How to Make a Pinch Twist in a Balloon

1. First, you need to create a fairly hard round bubble in the balloon.

1.a It’s important to have at least 4 twists in the balloon before and after this round bubble.

1.b It is also important to have these 2 twists, twisted to the same direction (otherwise the round bubble will come undone).

2. After you have a round (and a hard) bubble, place the two bubbles that are located before and after the round bubble, parallel to each other.

3. Grab the round bubble, pull it just a bit, and twist it 2 time (The idea is to lock the 2 twists from both sides of the round bubble together).

4. And this is it. Congratulations for your pinch twist 🙂

You can create a pinch twist in any kind of a long balloon (AKA modelling balloons).

Modelling balloons has a few sizes, like 260 balloons , 350 (or 360) balloons, 160 balloons and 646 (or 660) balloons.

(260 balloons are the most common size of modelling balloons).

That means you can practice not only on 260 balloons but also on 350 balloons, 160 balloon and even on 646 (or 660) balloons.

• If you need to create a pinch twist in the beginning of the balloon, you should treat the knot of the balloon as if it was the bubble that is located just before the pinch twist.

• A pinch twist is commonly used to create ears within balloon characters, and that’s why it’s also called an “ear twist”.

• Pinch twists are very useful for creating ears, noses and it is also great for stabilizing various parts of the balloon sculpture.

• Many students create an oval bubble instead of creating a round bubble. This is a mistake since a pinch twist that is based on an oval bubble will have a greater tendency of popping and will also look unaesthetic.

• A very common mistake is to turn the twists of the round bubble one or two times only, instead of twisting them 4 times.

Please check our great balloon modelling video courses