Karinska would make endless sketches by pasting pieces of fine fabric onto pencil-drawn figures on heavy watercolor paper. They would walk in the woods daily and Balanchine would choreograph by imitating the dances of different birds. Her own students had remarked on the immense effort and skills required to make the complex costumes with the 'extra bounce', in the 1970s, for example resulting in the Cincinnati Ballet gaining knowledge of her 'secret' methods.[21]