Starry Night Balloon Dress
Stacy "Pineapple" Wheeler
Stacy Wheeler was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and has been nomadic since graduating high school. Her Maker tendencies all involve weaving and textile projects--friendship bracelets, embroidery, silk screening, costume design and counted cross stitch. After apprenticing under Nate the Great to learn balloon twisting, she began taking on larger balloon projects and debuted her first balloon dress at the national Twist & Shout balloon convention in Kissimee, Florida. She has a particular passion for fashion, which she combines with her love of balloons to create designer balloon dresses.
Nate the Great (Culpepper)
Nate the Great has been twisting balloons for sixteen years. He specializes in small personalized balloon sculptures, but he has also designed custom pieces for state universities and participated in large balloon build projects (like a 10 foot x 10 foot Millennium Falcon) with other nationally renowned balloon artists. Most recently, he was selected to teach his original balloon sculptures at Twist & Shout, the largest balloon twisting convention in the United States. His proudest moment of 2016 was building a jumbo unicorn costume for his daughter, which she wore to her high school for Halloween.
http://www.natethegreat.comMore Event Info
More Project Info
http://www.natethegreat.com
What inspired you to make this project or participate?
Creating balloon installations and costumes is a joyful and rewarding experience, but it is also time-intensive and impractical for everyday. Because of its labor intensive and ephemeral nature, balloon couture can't easily be monetized, so it seems to fit at a Maker Faire, which celebrates beautiful and uniquely made things. We are constantly inspired by making balloon art/couture and want to share the wonder and delight of it with friends and members of the community through Maker Faire.