It won't be too long before the 2012 wedding season is truly upon us, so I thought that a little bit of wedding inspiration might be a good idea!
Designed by Sue Bowler CBA
"So how do we 'find' our Wedding decor inspiration and get some fresh idea's"?
I always try and do as much research as possible, check out what's 'hot' and in fashion with both colour and themes.
Start by doing a little bit of 'surfing' around the web, you can find a whole host of information and idea's! Just use key words like Wedding Colors 2012, Wedding Trends 2012, Wedding Theme 2012, just keep trying different words, you'll be amazed at what you'll find out... save the websites that you like best to your favourites so that you can easily find them again!
For 2012 wedding colours I found many great sites, including Martha Stewarts Weddings, which has some great information, like these Perfect Palettes, click on the link below to see more great information from her website!
Use the great resources that are ready available on www.Qualatex.com such as The Wedding Business Booster for fantastic decor idea's and great business tips!
If you are a QBN Member you have many other additional resources available on the Qualatex website, like these great downloadable photographs (and many more) from the resource centre that you can easily accessed from the lefthand side of the homepage... simply click, sign in and see what's available!
Free resource for QBN members
Learn and be inspired by others by investing in training & knowledge.
Attend the World Balloon Convention or a Qualatex Event, or alternatively take a 1 day wedding course or learn from professional Balloon Design DVD's.
For those of you attending theWorld Balloon Conventionthere are some great wedding design classes such as Magical Wedding Moments with Steven Mayhew CBA and Weddings with Italian Flair! With Alberto Falcone CBA
This is a series of courses that I have written for Qualatex. They have been designed to maximise sales opportunities from brides and increase demand for more creative and profitable decor! To find out more and where these courses are being taught visit www.thequalatexevent.com website. For other great courses visit 'Shows and Events' on the Qualatex Website.
The Qualatex Facebook Groupis also a fantastic source of inspiration! I have selected a few pictures from the photo gallery... there are so many great pictures it was hard to choose!
A huge thank you to all of you who submit your pictures to inspire others and a special big thank you to the designers of the photographs that I have used below!
Beautiful Framed Heart by Alessandro Patane CBA of Balloon Express Shop Sicilia, Italy
'Balloon Tree' by Nadia Azar, Balloontastic Creations, New Jersey, USA
Wedding Arbour by Funtastik Balloons, Florida, USA
Elegant Hearts - Jose Lutman CBA, Mulhouse, France
Just Married Hearts by Jose Lutman CBA, Mulhouse, France
Elegant Columns & Arches by Luz Marina Paz Bucio, CBA, Fiesta Party Corp, Indiana, USA
Free Standing 36" Wedding Heart by Matthew Lewis CBA - Matthew Lewis Displays, Coventry, UK
Svetlana Lugovaya ,Orenburg, Russia
Elegant Centerpiece by Nadia Azar, Balloontastic Creations, New Jersey, USA
Elegant Swan by Tania Torres CBA, Balloon Express Shop, Sicilia, Italy
Bride & Groom by Ballooncake CBA
Stunning Ceiling Decor by Matthew Lewis Displays, Coventry, UK
Fairy Tale Cake Table by Rosanna Cedeno, New York, USA
Elegant Columns and Wedding Cloud by All Occasions, Sunderland, UK
White Butterfly and Heart Column by Nadia Azar, Balloontastic Creations, New Jersey, USA
3' Just Married Hearts-A-Round by Colin Myles CBA, Smiley Balloons, Dundee, Scotland
I hope that this has given you a little inspiration for the forthcoming wedding season? Don't forget all the fantastic Qualatex balloons that are just perfect for weddings... here are a few of my favourites!
Ivory Rose & Butterflies #31254
Deco Bubble Scroll Filigree All Around #23593
Deco Bubble 24" Elegant Roses & Butterflies #29718 with Just Married Butterflies-A-Round 11" Latex
But please do not let me influence you :) Check out the great range of Wedding latex, Microfoil® and Qualatex Bubble balloons! Download the 2012 Qualatex catalogue today if you do not already have i
Looking forward to seeing many of you at WBC 2012 in Dallas... !
I love this wall type, it is robust, always looks good and is probably the most widely used method of precision wall. It is made by alternating clusters of four balloons in two different sizes packed on to 50lb Dacron line. This produces a square garland (see example below).
