How to Make a Balloon Penguin

Hello! Now here is the tutorial for Tux, the penguin that took the 2012 Solutions Linux convention by storm.

First of all, you need to inflate a black balloon and leave about the width of a hand, or four fingers, uninflated. You do the same thing with a white balloon. Then... you tie both balloons together.

You start with the white balloon, forming two identical bubbles about three fingers long. And you block the two bubbles by twisting them together several times around their bases. So, we already have our penguin's two eyes!

Let's now take the black balloon, and make a wide loop which we'll roll around the eyes like this. Then, you turn the loop and the eyes, to lock them together. You push the rest of the air to the end of the black balloon, and we're going to fold it into three parts of equal, or roughly equal, length. Actually, the far end of the balloon will have to be a little longer than the first two parts.

It's quite simple! First you quickly assess the size of your parts, by making a sort of zigzag, like this! Once you can make the first fold, all you'll have to do is form two perfectly identical lengths of balloon, that we'll lock together at their base, which is also the base of the head of our little mascot.

We've just made its two wings. Now, we need to create a little bubble at the end of the black balloon, so that the part next to the wings is a little shorter, like this! And, by locking this bubble between the two wings, we obtain Tux' back and tail!

Let's go back to the white balloon. At its base we make a well-rounded bubble that we're going to pinch, and twist to make into sort of ear or bean shape. We will use this 'bean-bubble' to wedge Tux's head firmly, above its wings and back. And the rest of the white balloon will come in front, to allow us to shape the stomach.

So, air control... You form a length of balloon which should be much longer than the back, and lock it beneath the two wings around the tail and the base of the back. Give it a shape so that it forms a slightly round belly, Well, a bit like the aptly-named Môssieur Ballon (Mister Balloon)!

So, air control again, but this time, we're pushing the air all the way to the end. You shape a small round bubble at the end of the white balloon, and lock it at the base of the wings, around the tail and the base of the back. It doesn't matter which side the bubble comes out from for the moment. We fold the big white loop thusly shaped into two equal parts, just to mark where the half of this loop is located, and we use this mark to divide the loop into two equal parts, by pressing and turning them just like this.

Refine the shape of the two loops to have them well-rounded. Also put the finishing touches on the tail, to give him a little curved shape, and there, our penguin is starting to take shape, except it's missing a little beak!

The simplest solution is to take a little round balloon, or even to cut off the end of a yellow modelling balloon. Since I have a lot of little round balloons, I'll use one. Firstly, inflate it normally, then deflate it a little, until it takes on a slightly pointy shape. If needed press a little on the end of the balloon, so that the air stays confined towards the balloon knot. All we need to do now is to block the knot of the yellow balloon around the 'pinch-twist' at the base of the head. Refine the shape of the beak any which way you like, and you can also force the black loop of the penguin's head, between its eyes a little so that they show more.

And finally, a bit of black marker on the eyes, and it's done!

OK, now Tux and I have some coding to do! So, see you soon! For another lesson, with... Môssieur Ballon!