Breathtaking - literally!

I'm a bit mind-boggled by the 'balloon art' of a Canadian model-maker. The Daily Mail reports:

Try competing with this balloon artist and you would definitely be wasting your breath.

Mark Verge has been perfecting the art form for more than 16 years and has created a 39ft life-size replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex out of 1,400 balloons.




It was just one of the sculptures made by the model-maker along with a triceratops, spinosaurus, stegosaurus and utahraptor for his show in Ontario, Canada.

Mr Verge, 43, who is originally from Nova Scotia, first started making balloon animals in 1995 after coming across a book about the hobby.

Since then he has developed his own techniques and uses a variety of different-sized balloons to build the delicate creations. It was his collection of fossils that first gave him the idea to make model dinosaurs.

His sculpture of the T Rex won Mr Verge first prize in the world balloon-sculpting competition.

There's more at the link, including several more (and larger) photographs of Mr. Verge's work.

Intrigued by the article, I looked around until I found Mr. Verge's Web site, Xtreme Balloons. He's developed an amazing repertoire, and has won first place in the World Balloon Champion Artist competition in 2000, 2002 and 2007. There are plenty of photographs of his creations, including these balloon dresses, which both interested and amused me.




I've heard of a wardrobe malfunction, but these are the first dresses I've seen where approaching them with a needle and thread might lead to an even bigger malfunction! On the other hand, it'd also help to remove the dresses in a hurry, if necessary . . .





Peter