The first and last garland in your wall start and finish with one size of balloon cluster, the next garland starts and finishes with the alternate size of balloon cluster. The example below shows the green balloon being the bigger of the 2 sizes.
Square Garlands
The difference in size between the two sets is relative to the size of balloon used.
2" - 4½" = use a ½"differential
4½" - 7½" = use a 1" differential
7½" - 11" = use a 2" differential
5cm - 11.5cm = use a 1.5cm differential
11.5cm - 19cm = 2.5cm differential
19cm - 28cm = 5cm differential
Practice to see which size works best for you. The garlands when built are laid side by side and interlocked, then joined together using the elastic band method (See Balloon Walls Part 1).
Square Garlands locked together
Consistent sizing of balloons is paramount with balloon walls, some methods are not very forgiving of badly sized balloons or inconsistent 'dupleting' of balloons. To form the duplets we must make sure that the balloons are tied as tightly together as possible, leaving no slack latex between the knot and the inflated part of the balloon.
Everyone will pack clusters on to line at a particular tension. It is usual to have only one person pack the garlands while others inflate and tie. This is not possible on large jobs, so you will need to practice consistent sizing and packing with your crew.
This method produces quite a smooth design with a flat surface, it allows for good diagonal lines and triangles. Not all balloon wall types work with different patterns!
Here are some examples of balloon wall using the Alternate Size Square Garland method:
I designed and made this wall with a group of delegates at The Qualatex Event Slovenia 2009.
Below is the same wall design but using a different colour combination, I also added a border around the edge of the design. This is a great example of a monocromatic colour harmony.
This is a great design to work on. It takes a total of 684 balloons. I have added all the details below.
2012... a year of celebrations!
2012 will see many celebrations with both the Olympics and the Queens 60th Jubilee. Some years ago I created a balloon wall replica of the Union Jack using the Alternate Size Square pack method, so here it is, I hope that you get the opportunity to try it out!
The Union jack is made up of 9 columns, each column has 33 clusters a total of 1188 balloons!
And finally, here is one of the balloon walls that I created for WBC 2012. The US Flag! Sadly, I never got a photograph of the wall, so if anyone has one please send it to me and I'll add it to this blog!
Last year I made a very large wall to frame my "Island' Sculpture at BACI, It allowed people to walk between the wall and the sculpture and made it look like they were on the Island... great for photographs!
Let me know how you get on with this type of wall, I think that you should find it a little easier than the Duplet Square pack method!
If you have any examples of balloon walls that you would like to share on my blog page please send them to me at Sue@suebowler.com
This years Spring Fair took place from the 5th-9th February at The NEC, Birmingham, England.
Against a backdrop of economic pressure and inclement weather (snow) it still attracted over 63,500 buyer visitors. The Spring Fair is divided into 13 main categories,
Contemporary Gift & Home
Gift & Home
Volume Gift & Home
Greetings & Stationery
Kitchen, Dining & Housewares
The Summerhouse
Toys, Games & Kids Gifts
The Party Show
Festive & Floral
Art & Framing
Body, Bath & Home Fragrance
Fashion Jewellery & Accessories
The Jewellery Show
Balloons, costume and party goods were represented within the new 'Party Show' sector in Hall 3.
New 2012 Catalog
The Spring Fair for Pioneer Europe (Qualatex) is the perfect opportunity to launch the 2012 Everday Catalogue, to showcase the amazing range of Qualatex balloon products to new and existing customers.
With both the 'Education Centre' and 'The Stage' daily demonstrations, visitors were 'wowed' with the endless ideas and profitable designs being shown to them, the demo teams was made up by myself, Dee White, Dom Cassidy & Keith Stirman.
Me in one of the Education centre's... before the show had officially opened!
To give you an idea of the size of the entire show, 17 miles... yes miles of carpet was used to cover the endless walkways between the aisles and halls!
I have been part of the Qualatex Spring Fair team for many years. I have had the privilege and honor of designing and creating the stand/ booth window displays, showing a host of new products and design ideas. Working along side Jodie Norris & Dee White, who each year create the most incredible stand/booth decor, which I can honestly say makes the Qualatex stand probably one of the most colourful and professional looking stands in the entire show!
Spring Fair is very much a team effort, with a number of the Qualatex Sales team (Michelle, Mark, Debbie, Linda. Jag, Michelle) being an integral part of the stand/decor build as well as being on the stand once the show opens talking to customers and of course taking order!
