Easy Sword Making Tricks to the Balloon
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 handguards using what’s called a “fold twist.” You want a handguard, 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 the uninflated end. Now I’m going to show you how to make a saber 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 are 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 saber sword. This gives you more of this kind of motion with the sword. And there are 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 an “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.
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 handguards. Now when you make swords, kids and even adults will have fun fighting it out with these words. And these things 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. you’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 an “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 long 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. 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 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] [Music]
