Day Forty-four
I’ve never considered myself to be delicate, so making ‘art’ out of a material that will burst with the slightest exertion was nothing short of a nightmare.
The Ridley’s House of Novelties Balloon Modelling Kit (with hand pump) promised their instructions were easy to use – BULLSHIT! There were fourteen different designs to master, ranging from the classic poodle to the very complicated dinosaur (the one I was the most excited about). I had a vision of a photo of me sat on the floor proudly surrounded by my menagerie of inflated rubber creatures, but of course the vision never quiet materialized.
I started with design number one which was described as ‘Basic Animal’. I always thought basic was synonymous with easy, not so. After three burst balloons, causing three startled jumps, I was already losing my patience. I soon decided to downsize my menagerie vision to a single animal, mainly because the noise of squeaking rubber was getting a little grating.
Here’s my basic animal with a slightly too long tail (I’m actually quite pleased with it, despite it taking me forty minutes to complete):
Growing in confidence I decided to have a go at one more balloon creature, the butterfly. After another uneasy forty minutes of squeaking and bursting I admittedly failed to create a rubber winged beauty, instead it looked remarkably more like an inflatable penis, so I just gave up.
In conclusion: Balloon modelling is incredibly frustrating and a little pointless.
