Balloon Event

Had a delightful event twisting balloons in Groton, CT.
I was doing what I do and one little boy loudly commented: "You look like Santa!"
It was  not the first time I have heard that comment.*
I went into ,my standard reply:
       "I am not the Santa this year! I am the younger brother of the Santa."
This typically gets a slightly confused look from the child.
This little boy was no exception so I clarify:
       "OK, If you swear to keep a secret, I can tell you a little.
        You must know that there is more than one Santa. We are a big family.
         At Christmas time, we each take a bunch of families to take care of.
         Each of us reports to THE Santa on what you guys are up to."
This generates various questions which I ignore and answer my own way.
For example:
        "You are wondering who gets to be THE Santa, I bet.
          Every 73 years, we all get together for the Santa Games.
          The winner is THE Santa for the next several decades.
          I came in second last time. I was two points behind in the Chimney event.
          I still think they judged wrong."
I then end; swearing them to secrecy.

I did this at the event at Carwild and the little boy spent the next hour dragging
parents, grandparents and anyone else over.
He would point to me and get them to lean over so he could whisper the secret.
A number of grandparents informed me that they were sworn to keep my secret.

It is good to be me!


*For any who do not know the roles and Santa and Mrs Claus are filled by Sally and me typically starting right after Thanksgiving

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Grand opening of Verizon store


Here are two pictures of an arch we built in Cranston, RI
My pump had failed just before starting this project.
All 280 balloons were blown up by hand pump. My shoulders were aching at the end!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kYDcwZRhKmsvX3vf9 
This is a second attempt to connect to Blueberry the dancing bear.
Daryl (who shall remain nameless) would prefer that I just say Check out the above
Good morning to one and all: I will be at CT College this Saturday doing balloons for the children of the Alumni. This may be my second posting of this. Still fighting with technology.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Dancing Bear with our Librarian

x Here is my giant balloon bear dancing with Ulla, the head librarian at Cross Mills Public Library in Charlestown RI. https://photos.app.goo.gl/kYDcwZRhKmsvX3vf9

Monday, May 7, 2018

Wearable Bear

Started building this bear on Sunday. Finished on Monday.
This figure is theoretically large enough for me to wear.
That experiment will be done on Tuesday (tomorrow).

The bear is approximately 8 feet tall.
It is a lot of work and a lot of fun.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Had a couple of very enjoyable events on Saturday.
One was in New Bedford and it had all sorts of attendees
PLUS
I got to work with Michael Lynne. I didn't even know Michael was back in the area.

The second event was a birthday party.
I started the balloon session with the children all participating in a rendition of
"There was an Old Lady  who swallowed a Fly."
I had built a set of balloon hats ahead of time so each child got a hat with their animal on it.
We had a good time with a great deal of silliness.
The adults were laughing even more than the children. 

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Good morning to one and all:

I have gotten tied up in details for the past few days.
One thing that pulled me into a time sink was some new software that would allow us to design decor. It is a very cool product and going in the right direction. It is also in early stages of development and there are lots of detail questions about how it does things. Unfortunately, software has a learning curve.

Another area that got me in some detail that will pay off big time was looking at a system called ClikClik. Historically, I would go up an ladder to connect lines from the ceiling to a large balloons and/or banners. This system shown below will allow us to do installs and take down faster than ever before and without moving ladders around.  Ain't technology grand!

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Spent time yesterday and today building the head of Uncle Sam for a wearable Balloon Structure.
The head is about 28-30 inches high and 34 inches wide.The body will be somewhere between 6.5 and 8.0 ft tall. I installed the top hat and it set at a jaunty angle.  I like how it is going.  Please feel free to make comments on how I could improve. One design point I can't do much with is the fact that hat is largely hollow.  If I build the sides more densely, it becomes a sail and I won't be able to keep the structure upright.

Friday, April 20, 2018


Built and American Flag today. It is based upon Michael Langerman's design.
This should be great this summer for Memorial Day, 4th of July & other events.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

We finally have it right (I think)

Daryl (my web/tech person) and I have been slogging away to build me a blog.

I love the phrase, "build me a blog." It is such a medieval construction, but I digress.

If we have it right, I will finish this post, click on "Publish," the post will appear on my blog, I will click on the FaceBook (FB) icon AND the post will appear on FB on Bjorn's Balloons and Magic.

If it doesn't work we will continue to mess around.

If it does work, I will go into edit and add the word "Victory" to this post.

Would I rather be building some balloon art? Oh Yeah, but the world demands.

second try with new settings

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Several School Show bookings

Happy to say that Sally Doodles and I will be at the Quest Montessori School on the 8th of June.
I will be doing a magic show and Sally will be doing some of her wonderful face painting

I have also booked several pre-schools and day-care centers for summer shows.
The summer is filling up with some fun events.

On a related note, I am checking out some balloon design software to determine whether Sally and I can use it to produce highly visual proposals. As is typical with software, the learning curve is a bit steep. I hope to include a picture from the software soon.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

A giant Flamingo

I created a Giant Flamingo that someone could wear in a parade or an event. We have a number of these wearable balloon characters that you can have at your events. This picture was taken at a meeting of Business Networking International (BNI) in Wakefield, RI.

Friday, April 13, 2018



Hi folks! Me again! I wanted to share with you a new professional membership that I am proud to belong to: PEBA, or Pro Environment Balloon Alliance.  You can  read about it at the link here, http://www.peba.com.au/
Basically, it says that I adhere to best balloon practices, such as not releasing balloons into our atmosphere, promoting correct balloon disposal, and educating others about better balloon uses and our environment.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Santa and Mrs Claus



Hi folks! Well, it's taken a while, but as you can see, my "blog" is now up and running! I hope you stop in frequently to see updates, and to review some of my adventures. My wife Sally (sallydoodles) and I are always on the move, and look forward to your participation.  Thanks so much, John, aka Bjorn.

PS: Yes, the following photo of me and my beautiful wife is from December, I just LIKE it! Talk to you all soon.