These Balloon Animals are Out of This World

You’ve been a kid, so you’ve probably been to a party or a festival or some other even that had a clown making balloon animals. You’d stand in line for what seemed like an eternity and what would you get? You’d get a “snake” which was just a blown up balloon. Or a poodle that took 30 seconds to make and has a tail that’s far too long. But these balloon animals? These balloon animals are out of this world!

Artist

Masayoshi Matsumoto has been making balloon animals for over 5 years now. What started off as a hobby, driven by his love of nature photography has become somewhat of a calling card for the man online. When people think of impressive balloon animals, people think of Masayoshi Matsumoto.

Age

Masayoshi Matsumoto is 29. He started making these balloon animals when he was 24. It took him a while to gain notoriety online, but eventually news networks and social media users caught on to what he was doing and started to share his work. He had his first interview with a news organization when he was 26.

Time

Each balloon animal made by Masayoshi Matsumoto takes him at least two hours. This is time spent blowing up balloons, twisting them into the right shape, and experimenting with different methods of making a balloon animal. Since Masayoshi isn’t just following instructions in a book, he has to come up with every single element of the animal on his own. In an interview from 2016 Masayoshi Matsumoto said that the most complicated animals take him up to six hours to make. Seeing some of his latest work I’m starting to think that maybe the record is even higher now!

Materials

Balloons only! Masayoshi Matsumoto doesn’t use tape, glue, markers, or any other materials when making balloon animals. Everything you see is made of balloons of different shapes. All the colors are the colors of the actual balloons, because he doesn’t paint over them to add shine or gloss. I’m sure he has to spend a lot of time finding the right balloons to make each animal, but at the end of the day he gets to say that he’s the only one making such amazing balloon animals and plants without any extra help!