Anna and I have produced our first video tutorial showing how to make Balloon #001. We are aware that quite a large number of our visitors have been struggling to make the balloon only supported by the somewhat sparse guidelines provided. We sincerely hope this will be a help.
For now this WordPress blog does not support videos, thus our video tutorials are uploaded to YouTube. We have established our own channel where we intend to upload all our videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PaperMatrix
We have subdivided the process of weaving Balloon #001 in three parts:
Part 1: Cutting out the pieces and weaving the first three rows (6 min)
Part 2: Going 3D, weaving row 4 to 12 and fixing the balloon (9 min)
Part 3: Making and adding the basket (5 min)
The videos are cut to omit some of the repeating processes. We added up the time to cut out, weave and mount 1 balloon. We figured out that the time spent is about 1 hour.
We also include a condensed version of the three videos (8 min).
You will find the pattern for Balloon #001 here.
PaperMatrix 
Thank you for taking the time to show us these instructions 🙂
The videos are wonderful! Thank you for taking all of this time to show all of us how to make these fun and pretty balloons. I had made a Studio cutting file with this template but, failed big time when I tried to weave it together. Now I’m inspired to try it again.
We are glad to hear, that the videos were of help. In Denmark the kids are tought to weave Christmas hearts already in kindergarden and a Dane easily makes the mistake of taking knowledge on paper weaving for granted. It is no idea to post templates if it is too frustrating to make the items. And I must admit that some items are quite difficult and time consuming to make.
Thanks so much for taking the time to post this! I know it will be very helpful for us all!
Really really appreciate this video. My balloon has sat sulking in a reproachful fashion for 2 weeks, as I couldn’t quite figure out the how to finish the weaving part. No more!
Coooool, you guys make weaving the balloons look so easy in the videos. It took me a while before it actually looked “alright” but will keep on trying. Thanks for the tutorial though!
Loved the tutorial! I got so inspired that I had to buy me a silhouette and try, but I still dont know how to use the pattern you give in the silhouette studio so the machine can cut it in the exact form… Can you help me please?
Loved all your projects!!
Download and save the pdf file to your computer. Open the pdf in Inkscape (or some other program that can edit vector files like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator–if you have one). Inkscape is free, by the way….
Save the file as a DXF or SVG. Open in Silhouette Studio or RoboMaster. Cut!
Advice given by Carol for Joined Basket #016
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!
omg omg can’t wait to try this!!
XD
Carol I made a cutting file for the Silhouette of the balloons. If you could email me, I will be happy to share it with you. You can find my email address on my blog: http://paperpulse.blogspot.com/ The link to my email is on the right hand side.
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could you please post printable instructions?
Try reading the instructions for Sphere #001. The process is the same. The balloon is however easier as the ends do not need to meet. Then watch the video on you tube.
Hi!
I could not resist the temptation and made a balloon. He came out perfect.
Thanks for the video tutorial. It was very helpful!
This baloon was a present for my boyfriend’s birthday to remind him of our wonderful exprerience of hot air baloon flight during our holiday.
This made him cry! and mind you he is not that sweet and sentimental guy 😉
Thank you, Papermatrix, for inspiration and interesting hobby you introduced me into…
Thank you for sharing this. It is very rewarding for us to learn, when our efforts have an impact.
I completed balloon #1 yesterday at work. All I had was basic office paper, large scissors & Elmer’s glue. Surprisingly it came out pretty well. A little wonky, but presentable.
I would like to make sturdier ones. I understand you use A4 paper, but I don’t now the weight/thickness. Is A4 a standard thickness?
A4 is the size of the paper: 210 mm x 297 mm. For the small balloons where the pattern fits to paper size A4 I use good quality 80 g/m2 coloured copy paper. If you upscale the template to double area (A3) the weight 80 g/m2 is still fine. But if you upscale to a larger size you will find that you need heavier paper. – And do remember to tighten the weaving as you go along. In particular no unused parts of slids near the top star. Watch the video. Lene
Thany you for your response. I will hopefully purchase supplies this weekend for the project.
Having a hard time getting SiIlhouette to cut the png file. The only way I know how to do it is to “trace,” but it cuts out an outline of the shape, rather than the shape itself. Anyone know how to fix?
WordPress only supports uploading the most common types of file. Thus I provide simple vector-PDF cut files for download. You may transform them into the file type apt for your specific type and issue of cutting machine. Skip the tracing, you need not do that when I provide vector-pdfs and not pictures. In your case I would download and save the PDF file to my computer. Open the PDF in Inkscape or some other program that can edit vector files like CorelDraw or Adope Illustrator (Inkscape is free). Then save the file as DXF or SVG and open in Silhouette Studio or RoboMaster. Cut! It is simple and you might as well learn. It sets you free to make your own designs. Lene
Silhouette studio doesn’t recognize the inner shape automatically. Instead, it cuts a square around it. When I “trace,” it’s as though it draws a line on either side of the shape outline, then cuts that. The resulting pieces are too thin. I really want to make a mobile for the baby girl we’re expecting, and I have spent hours trying to get it to work. Thank you for any help!
Silhouette Designer Edition, Cameo machine, is great w/tracing. Select the object; select “Trace”, uncheck “High Pass Filter”, increase “Threshold” to obtain solid fill around the lines within the object; select “Trace”; move the “pattern” from the area – this leaves a red traced image. Select the object – right mouse button (RMB) click, select “Release Compound Path”. This breaks the image up so that you can clean away/delete unwanted particles from the traced image. Recommend you save the file frequently as you clean it up to use with your Silhouette Cameo – I teach this app and am addicted to its great capabilities… have fun em if you wish and blessings on the new baby girl you;re expecting.
Thanks for the information. This method appears to be very good for hand drawings. Otherwise I have never been able to understand all the talk about “tracing”. When I want to cut something from one of my pdf(vector)-files, I do like this:
I open a new document in Inkscape (free software) (A4 landscape usually). Then I import the pdf-file I want using highest resolution. This I save as a dxf-file “Using ROBO-master type of spline output”. The dxf-file I open from Silhouette Studio and I cut immediately. If it is to be very elegant I may select everything, “release”, remove the frame introduced, and “make” again. I may also rescale. The finished file I save as a studio-file to use again sometime. Lene
Thank you for this information. I’m looking forward to trying the trace function for future projects. I the interim, I found this website http://www.online-convert.com/ that let me upload the .pdf and it converted it to a .svg file for me, which the Silhouete was able to cut. You just select your desired output file type from the “Image Converter” drop-down,” upload your image/.pdf file and voila! No software to download. I had tried converting the file with photoshop and with paint previously, but there were parts that the Silhouette software didn’t recognize. Thanks again, so excited to get weaving 🙂
Am so happy to have found this site and greatly appreciate your generosity in sharing your files and creative work. Q. Would you please advise best paper (weight) used for projects (read printer paper/color paper stock); I would also appreciate dimensions of images so that I can ensure my project “mirrors” your completed work. Thank you again for your kindness in sharing. Donna
We use 80 g/sqm – 130 g/sqm paper considering the size of the object. The larger the object, the heavier the paper. Actually the spheres have turned out surprisingly good looking in paper of weight as high as 200 g/sqm. There is no “correct paper” and no “correct size”. The jpg-files are designed in A4 size, so this is the size I would have made myself. Lene