[Music]
Hello everyone. In this video I'm going
to teach you all about how to make
balloon swords from a beginner's
perspective. We're going to walk you through
the process of creating your very first
sword balloon. We're going to actually
teach you two easy variations and then
we're going to teach you a slightly more
advanced version. And finally, we're going
to teach you a larger two balloon sword.
So got your balloons in hand? Let's get
started. Let's make your first balloon
sword. First take your long balloon and
inflate it and leave a little bit of
uninflated end. I only have about an inch
here. So think of putting your hand on
here. You want a handle maybe about this
long. And to do that we're going to
create what's called a "basic twist." Now
watch what I do here to make the twist.
I'm actually going to squeeze with my left
hand and then twist with my right. When
you squeeze, it makes it a lot easier to
twist. So most people, when I see
beginners, they just try and twist the
balloon. You have to pinch first and
then that makes it a lot easier. Simply
rotate the balloon. Now here's something
you need to know. Now if I let go of my
left hand,
See. It pops out. And so there's a
technique you have to use. So once again,
let me make this again. I'm going to pinch, and
twist. Now watch my left hand. It moves
over and holds this. Because if it didn't,
if I don't hold this, it's going to pop
out. Now we're going to make the first of
two hand guards using what's called a
"fold twist." You want a hand guard, maybe
about that big. So what we're going to do
is continue to hold here and fold,
and then hold with the left hand. Notice
how my left hand is holding - very
important, otherwise this would just want
to straighten out. Now right here, I'm
going to grab and twist, and meanwhile,
with this hand, I'm going to press in to
make it easier to twist. So here we go. So
squeeze, twist, and that's the first hand
guard. And we're going to do the same thing
again to match. So, and notice this point.
I don't have to hold the balloon anymore
because this fold twist actually locked
things in. One more full twist. Going to
fold twist, as we did last time. Try and
make it match in size to the first one.
Hold with the left hand.
Adjust, and you will have your very first
balloon sword.
[Music]
Now notice something when we had the
uninflated end.
Notice how the balloon filled up and
made one nice sword.
So as you twist, it actually displaces
air and has to go somewhere. Otherwise,
the balloon will tighten and eventually
pop. So that's why we allowed for
uninflated end. Now I'm going to show you how
to make a sabre sword. So what you do is
you start out by inflating. Leave only
about a half inch or an inch of
uninflated end. We're going to start at the
nozzle end. You're going to make a "basic
twist." We're going to make a very small
basic twist of about an inch. Now watch
what I do. I'm going to hold with my left
hand and then watch my right hand, we're
going to squeeze or pinch with the fingers.
So pinch, and then this hand twists the
balloon. Now watch what happens though if
I let go of my left hand. Here the
balloon pops out. So it's important to
first pinch, twist and watch my left hand.
See, it walks over and grabs the balloon
there. Now I can go to the next step.
we're going to create a "fold
twist" and what's involved is we're going to
fold the balloon here, thus the name, right
there, in order to make the folder twist.
There's two ways but the easiest way is
to fold it here and then we're going to
make another twist right here. So watch
my left hand. I'm going to squeeze and then
I'm going to twist this entire structure.
[Applause]
Turn.
There you have a full twist. Now the next
part is to take the end of your balloon
and place it through the opening here.
[Music]
And there you have a sabre sword. This
gives you more of this kind
of motion with the sword. And there's two
variations on this basic sword you can make.
Keep it like this or bend this blade the
other way. Just like that and I think you
can see how it gives you a slightly
different look.
Now I taught you how to make the basic
sword balloon by just holding and making
two fold twists. But there's a faster way
to do this and I'm gonna teach that to
you in this segment. So what you're going
to do is you're going to hold and you're
going to make something of a "s" from your
perspective. So I bend it in half, bend it
in half again and see how we have
something of an "S" or for you a reverse "Z."
Now what we're going to do is, think of a
line that runs right here.
[Music]
Now you're going to kind of push them
together, just like this, so they're all
lined next to each other. And in that
imaginary line that I showed you here,
you're actually going to do a big
squeeze and twist here. Here we go. So
spin and twist.
[Music]
And in that one motion I was able to
make both hand guards. Now when you make
swords, kids and even adults will have
fun fighting it out with these swords.
And these things tend to tend to bend
and get out of shape. So if you want to
stabilize this, here's what you do.
There's a twist called a "pinch twist" and
I will show you how to make that.
What you're going to do is we're going
to make a small basic twist. So pinch,
hold, and twist, now you bend in half. YTou're
going to take this. You're going to kind
of hold it, pull it up and then twist it.
And that will create a pinch twist. So
watch how I do that.
There and we're going to repeat. So small
basic twist.
Kind of fold and hold it in half then
you're going to just grab this.
kind of pull and then twist. It's going to
feel a little tight when you first do
this.
[Music]
Make your adjustments. You can see that
the fold holds with the pinch twists.
