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Balloon Twisting Tips and Tricks

Poushali Ganguly
If you want to bring a smile to your child's face this birthday, learn these effective balloon twisting tips and tricks, and decorate the birthday party venue creatively.
With a little bit of patience and a few balloons, you can create marvelous balloon artworks. Among all the balloons, the pencil-shaped balloon which is normally graded as 260, is the main balloon used by twisters.
Basic aspects to keep in mind when learning balloon twisting are that 260-balloon grade gives more scope and space to twist. The 360 and 160-balloon grades are used by experienced balloon twisters. Balloons' other shapes like rounds, Geo-blossoms, hearts, bee-bodies, and slim-jims are used for twisting.

General Tips for Balloon Twisting

✤ Though these balloons give a scope and are flexible enough to twist and turn, they are very hard to blow up using the mouth in the correct way. It is easier, better, and safer to use a hand pump for this purpose. There are pumps available in the market, which are particularly used for inflating balloons.
✤ Whenever you inflate a balloon, leave about four inches of space uninflated at the tail end. As the balloon is twisted, some air gets squeezed into this uninflated part of the balloon. If this space is not left, the air inside the balloon would be under intense pressure and that might lead to bursting of the balloon.
✤ While you are twisting, hold the nozzle end, working towards that part of the balloon which is uninflated, because with every twist some of the air is passed down towards that space. Hold it till you get the shape you want.
✤ Once the balloon is inflated, pinch the balloon just a little below the nozzle and let off all the air from the front part so that it is easy to tie it.
✤ The more twists and turns your design has, the more space you should leave uninflated.

✤ Always start twisting the balloon from the nozzle end so that the air inside gets pushed up and fills the uninflated space.
✤ Also twist in the same direction and twist each and every bubble that you make for at least four times, if more than that is not possible. Always be careful about the first bubble until it is secured or is followed by other bubbles.
Once you get a hang of making the basic shapes out of the balloons, with a little more practice, you can try your hand at creating various other interesting shapes.