Creating Stunning Balloon Walls with Starpoint and Taper Balloons
There’s something truly elegant and striking about working with star-shaped (Starpoint or Concave) and Taper or Leaf balloons. Their unique shapes and high-shine finishes make them perfect for creating impactful balloon installations, especially balloon walls that wow!
I was commissioned by a brand development agency to create two eye-catching balloon installations for an immersive walkway. Their vision was inspired by Andy Warhol’s iconic “Silver Balloons” exhibit from the 1960s — a dreamy, reflective space filled with metallic floating forms. While the original "Metallic Pillows" were handmade silver inflatables, we aimed to recreate a similarly captivating effect using modern balloons.
After sharing design ideas and visual mock-ups, we agreed on creating two balloon walls made entirely from silver Starpoint and Taper balloons. These balloon shapes delivered the shiny, sculptural look the client was after. To add a little extra visual flair, we assembled the sections to form a gentle wave effect rather than a rigid straight wall.
Planning the Design
The design process started on the computer. I created a simple visual using balloon images saved as transparent .png files and arranged them into a wall layout. This not only helped the client envision the final installation but served as our reference throughout the build.
Each balloon wall was made up of:
40 silver 40" Starpoint balloons
77 silver 27" Taper balloons
We opted to construct the wall in smaller, manageable sections before assembling everything together. This made the process much smoother, especially during installation.
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Construction Steps
Prepping Sections
We connected eight uninflated Starpoint balloons using a cable tie gun, leaving the valve tips unlinked. These were secured after inflation to ensure proper alignment and pressure.
Inflation
A good inflator with a foil-specific nozzle is essential for this type of work. It helps ensure the correct pressure without damaging the self-sealing valves, which is especially important for larger foil balloons.
Assembling the Wall
Once all sections were prepared, we joined them together using either a cable tie gun or scraps of 260 balloons — both methods work well. As the wall came together, we loved seeing how the balloons connected into what looked more like a piece of metallic art than a balloon display.
Final Touches
Each wall consisted of five connected sections. We made sure the installation looked just as good from the back as it did from the front, as the walkway allowed for a full 360-degree view.
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| Connecting the valve points after inflation. |
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| Once we had prepared all the sections, we connected them all together. You can use a cable tie gun or a scrap of 260Q. Both work very well! |
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| You can see from this photo how the balloons looked when connected together, several people commented on how they did not look like balloons once they were connected! |
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| Here is a view of the wall from outside - we had to make sure that it looked good from both sides! |
The final result was stunning. The client was thrilled and shared such positive feedback:
“We loved working with you on this project and want to thank you for doing such a fab job. Everyone loved the installation!”
Lessons and Gratitude
Projects like this always teach you something new — and we definitely streamlined our process the second time around. It was a rewarding experience and a fantastic collaboration.
A heartfelt thank you to my amazing team, Nicci Gibson and John Bowler, and a special thanks to Nicci for capturing such beautiful photos of our work.
Happy Ballooning!
Sue
www.bapiaonline.com
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