Balloon art so beautiful it will make you cry
- Learning that face painting isn’t always on the face.
There are some truly great balloon twisters in Greenville, SC (and Anderson and Spartanburg … and Newberry too). And Greenville has its share of talented face painters as well. But finding artists that do BOTH balloon twisting and facepainting is pretty hard. That is why I am truly blessed to have Paula as my wife (and 70% owner of Joy Set Entertainment). Joy Set is one of the very few companies in the Upstate of SC that has an entertainer capable of doing both balloon twisting and face painting.
Many people do not realize that it was Paula that taught me how to twist balloons. I already knew the simple basic shapes like poodles and swords. But I wanted to venture into some more elaborate balloon art. She was able to read the balloon twisting books that I bought or borrowed from the library and explain it to me. She continues to impress me by coming up with her own balloon creations. I know that I would not be the balloon twister … or balloon artist if you will, if it were not for my lovely wife.
Not long after Joy Set Entertainment first started, we were helping some clowns with their restaurant entertainment. On this particular occassion they were doing cheek art. Paula picked up some brushes and was quickly doing hearts, flowers, butterflies and more on the faces of boys and girls. I remarked “Well I guess we know who the face painter is for our company.” When we would go to conventions, I would take the balloon twisting classes, and Paula would take the face painting classes. Of course today, she is teaching face painting classes and I am teaching balloon twisting classes.
It is time for me to face paint as well. That’s right folks, the Tie Dye Balloon Guy is going to be the Tie Dye Face Paint Guy too. You see Joy Set does several birthday parties all over the Upstate of SC almost every weekend. And more and more parents in Greenville, Anderson, and Spartanburg are wanting our complete party packages where we offer a comedy show, balloon twisting, face painting, and goody bags. So it is time for me to step up to the plate … er paintbrush and take some of the load off of my busy wife. Admittedly I have done face painting before, but I have to take it up a notch. And Paula is helping me. An unusual but effective piece of advice she gave me was “When you are painting a design, imagine how the balloon sculpture would look.” I am finding that doing full face designs are actually easier than doing the small cheek art. And now our kids are taking an interest in juggling. Wonder where I put those fire torches?
Carl “The Tie Dye Balloon Guy”
