On Ken Stillman's "Fantasy Princesses" DVD, he does a couple of raisin twists *before* inflating the balloons. Other than that, I've only ever seen them done after inflation.

What's the thinking on this? Is there any compelling reason to do these before inflating? Or was that simply how it was done back before raisin twists became more mainstream?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Josh

Does he fully inflate the ones he does before thus making it harder to do those after?

Sounds like a big pain to me. Maybe Christopher Lyle will come along and explain it.

Yes, he attaches two 260s to the lobes of a large heart balloon first using inserted beads, turns the heart inside-out, and then inflates (I don't want to describe it too exhaustively as I don't want to inadvertently give away too much of Ken's technique).

The heart does get fully inflated, so it would probably be very difficult to do TWO raisin twists in it once it's inflated.

If you have seen Ken Stillman's design then surely you've answered your own question. You know what the raisins are for, you know how the finished sculpture looks...would it look that way with regular raisins? The answer is no. Therefore you must know why he did it that way.

All credit to NYCTwister, who brought to my attention the amount of inflation necessary. I hadn't noticed that difference before, but yes, the torso in the Princesses does seem more fully inflated than with all the other figures I've seen that utilize a raisin twist.

Many of these twists are new to me. I learned all my twisting back in the early 70s, when (at least, in all the instructional materials I could get my hands on at that time) all pop twists were done with a single pinch twist on each side and there were no raisin twists, no marriage twists, and so on. I'm discovering a whole new world of twists, and I don't always understand the intricacies.

Ken uses it to secure the arms before inflating. Most raisin twists are usually to add anchor points for other appendages. With the Princess, it is more core to the balloon construction and easy to anchor before inflating. I have always done it Ken's way but that's mostly because I habitually followed his instruction. You should ask Larry Moss who is not too far from you.

Dan.

Normally raisins are put into the balloons before inflation. However it does depend on the raisins, how moist they are etc. You can also use sultanas too!

Ah, that's the problem...I've been using currants, and they always slip out.