Tuesday 18 November 2014

Making Juggling Balls (6th October 2014)

It was the first day of rain - so we decamped to the Hall - which had had something of a face lift :( - in fact it was still in mid-lift so to speak. It definitely will be much better with its newly plastered walls and the damp gone - but just now it is a might dusty with no carpet tiles and a crumbly cement floor…

So, we avoided games and running about and got straight on with our news circle and then down to making balls with balloons.

1. make a funnel out of newspaper (or use one you already have).

2. pour rice and/or lentils and/or split peas etc into a plastic bottle.

[TIP 1: You can cut the bottom of the bottle off so that the bottle itself becomes funnel shaped.]

3. choose your first balloon colour and put the balloon over the opening of the bottle.

Then comes the tricky part...at least it was for us...

4. get the lentils into the balloon....

[TIP 3: We held the bottles upside down and shook and shook until eventually someone figured out that you have to squeeze the air from the top of the empty bottle - so inflating the balloon - and then the rice etc simply falls into the swollen balloon while the air is driven out back up into the plastic bottle!]

5. fill the balloon to the required size (bearing in mind some small hands for catching).

[TIP 3: You can measure out cups of your chosen filling - so if you're making juggling balls they all end up the same size.]

6. cut the neck off the balloon and tape closed the opening. Add on a couple of extra balloons - so if one gets punctured the ball still stays intact.

7. add your decorative layers.

Put a different coloured balloon over the ball and snip a couple of holes in it. You can do this with 1 - or 2 - or more balloons - each time cut off their necks as before and stretch over your ball. You'll end up with spotty balls with the colours of the lower balloons showing through the upper layers.







Repeat until you've made a full set of jugglers!







NB because we forgot to take photos - I've put up a couple from elsewhere so you get the idea - these are courtesy of the craftlounge.com

Session leader: Amanda
Leaders: Clare, Catrin
Helpers: Catherine, Tei, Amanda, Chris


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