I like the pinch twist
to go up vertically. And of course, the
fold twists out, and now you have a much
more stable basic sword. Now we're going
to take the sword balloon one step
further. Now you created a basic sword
here with two full twists that create
the handguard. Of course, you can make a
third fold twist to turn this into what
I call a foil. So all you have to do is
allow for a little less uninflated end, or
more uninflated end, as you inflate
the balloon, and then make one more full
twist. But as you might expect, there's a
faster way to do that. If you watch the
earlier part of the video where I showed
you how to make the two-hand guards in
one motion, you can actually make three
of them at one time. So I'm going to teach
you how to do that here. I think you can
figure out how to make one more fold
twist to make the foil, so we're going to
make not only a "s" but we're gonna add
one more twist, one more fold twist. So you're going to
bend. And then you have something like
this. Maybe an "M." Now remember, there's an
imaginary line right about here. You're
going to twist in between all of these
layers. So hold, pinch, and twist
and right there is what I call a foil,
and you've made it in one motion. Now
this is a really cool jeweled sword. So
you need to have quite a bit of
uninflated end here: four or five inches.
You're going to start out with two pinch
twists. Starting at the nozzle. Make a
small basic twist, hold it and you're
going to make a pinch twist.
And you have your first pinch twist. Now
you're going to make a second pinch
twist to match. Fold it, grab it, pull up a
little, and twist. Now you're going to make
the handle itself. So think of holding
this. Make a basic twist and hold.
Now comes the complicated part. You're
going to be making two small basic
twists, a slightly larger basic twist, and
then two small ones to match the first
two. So five twists in all with the
middle one being slightly bigger. So let
me show you that and remember that each
time you make a basic twist,
you're not making any lock twist for a
while here so you have to keep creeping
this hand over to hold. One.
Two.
[Music]
Three, a little bigger. And then these
next two will match these two here.
You have something that looks like this.
Now you're going to twist these two
sections together.
And that forms your lock twist.
Now you're going to repeat on this side.
So I won't go through the counting. Let
me just finish this up and there, I think,
you see the sword right now. There's one
more detail that we like to do. Remember
we made that that middle basic twist a
little bigger? You can leave it just like
this and I think it looks pretty cool,
like a jeweled sword. But what I like to
do is turn this into a pinch twist. So
let me show you that and there now you
can see them side by side. See how I made
the pinch twist here and I didn't over
here. So it depends on which look you
like. So I'm going to finish this with a
pinch twist. And there you have a jeweled
balloon sword.
[Music]
I've saved the best sword for last.
You're going to need two balloons. I'm
going to use gray here for the blade of the
sword. And then I have a green balloon here
that will form the handle. Now the green
balloon is inflated almost all the way to
the end. The green balloon for the handle
is inflated to about three inches from
the end. But you won't be using the
entire balloon. So let's get started with
the blade. Take your fully inflated
balloon that you're going to use for the
blade and fold it in half. Find the
midpoint and make a basic twist.
[Music]
From here, you're going to twist the
balloon. So let me show you what that
looks like. You're going to hold with this
hand, depending on which one you like and
then you're going to use this hand in
between these balloons and twist them
all the way to the end. It's probably
easier to demonstrate than it is to
explain. So watch my hand. I'm going to use
this motion and I'm going to twist them.
And as I twist down, I'm going to hold it
with this hand. See how that works?
I'm holding over here by the way,
otherwise, it would come undone.
And take these two ends and twist them
together. Take your second balloon and
we're going to start with two pinch
twists as we did in the earlier jeweled
sword. I'll go through this very quickly
because I explained the pinch twist
there.
Now you're going to make the handle now.
You're going to make a basic twist and a
pinch twist and another basic twist. But
we're going to do this in three segments. So
you're going to make three basic twists: two
longer and one in the middle shorter. And
then fold it all together. Small basic
twist - notice that I'm using my body to hold
here.
Then hold and there you have a handguard.
A little fancier here, with two
basic twists and a small in here, you
can turn this into a pinch twist which
is really cool. So once you do that, you can do the
same thing at the other side. Now that
wouldn't be much of a sword but you can
take this and take some scissors. Find a
little slack in here and cut it off. I'm
going to use the advanced technique. Tie it.
Now you can take your blade. You're going to
take these two twists here and twist it
into the base of the handle. So you can
watch me do that.
[Music]
And there you have a two balloon sword
that will be very popular with the kids.
If you have trouble with popping, check
your fingernails. Make sure that there are no
sharp edges or burrs there. The other
thing is the quality of your balloons.
Now when I make balloons here in these
videos, I'm using high quality balloons
made specifically for this purpose.
They're thicker than average balloons
but for something this simple you should
be able to be make swords out of the
balloons you buy at your dollar store.
Just keep in mind that they will not
withstand as much stress as a high end
balloon such as this one. The other thing
is, consider the quality of your balloons
from the standpoint of their condition.
If your balloons have been sitting
around the house for a long time, they're
brittle sometimes. You can barely even
inflate them and they will pop. So if you
have old balloons, try and get newer
balloons and that should solve your
issues. Hope that you're having fun making
these balloons for your friends and
family and maybe even at parties or even
for money. Please give us a "like" and
please subscribe for more video lessons
in the future. Thank you so much for
watching.
See you next time.
[Music]