help my balloon keeps on bursting before ive finished putting on the papier mache and the whole thing then collapses ??
what am I doing wrong ??
Answer from Piñata Boy
The three most common reasons that balloons pop when you’re working on them are: 1) you have blown them up all the way, so the latex is stretched very tight; 2) the papier mache is drying unevenly and sticking to the balloon, causing the skin of the balloon to stretch unevenly and break, or 3) you are using cheap balloons.
Here’s what you can do to prevent it from happening:
1) If possible, don’t blow up the balloon quite all the way, especially if you’re drying it outside on a hot day or in direct sunlight. If you have to blow the balloon up all the way, try drying it away from heat and sunlight and have a fan blow on it to help speed the drying.
2) If you are applying the papier mache directly to the balloon, it sometimes dries and sticks to the latex, and as it continues to dry it pulls unevenly against the skin of the balloon, and this leads to popping. This is one reason why I wrap my balloons in newspaper first, so the papier mache never dries directly onto the balloon and can’t cause this to happen. Wrapping a balloon in newspaper first results in a bumpier piñata surface, so if you need a smooth surface (if you’re painting it, for example) this might not work for you. Most of the time if you’re not painting the piñata the small bumps are hidden in the decorating.
3) I bought some really cheap balloons before and I could see that the latex was not uniformly thick all the way around. Sometimes they popped while I was blowing them up. This happens more often with long, thin balloons, and less often with round balloons, but there is a difference in quality and really cheap balloons are more likely to pop while you’re working with them.
Good luck!