Last week I accepted the invitation to the 1st ever Twisticology Invitational balloon education and competition event held in Totowa, NJ. Fifty balloon artists were invited to hone their skills through educational seminars and competitions like the one in which teams had a morning to build a vehicle large enough for people to sit inside. My team chose to build a pickup truck and won 2nd place.
Normally I’m not a competitive individual, but since competition was a big part of the event I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Imagine my surprise when my quickly thrown-together hairband sporting a cute little sheep won 3rd prize in that competition. I wish I had a photo of the Luke Skywalker character that my partner Terry Whittenton from NC and I created for the Star Wars competition. It turned out to be the 1st prize winner of that event.
People often want to know how we remember how to make our creations, how long it took us to learn, and that sort of thing. All I can say is that sometimes we don’t remember, but we have created balloon art long enough to know some basic twists and patterns that can be adapted to many uses. We also continue to go to educational events for fun and inspiration. Although I have been twisting balloons longer than anyone else at the invitational, there was so much for me to learn from the new twisters. Their creativity is fresh, not stuck in the “old school” rules that have been in place for so long.
What should I tackle next?
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