Preparation starts earlier in the week prior to the show with stand builders building the stand.
Dee White adding graphics to an 8' Giant Cloudbuster- Chloroprene balloon
View of the completed stand/booth - Stand designers Jodie Norris & Dee White
Retail display... Microfoils, Bubbles and Qualatex Retail Latex
New Microfoils & Bubble balloons
Beautiful new Special Shapes balloons
The Qualatex Hot Air balloons with Dee's fantastic Smiley Face men
New holographic balloons... they are lovely!
The Animal head shape balloons worked so well, especially with Dee's added touch for the 'ladies'!
View from the other end of the stand.
Window displays using the beautiful new holographic balloons!
Birthday Display!
Numbers Display!
If you would like to see a little more, I have put together a short DVD that gives you a great look at the stand, the fantastic new balloons and some inspirational design ideas!
Spring Fair 2013 will be 3rd-7th Feb 2013... mark the date in your diary!
If you attended the show please add your comments to this blog, we would love to hear what you thought of the stand decor, new balloons... anything really!
I walked around the show after I had finished my stint on the stand, I only actually managed to visit a few of the other halls. I saw some great new products that will work very well for balloon artists... watch this space as I hope to try out and review some of these soon!
Since posting the Clown balloon wall that I taught at the Balloonland Event, Israel, January 2012, I have had many requests asking how it was made. So here is the first of 2 blogs showing 2 different wall techniques, with a little introduction to balloon walls.
Clown Balloon Wall created by delegates at Balloonland Israel January 2012
There are many different ways to create walls with balloons! We can use latex rounds, non-rounds and foil balloons such as Qualatex Starpoints and others too! So, we need to determine which type of wall we want to create or more importantly, which wall best suits our or our customers needs?
So why are we proposing a balloon wall to our clients... a client will never ask you for a wall, it is your job to sell what it can do for them... sell the emotion and not the product!
To create their corporate logo?
To create a theme background?
To create a theme entrance?
To create a photo or stage back-drop?
To enhance a trade show or exhibition stand?
Balloon wall techniques using latex round balloons:
Duplet Square Pack
Alternate Size Square Garland Pack
Traditional 4-Balloon Garland Pack
There have been a few people during my career as a Balloon Artist who have inspired me to create balloon walls, Ian Herd CBA and Bruce Walden CBA.
Bruce Walden created this Balloon Wall Mural Paper, and this proved to be very important to me when I first started to design walls, without this, it was extremely difficult to determine which type of wall best suited the design or logo that I wanted to build within the wall. Today, I have created my own 'Mural Paper' on my computer, which saves me a great deal of time when creating a design!
As there are a number of different techniques, I am going to focus on each one separately, today we are going to look at how to create a DUPLET SQUARE PACK WALL.
Duplet Square Pack Wall
Characteristics:
Flat Surface Straight Sides Good definition on straight lines & Diagonal lines Wall can be made with a double sided pattern or with a plain back. Not as robust as other wall techniques.
The Mardi Gras wall above is an example of a wall that has been made using the Duplet Square Pack technique. It features with Step-by-Step instructions in the Master Series DVD available from Qualatex distributors.
Here is another example this time with a logo built into the BAPIA logo built into the wall.
Regardless of which technique you use there are a few simple rules when making a wall:
The balloons MUST be inflated with precision, every balloon must be accurately sized!
I will only make garlands/ Columns/ walls using Dacron line and not monofilament. Dacron is strong, yet soft against the balloons, it will not stretch when under tension.
Wall Construction - How to fix the columns together.
This is such an important part of the wall construction, if done badly the wall can distort and not look good. The following technique was taught to me by Ian Herd, there are many people who use 260Q to fix a wall together, but for me the elastic band and paperclip method is the best technique!
Project
I recently designed a wall for a class that I taught at the Balloonland Event in Israel, I knew that it was a pretty complex design and a great challenge for the class!
First I needed to get my inspiration. I knew that I wanted to create a wall with a clown face. To help me with my design I found a clown face Cross Stitch pattern on the internet! This design is far too detailed for my wall, but I liked the shape and features, so I down scaled the design to work for me.
Cross Stitch Pattern
My version of the Clown Face
Here is my interpretation of the Happy Clown design featured above. Once I have created the design that I want to make on the mural paper, I now break the wall down into columns, this makes it much easier when building each of the columns.
