 | ||
| The inspiring image that looked so simple... |
I was trawling the net for some information when I came across these giant frozen marbles. I couldn't track down who originally made them so apologies for not stating that but it's widespread across the internet. I thought that looks simple, I'll give it a go...
Excited by my new project I collected the equipment: balloons, food colouring, a jug and an icing nozzle. And then I make my first mistake - putting food colouring in a jug, adding water and then realising that the water wasn't under enough pressure to fill the balloon. Instead I try adding a few drops of food colouring to the balloon, attach it to the tap and instantly get sprayed with blue dye. Brilliant. Quick change of clothes, washing machine on and I'm back to balloon filling. 5 balloons later I've kind of got the hang of it although by this point my hands are freezing and a riot of colours.
Whilst rummaging for balloons I also found 3 that were heart-shaped - I'm thinking making valentines cards, in a Goldsworthy-stylee...Balloon 1: not as elastic as the water balloons so it won't expand under the pressure of the tap. I try blowing it up and then pouring water into the balloon. The air rushing out of the balloon displaces all of the water into my face. However, this means the balloon is now stretchy enough to fill from the tap but by the time it's full it no longer looks like a heart but some other organ and not really valentine's material. Balloon 2: now I know what to do, I blow it up, it looks like a heart, I let the air out, a deflated heart, I fill it from the tap and good lord, it still looks like a heart. I tie the end and congratulate myself. Balloon 3: an old hand now, I blow it up, it pops. Very close to my ear. At this point I'm thinking I've probably tried this activity for long enough, have nearly developed frostbite in my fingers and sustained serious damage to my ear drum so I stop there and take the few that worked outside to freeze.
 |
| The slightly less inspiring and more weird image of the balloons in the snow |
Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the final product and see whether it was worth the inordinate amount of fun trying to make these damn things.
Day 2: Slightly over-excited, I rushed out this morning to check on my balloons, and contrary to the temperature of my bedroom, it's not cold enough for them to freeze. Weather forecast predicts a low of -2˚C by 3pm this afternoon so that should do it.
Day 3: I relocated the balloons to a more prominant freezing position yesterday but to no avail - still not frozen, although several of them have popped, perhaps due to the 10cm or so of snow we had yesterday?!
Day 4: Don't even ask.
Day 5: I have resorted to artificial means of freezing for the 4 remaining balloons. So far I'm thinking about re-naming this part of the blog 'ideas not to bother with, just appreciate the original pretty picture and really appreciate it's more difficult than it looks'.
Day 8: Still pyjama-clad I took the now thoroughly frozen balloons outside whilst the sun was out and there is still some snow...and ok, they don't look entirely like marbles, but they are gorgeously shiny and quite satisfying to look at, even if the heart looks a slightly muddy purple. I've almost forgiven them for being such a pain to make and have been thinking how I might change them next time - I wonder if the stuff used for making marbled pictures might result in a swirly effect when frozen?! That might be some time in coming though so don't hold your breaths!
 |
| Totally marbellous darling |
No comments:
Post a Comment