Blow up your balloons at no risks!!

Blowing up a balloon

A few recommendations for blowing up by mouth

Balloon sculpture are based on a few twisting techniques that will be described in the following pages. But first of all it is important to inflate your balloons correctly :
	Blowing up a balloon : use a pump or trying to blow up by mouth ?
	A few recommendations for blowing up by mouth

Blowing up a balloon

Blowing up 260s by mouth is not that hard, it is even quite easy with some practice. But health complications are for real! It might be a good thing to be aware of some of them before distributing your balloons to all your friends wanting to show off. Most of them won't have the slightest interest of twisting them afterwards... The pressure : the most common risk is getting dizzy or even fainting while trying to blow a 260 up. It is the unusual pressure which makes the beginner getting red, feeling dizzy and finally fainting. This extra pressure on the eye can also have bad effects on your vision and not only for a few minutes... The explosion : you never know if a balloon might explode with no warnings. Wearing glasses IS recommended to protect your eyes (it takes only one bad balloon...). The explosion sound can also have bad effects if it happens close to someone's ears.    So is it worth blowing up balloons by mouth? Who will want a balloon that you put in your mouth anyway.... A man was recently accused of spreading his germs to children because he had been blowing up all the balloons by mouth while coughing. Obviously some of you will want to add this extra magic effect before making your balloon sculptures. Please read the advice in the following section if you still want to blow up by mouth.

A few recommendations for blowing up by mouth

You might consider first trying with 350, hearts or blossoms since these are the easiest ones to blow up. Afterwards, and only if you still want to, you can make a try with 260s (forget the metallic ones much harder). Do not even think of blowing up by mouth the 160s, even professional entertainers mostly can't make it!   Do not pull on the 260 balloon to damage the latex and have an easier balloon to blow up. Since you damage the balloon by pulling on it, you will most likely have balloons that will blow up... right in your face. To have an easier balloon to blow up, you can inflate it for a few inches and let the air go away. Since starting blowing up the balloon is the most difficult part, it should help a lot. To prevent a balloon to blow up in your face, you should inflate it by holding it with the palm of your hand down. This way your eyes will be slightly more protected in case you don't wear glasses. Try to use the other hand to slightly pull the balloon back and forth, it sometimes help to start inflating. Hold the balloon between your lips, keep your cheeks flat and blow up hard. All at once! You must use your stomach muscles and not "your head" to increase the blowing pressure. Do not force if you failed, just take a deep breath and try again. If you force telling yourself "I will make it!" then you'll just happen to get red and see all those stars flying around. Once you get the point in making a small bubble in the balloon, you should take a deeper breath and try to fill the balloon all at once. It should be easier and you won't inhale this talc powder (inside those latex balloons) which is not good at all for your lungs. Remember as well that you usually will have to leave an un-inflated tail, this tail will get some air as you twist the sculpture. The length of this tail varies mostly depending on the number of bubbles that a given sculpture requires. You'll quickly learn to estimate its length. As you might understand, blowing up by mouth is not that hard. It is more a technique than an impossible thing to do. Please keep in mind that you should not insist during lengthy seconds, and finally faint, if the bubble doesn't appear. You should take a deep breath and start blowing again.