Life-size hobbit house made of 2,600 balloons

We’ve written about artists using a variety of materials to create houses, from fabric to Legos to Jell-O.

Now Jeremy Telford has created Bilbo Baggins’ Bag End cottage from J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Hobbit” using balloons -- 2,600 of them. The project took him 40 hours over three days, and you can watch a video of how he did it here.

"The hardest part was day two," Telford told Brian Gillie of Examiner.com. "On day one I twisted 1,300 balloons and one of my fingers had gotten really swollen and I couldn’t twist with it on the second day."

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The work is life-size -- the video shows him sitting in it during and after its creation -- with the color of the balloons helping to define the space and the objects. Telford built the hobbit house in his living room in Utah, with a little help from his wife and his three young children. In case you’re wondering, he did not blow the balloons up by mouth but used a hand pump.

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Telford is a balloon artist by trade. He previously built a life-size motorcycle as well as a 45-foot-long T. rex dinosaur from balloons. If you want to try your hand at balloon art, he has also published an instruction book, "Balloonology."

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At the end of his time-lapse video, as the camera pans over the details – a balloon "fire," basket of apples and chandelier among them – Telford reads a section from "The Hobbit" about the underground dwelling. "It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort," he reads.

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The hobbit house lasted three days in the Telfords’ living room. The Telford children, ages, 2, 5 and 7, were enlisted to dismantle the creation.