Balloon Dreidel

Step 1: You want to inflate each balloon leaving one inch on each side. I do this by covering the first bit of the balloon with my right fingers.

Step 2: I am inflating the balloon, with the inflated section beginning after my fingers. I stop with two inches at the other end.

Step 3: Inflated balloon. Note the extra room at each end.

Step 4: Blow up both balloons about the same size, the same way.

Step 5: Make a twist at the midpoint of each balloon

Step 6: Connect the balloons at the midpoint perpendicular to each other

Step 7: Make a medium bubble (4") followed by a shorter bubble (3") in one of the spokes.

Step 8: Twist the same bubbles in another spoke.

Step 9: Connect the end of the shorter bubble from spoke 1 in between the medium and shorter bubbles from spoke 2.

Step 10: Repeat with the next spoke. Twist a medium bubble in spoke 3, and attach it to spoke 2.

Step 11: Repeat with the fourth spoke (connect it to spoke 3).

Step 12: You should be left with a little upside down pyramid

Step 13: You may want to "lock twist" some of the spokes by running the balloon through the pyramid in various directions.

Step 14: Now you are going to make the cube in the middle. The 'shorter' balloon section will be the bottom, so twist a matching 3" balloon in one of the spokes.

Step 15: Make another 'shorter' 3" bubble and connect it to another spoke making a 90-degree angle and a 3" bubble in the new spoke.

Step 16: Continue the same pattern for the next spoke -- a 3" bubble horizontally connected to the third spoke.

Step 17: Connect all four spokes this way. You will complete the cube when you twist the fourth spoke to the first spoke, as in the picture above.

Step 18: Almost done! You should have a pyramid at the bottom, a box in the middle, and four spokes pointing upwards, without much space in them to twist.

Step 19: Make a small bubble (1 to 1.5 inches) in each spoke.

Step 20: Connect all four little bubbles, bringing all four spokes together in the middle at the top of the sculpture.

Step 21: You are left with an oddly shaped balloon, kind of like an avocado.

Step 22: Snip two of the spokes. I usually snip the one that's about to burst, or one that is way too long.

Step 23: Tie off the ends of the snipped balloons to prevent the entire figure from unraveling. That would really suck.

Step 24: Tuck the ends neatly into the sculpture. You should have two bubbles sticking up at the top. One of them will be the handle of the dreidel, and the other will will be the middle section, and the point. As a side note, if you have basically used up your entire balloon, you can easily tie a third balloon into this intersection and pop/tie/tuck all four short pieces.

Step 25: Roll the knot on one of the bubbles.

Step 26: Push the air into the rolled-out section, making a longer balloon section.

Step 27: Gently shove the four little bubbles from Step 19 down a bit, making the top of the balloon seem flatter.

Step 28: Shove the lengthened section from Step 26 inside the sculpture, all the way to the very bottom (the twist from Step 6)

Step 29: Make a tiny bubble in the balloon piece that you pulled inside the sculpture. Twist that little bubble around the twist at the bottom of the figure.

Step 30: The new little bubble is the point of the dreidel, which it theoretically should spin on.

Step 31: Congratulations, you have completed the dreidel.

Step 32: Spin the Dreidel!

Video of spinning the dreidel. [dreidespinning.AVI 2.13 MB, 14 secs]