The
illustration to the right is a drawing
made to plan a balloon graphic 18 feet
wide and 6 feet tall. The graphic
would use about 1700 five inch balloons
that have been inflated four inches in
diameter and loaded into the openings
(apertures) in an expandable plastic
framework (RMS-2 Banners).
This design by Graham
& Mary Queen Rouse of Special Events
by Air Apparent in Columbia SC, USA calls
for some of the apertures to be split
into two colors.
For
example, the bottom of the two
"l"s and the bottom of the
"i" shown to the right each
make use of split aperture colors to get
straight edges along the bottom of the
letters.
This
split can be achieved effectively by
making a special cluster of four balloons
and inserting the cluster into the
appropriate aperture. The cluster
is shown to the right.
This
cluster can be made with five inch
balloons inflated 3" in diameter.
Tie the neck of the balloon near the lips
of the balloon. You can make the
cluster with round balloons that have
relatively short neck like the blue
balloon in the photo to the right.
It will be easier to do with longer
neck balloons like the yellow one.
It will be easier still if you use
balloons with tying extensions on both
ends of the balloon like the "Bee
Body" balloon shown to the far right
or Link-O-Loon balloons.
Link-O-Loon balloons look very much
like the Bee Body but are available in
many more solid colors.
If you use
round balloons, squeeze most of the air
into the neck of the balloons as shown to
the right.
Tie the four
balloons end to end to o make a square as
shown to the right.
Twist opposite
joints together to get the combination
shown to the right.
Take one
balloon from the pair on the left above
and pass it between the pair on the right
to get the cluster shown here.
Insert the
cluster into an appropriate aperture in
your graphic. The straps of the
framework should wrap around the cluster
so as to leave two balloons above and two
balloons below the framework as shown to
the right.
You
may rotate the balloons in the aperture
so as to fit your design. The
natural overlap of the aperture by the
cluster secures the balloons in the
framework even though they may be rotated
with relative ease.
