AN electrician is putting an extra spark into Christmas by taking up an unusual hobby.

Kenny Richards from Eldene became a balloon modeller after being inspired by a magician at his wedding nine years ago.

His Santa and elf creations have been so popular that he has started selling them to raise funds for charity during the festive season.

Kenny, 46, said: “I make Santas and elves for Christmas and I decided that I’ll sell them for donations to charity, thinking I’d have 10 or so friends who would want one. 

“But that’s now turned into over 90 orders just from people from Facebook.

“The balloons take about 10 minutes each so I have about six hours a day just for making balloons. 

“I went to a cash and carry and bought some gift bags and some stickers that say ‘delivered from the North Pole’.”

“I had 35 to do on Sunday and 40 on Monday – I took Monday off work to do it.”

Kenny has decided to donate all proceeds to Prospect Hospice after his wife, Debbie, put the plans in her work WhatsApp group. 

The mother of one of Debbie’s friends died from cancer and Prospect at Home helped her loved ones during the process.

The charity has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and in May launched an appeal to raise £2 million to ensure its crucial services could continue in the months and years to come.

“I thought it wouldn’t be that good for Prospect, that it would only be £20 or £30 but it’s turning into 10 times that now, which is good,” Kenny said.

Kenny explained the process isn’t as simple as blowing up balloons and performing a few twists – and says his creations are built to last.

He added: “I’ve got a hand pump rather than an electric one because these are the long balloons. 

“I only use Qualatex balloons so they last longer. You have to pump them to different lengths because the more twists you do the more the air moves to different ends so you can’t blow them all the same. 

“It takes seven balloons to do one elf but you get a couple of broken ones along the way.”

Kenny is selling his balloon creations for £3 each, with all the proceeds going to Prospect. 

He said: “Each one costs about 70p to make, plus about 10 minutes of my time per balloon. Originally I bought enough to do 20 models but now I’ve had to reorder to do more than 100.

“I think I need to train up some elves of my own to help next year.”