Hello!

Got a quick question for everyone. I'm an ER nurse and for some reason kids love it when you inflate a large latex glove, put a couple of eyes near the thumb and use the fingers as hair. I've also learned to make an elephant by knotting the index to the middle finger and the ring to the pinky finger to make feet with the thumb as a trunk.

Are there any other types of sculptures that can be made from a latex glove? I always carry a sharpie and always have a lot of gloves around. I'm just curious if anyone has done anything else.

Thanks in advance...

Master Dewey has a column on BalloonHQ this month:

http://www.balloonhq.com/column/dewey/jun08/

Very surprised you have latex gloves in a hospital. I thought they frowned on that.

Very cool link! Thanks for that!

Why would you be surprised that there are latex gloves in a hospital? Latex is still the cheapest glove out there and has better protection then vinyl. There are some newer style of glove out there, Nitryl, but they are way too pricey to put in every room in the place.

There are a number of patients (and a large number of health care workers) that develop latex allergies, but they end up getting a large sign outside their room that states "LATEX ALLERGY" and then the gloves are changed to latex free in those rooms only. Or in the case of a latex allergy in an employee, there are plenty available for day to day use.

The majority of hospital based products, outside of gloves, are already latex free, at least in the place that I work.

Thanks again for the link.

I keep on being told the horror stories of latex when I work. Also many hospitals won't allow balloon animals in the rooms and helium rounds either.

That "fun ball" is adorable, too.

Steve

I can't really speak to this. I work in an Emergency Room where, unless told otherwise, we use latex products. Although, at this time, aside from the gloves we wear most of the products that we use are latex free and we have latex-free gloves available.

As for balloons...I don't know. I'm sure there is something about that somewhere, hospital litigation being what it is. I was just looking for something else to make with gloves. 95% of the time, when I find an inflated glove in a room, it was inflated by someone in that room.

My experience is an adult based ER. I'm sure that some of you that have worked in children's hospitals have had different experiences. As far as I know, we have no problems here.

I'm not aware of many horror stories about latex. If you happen to be working in a children's hospital (or around chronically ill children) the constant exposure to the latex can lead to some pretty horrific allergies. Most of my patient's are infrequent visitors and can usually tolerate the exposure the same as you or me.

I don't want to sound like I'm disputing what you say. I've never worked in Florida and hospital policies can be vastly different 3000 miles apart. Hell, I work in Napa and things are way different 50 miles away in San Francisco...such is hospital work.

Thanks again for the link. I found a couple other glove sculptures I'm going to try. Hopefully this doesn't lead to balloons...I'm not sure my wife can handle more stuff around the house. =P

I have been using that ball to start my shows for a while now. I use the different parts of it to "lay out the ground rules" or as I call it "tips for having a great adventure".

We will have a great adventure if we use use our:
> eyes (figure eight in front of face)
> ears (figure eight behind head)
> ends [staying seated] (nozzle end of tied balloon)

Choosing specific colors for the occasion can be helpful as well.


peace,
phill

I thought I would bring this topic back to the top. Is there any publications or DVDs that have information about gloves in sculptures. I would love to incorporate them into what I do.

Thanks

Ryan, in regards to your question, Hans Siemons "Twisted Mind" was a CD-Rom released a few years back that had quite a few rubber glove creations. No idea if it is still available but it is the first one I thought of.

Here's the link:

http://www.twistedmind.nl/indextw.htm

David Ginn has a routine in which he uses a latex glove to & makes 5 different sculptures. The last one being a shark. Check it out.

I though I had invented the face on the inflated balloon. Oh, well, great minds ... Sometimes I tell the kids it's a self-portrait of me (pause) back when I had spike hair. Do you draw ears on palm and back of the hand?

I haven't done any rubber glove sculpting lately, but I think these are correct. If they don't look right, try tying different fingers:

Part of a cow. (not that part, the udder part). Turn glove inside out. Tie the thumb near the base. Turn right side out, inflate, tie the wrist. (I work mainly with city kids and have never been told that a cow has six spickets, but if I am ever challenged, I'll just tell them its the utter part of a goat.)

Rabbit. Turn the glove inside out. Tie a knot on the thumb, near the base. Tie a knot on the first finger and tie a knot of the fourth finger. Turn the glove right side out. Inflate and tie the wrist. Draw a rabbit face on the palm (or is it the back of the hand) - eyes, nose, mouth, whiskers. The second and third fingers are it's ears.

Cat. Do the same thing, except tie the thumb, tie the second finger, tie the third finger. Draw a cat face on the palm. With the right eyes, etc. and a bow near one ear, this can be made to look like a Kitty many of the girls like. Hello. Or you can make a different cat.


Thom

These are all great.
I might carry one around just for this=]

I think I was the originater of the ball balloon Ralph Dewey mentioned (see balloon hq earlier.

I was doing it in the 1990s then when the first Harry Potter film came out I made it up for a quiditch game in the cinema's as I was playing the part of a wizard before the film started. I showed many people how to make it, so thought I would release it on my DVD
It is on my new DVD Balloon-Ability if any one is intrested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Pqgg0N62s&feature=related

I too have tried to do balloons at hospitals and been told: "No balloons due to latex!"