Totally WAY Cool Balloons

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional balloon book
Review: Briefly put: Format exceptional, well written, entertaining, and quality balloon creations await those who purchase this.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional balloon book
Review: Briefly put: Format exceptional, well written, entertaining, and quality balloon creations await those who purchase this.

Rating:
Summary: Totally Cool, Totally Rockin', Totally Tops!
Review: The Short Review - Buy The Book, You'll Be Glad You Did

Thiswas my first exposure to the 3 performers - Wally, Arlene, and Yummy - who put out a lot of this material in earlier, do-it-yourself volumes. I'm glad I waited, because their work deserves the quality of this book. At 138 pages, this single book gives you all the material from their first 3 books, plus new stuff created just for this edition. It also gives you a book long enough to really get to know the WAY Cool authors, and they are delightful people. People you would be proud to have as friends. They are also working performers, and the sculptures in this book come from their working collection. This way, you don't get what 'might' be a good idea, if someone works the bugs out. You get the best of what they offer their clients, the people who pay them to entertain. There are no duds in this book!

What is in the book? Just about everything you could want. For now, how about the most concise, thorough, and best organized introductory material for beginning balloon sculptors? (I'll get to the other stuff in a minute.) We're talking about _all_ the twists that sculptors use, along with a bunch of eyes to draw on your characters, and balloon eyes to keep the sculpture three dimensional. ... you get the secrets of making jaw dropping balloon sculptures. And this is just the first 7 pages. Wait until you hear about the next 131 pages of pure sculpture material.

Sculptures - Cartoons to Chickens

The book starts with an Astronaut and Alien. The astronaut wears a clear helmet, and the alien sits in a flying saucer, under a clear dome. This last part is tricky, but if you achieve it, you have a balloon sculpture that will get you in the local newspaper, and hired for more jobs. This sculpture is the most complicated one of the bunch, and an example of how far the WAY Cool authors will take you on a quest to expand the frontiers of balloon creation. Along the way you'll meet the one balloon mermaid, and her sisters, who get dressed in a formal ball gown. You'll master the art of the rubber chicken, make a Pocket Monster that will have you mobbed (I was), and learn to make a fast but intricate flower that will wow your audiences.

The pages are easy to read, and every sculpture begins with a complete list of balloons needed. They comment on the sculptures in the diagrams, offering ideas for holiday variations and personal preference suggestions. The authors also put a ton of jokes and lines into the book, so you have several ways to present (or think about presenting) every sculpture. The sculptures are built on 260s (the usual long, narrow balloon twisters use) but they use a lot of additional balloons - hearts, Geos, rounds, and 160s - to give new dimensions and depth to the sculptures. You may need to order a few balloons to make the sculptures in this book; the results will be worth every penny.

Free Extras

This is the rest of the stuff I promised to talk about before. At the back of the book, the WAY Cool authors provide excellent clip art for each sculpture. This means that you can easily publicize your new sculptures on brochures or flyers, add it to a signature line in e-mail, or include them on your sculpture selection menus. This is incredibly helpful for a working twister, because words rarely convey the look of a sculpture. They printed a 10" ruler on the overflap, so you can check the bubbles you make without digging around for a measuring stick. The book lays flat, thanks to the spiral binding which doesn't get clogged when you turn the pages. I'd have to say that they thought of everything in this book, and my only question is why didn't other publishers do this sooner?

If You Want To Be Totally Amazing, Buy This Book

My very first balloon book showed me how to make the basic balloon animals that every twister starts with. It took several books, ... to discover that balloon sculptors were doing incredible things with balloons. Totally WAY Cool Balloons is part of the mind boggling balloon world where people, reindeer, chickens, aliens, and coyotes appear like magic from balloons. I wish that when I started, I had this book - I would be much farther along the road to amazing balloon creations if I had. I recommend this book completely - without reservation - for anyone who wants to make fun, exciting, amazing creations from balloons. You won't learn to make a balloon dog from this book, but after these sculptures, you won't want to!

Details: 138 pages of the best sculptures around; 10" ruler printed on the overleaf; clip art of each sculpture the buyer can use on promotional materials; a full size - 8 1/2 X 11"; spacious spiral binding; high quality paper, and high quality softcover. This book looks great, whether open, closed, on a table, or on a shelf.