Now I can easily see the balloons required for each of the columns! Looking at the columns above you can see 18 columns, each column has 44 duplets - 88 balloons per column! This whole wall uses1584 balloons!
Black - 1086 Orange - 114 Blush - 189 Yellow - 22 Lime - 48 Rose - 8 Robin's Egg Blue - 40 Purple Violet - 8 Blue - 8 White - 44 Red - 17
If you count the balloons that you can see, you will only count 792 balloons, this is because every balloon you see has one behind it! To make this wall easier, we used Black balloons as the back balloon.
This picture shows balloons being counted out to make the columns.
This shows how important it is to 'read' the pattern as you go!
This shows the columns being linked together with the elastic bands and paper clips
The Clown wall that we made was not perfect, it was a group exercise with 20 people working on it. When you work on your walls, I recommend that if possible only 1 person packs the balloons on to the Dacron line, everyone has their own tension, varying tensions will effect the overall look of the finished wall...
Example of Technique
Here is a small project that I have put together to help explain the technique with a short DVD. You might find it useful if you right click on the design and print it off whilst you watch the DVD so that you can follow the pattern as I make it, I think that you may find it easier to understand it a little easier.
I hope that you have found this blog useful? There are many different walls to create walls and other techniques for creating a Duplet Square Pack wall. I always recommend that you use the technique that suits you best.
Start with a simple project to learn and perfect the technique before you embark on a large scale project for a customer.
2012 is a year filled with landmark celebrations and events such as The London Olympicsand Paralympics, the Queens Diamond Jubilee and the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic!
This is a year when many of us can take advantage of these celebrations and offer exciting and unique decor...
I am very excited, I have been asked to be part of the team that will rebuildthe Titanic... but this time totally out of balloons, approx. 14,000 give or take a few!
Fiona Fisher CBA
Fiona Fisher CBA of Worldwide Balloon Decor with her husband and business partner Rodney were approached 4 months ago by Victoria Square, shopping centre, Belfast, Ireland, to create a balloon sculpture of the iconic ship TITANIC! Just a few hundred yards away from Victoria Square is the slipway where the Titanic was originally built and launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in 1911. The Titanic's first maiden voyage was on the 10th April 1912 and then tragically sank only 5 days later on the 15th April 1912!
Fiona said "I am really looking forward to the challenge of building the Titanic in Victoria Square, Belfast, as it's so close to where Titanic was originally built. All of my projects have to be thoroughly researched, but there is a special pride in this one. Now that I have discovered the amazing skills of the people who built Titanic, I dedicate this project, as a tribute to them, the great ship building empire that we once had in Northern Ireland and to all those who lost their lives on the fate-full maiden voyage. When the public see our scaled down model of Titanic and study all of the background information in Victoria Square, I think a lot of them will be surprised as to how enormous this magnificent ship really was".
Rodney Fisher
The frame will be built in Portadown during March and transported to Victoria Square on the 1st of April, ready for the balloons to be added by the rest of the team... that's me and John (I think they call it a busman's holiday)!!
Rodney is really pleased to be involved in this particular project as Titanic has a special place in history, not just in Northern Ireland but in many countries around the world.
"I know that lots of people from all around the globe will be watching our progress and I hope we can give them an insight into how we go about creating a balloon sculpture of this scale and size".
So what does it take to create such an awesome balloon sculpture? As with all sculptures that Fiona and Rodney build, a great deal of research as taken place. Rodney studied the fabulous book "Titanic the ship magnificent" and spent a significant time doing further research on the internet.
"We can only use round balloons (Qualatex of course) to build the sculpture. Victoria Square is open on three sides and can have strong winds blowing through plus a large temperature fluctuations at this time of year".
Fiona & Rodney work extremely well as a team, Rodney designs the frames and Fiona works out how she wants the sculpture to look with the balloons added... sometimes an initial idea on how it will all fit together just doesn't work, so they allow plenty of time to play around with ideas so that they get as close as possible to the end result.
Rodney has kindly shared some of his working plans, I am in awe of the amount of pre-planning and designing that has already taken place!
I will keep my blog up-to-date with progress on this project, and I will also give a day by day report when we are working on the project in April... along with many many photo's!
If you would like to read more about this amazing balloon project visit www.buildingtitanic.com
Do you have any exciting projects in the planning stages for 2012 that you would like to share within the balloon community... we would love to hear!
I will be looking at the other 2012 MILESTONE celebrations and share some of my ideas with you over the next few months!
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