Stu News and Photos

... floating over a cardboard sea...

Ok, so here's a little more about the paper balloon. First, it turns out that I can email photos to my flickr account (which is idle at the moment). So I think I can document the procedure without involving the jinx mentioned previously.

However, that'll be a couple days preparation (H!), so, for the geeks who can visualize three-dee, here is a skeleton instruction set:

1) Get a hold of a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch blank paper and a decent amount of elbow room and desk space (doesn't have to be a desk, but it helps).

2) Grab any corner of the paper. Fold diagonally, so that it makes a square. Make the square as perfect as you can, then crease it once.

3) Using the newly formed square, tear off the left over paper. To do that, I use the bottom of the square as a rule, and slowly fold (as perfectly as I can, concentration is key on all these steps) until I have a nice crease, then I crease 3 or 4 more times, and then slowly tear.

4) Now you have a square with a crease down the diagonal. Fold the paper in the opposite diagonal, making one crease. Now you have an X for creases.

5) Now's where pictures would come in handy. Fold each crease line, gently, a few times. Then, grab any two opposite corners and slowly, bring them together, but at the same time, press your left-hand thumb and right-hand fingers forward, so that you form a triangle with the rest of the paper tucked inside.

6) If your head hasn't exploded, the rest should be easy. If, however, you are becoming dizzy or having spasms, take a break and get a glass of water to calm your nerves.

7) Make the edges flat, and tighten up that top corner (where the two creases cross). Use your hand to press down the center line.

8) With the 4-crease point at the top, grab one of the two top corners and bring it up, over the top, to create a new, perfect diagonal. Press down on that new diagonal, but don't overly crease it.

9) Do the same with the other side, then flip it over and do the same with the remaining two corners.

10) By the way, once you get a few of these under your belt, it will seem way less complicated, and you'll develop your own short-cuts, your own technique.

11) Ok, so now you should have another, smaller square, with four wings, faintly resembling a weird origami turkey.

12) Take the square, rotate it 90 degrees (if needed), so that the square is now a diamond, with the flappy wings open at the top.

13) Grab the right and left corners of the diamond and reverse the crease, placing the flappy wings on the inside. You should now have diamond with a crease running top to bottom.

14) Turn the diamond 180 degrees. Grab the top corner and fold it in on itself, so that the point of the corner touches the inner crease. Smooth the crease, but just to smooth.

15) Do the same to the opposite corner (but not the remaining corners on that side).

16) Flip over the paper and repeat the previous instructions. You should now have a non-diamond, non-square, geometric shape that probably has a name. What's the name? Anyone, anyone? Bueller? Frye?

17) Almost done!

18) Now you have one end with flappy wings and one without. Go to the flappy wing side and fold a corner half-way down, so it makes a tiny perfect triangle. (Don't pull it across, but straight down, half-way)

19) Crease that edge a bit, then tear it off, leaving half a triangle. Tuck that loose end into the pocket on the closest side (This should seem obvious, if not, wait for photos, or ask about it in comments). Tuck it in as neat and flat as possible.

20) Repeat for the other three flappy-end corners.

21) Smooth everything down flat.

22) Look at both top and bottom corners. One corner will have a hole, the other won't. Hold the paper in your fingers, and blow a puff of air, into the hole. et Voilà, a paper balloon! With the right weight paper and some helium, it would float.

Whew! If you made it this far and had success, bravo. To those others, feel free to ask questions in the comments. Maybe I can post a few quick photos of the trouble spots.

Thanks to those who asked for this, it was fun, and I feel wonderful about documenting it.