Have you ever made a stress ball by filling a balloon with cornstarch? You tie off the end and have a small ball that resists your squeezing just enough to allow you to work out tension. It’s a fun and easy way to coat your entire workroom in cornstarch.
Inspired by Sasha Kulakova’s stress relief cat, I thought I would try to make a stress relief crochet creature. She stuffs her cats with foam. Wise woman.
I tried the Make a Stress Ball instructions from About.com, which advises blowing up the balloon, corking it with a funnel while the neck is pinched, and letting the air in the balloon and cornstarch in the funnel trade places by releasing the neck. Don’t do that. It creates a science fair volcano of cornstarch powder as the air jets out through the pile of fine dust.
My best attempts involved blowing up the balloon and holding it a moment, then releasing the air and wedging the funnel into the neck of the balloon. After putting cornstarch in the top of the funnel, I would shake and jam it into the balloon with a chopstick.
Some advice if you want to try this yourself: The size you can make is dependent on the uninflated size of the balloon. I had balloons that inflate to seven inches across and my largest stress ball is about 2.5″ knot to tip and 1.75″ across crosswise to that.
Do inflate the balloon before adding cornstarch – just let the air out before you have cornstarch/balloon negotiations. It will stretch the balloon slightly and make it a little more pliable. The picture below has never-inflated balloons (orange and blue) to the left of the finished stress balls and pre-inflated ones (pink and aqua) to the right.
Do be prepared to make a mess even without assistance from air jets. Cornstarch is light and fluffy and prone to flying around under the least provocation. Once the balloons are tied off they will need to be wiped down, and cornstarch will continue to escape from the end past the knot long after you think there could not possibly be any left.
But, you know, give it a go!