Friday, April 28, 2017

Medium Sculpture Competition BACI 2017

I have just returned from BACI — Balloon Arts Convention Italy, held in Florence, Italy, from the 24th to the 26th April 2017. Once again, we were wowed by some truly inspiring and talented balloon artists who took part in this year's Medium Sculpture Competition. This year's theme was "Once Upon A Time," and all the entries interpreted the theme in very exciting and different ways.

The balloon sculptures had to be built within twelve hours, with a maximum of seven people in each team. The space allocated for each sculpture was 2 x 2 x 3m high.

This year's winners were the Russian team headed up by team captain Vadim Shushkanov, CBA

  • Title: "The Eye of Sauron"
  • Description: Captain: Vadim Shushkanov
  • Copyright: © Silvia Ingrid Cotellessa ©TheDarkroom
Photo by EVGENY BAGRETSOV ©Darkroom

To experience a little of the fun and excitement from this competition, check out the video below!



Here are all the other amazing entries.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Giant Balloons, Confetti Balloons, Tassels, and Organic Decor — Modern Balloon Styling by Shannon Kilford, Born to Party, Sydney, Australia.


We are all becoming a little organic crazy And it would appear that in Australia, they are pretty good at it!  

Shannon Kilford's ballooning career started when she applied for a job to manage a little party shop called Born To Party, in Sydney, Australia. Little did she realise that on her first day that she was going to be learning how to make balloon Topiary Balls and that one day the shop would be hers!  

I recently met Shannon through working on one of my blogs, A Look At Colour Trends for Spring 2017. Whilst doing my research, I discovered some of Shannon's fabulous designs on Instagram, and I was very inspired by her style.
"My very first organic design was to decorate a stand at one of Sydney's largest makers markets that happens twice a year. I inflated way too many balloons, so I took them back to the shop and made them into Garlands for our table and to float off a giant balloon. This was two years ago. It took off from there!" 


"For this Garland, we were approached to create a super glamorous embellished Garland in navy, white and silver for a client's 40th birthday. We used a combination of Pearl White, White, Silver, Pearl Midnight Blue, and we double stuffed Onyx Black into Jewel Sapphire to create the shiny navy balloons. We then embellished the Garlands with honeycomb balls, silver tassels, silver fringing, and 16" silver confetti balloons! Originally our party girl only wanted one Garland but because of the layout of the room, we had to go for two gorgeous Garlands for symmetry. We finished the room off with giant silver confetti balloons decorated with mini organic style collars and our handmade tassel garlands. I love walking back into the room when we are finished packing up. If I am in love, I know our client will be too!" 
Shannon Kilford
"Eighteen fabulous years ago I first started working with balloons. I did the beginners workshop through Qualatex® Balloon Company in Australia and got to attend my first Australian Balloon Convention in the first year of being employed at Born To Party. Once I knew the basics and a few advanced techniques, I was able to figure out a lot of the designs for myself and I grew from there by experimenting and taking time to 'play' with balloons. I always try out new designs and ideas and use them in our shop window displays. There is so much education happening this year in Australia. It's super exciting! After so long in the industry, it's exciting to be still learning and enjoying all the new trends in balloon world!"
I asked Shannon to tell me a little about her business.
"Born to Party is a brick and mortar store that has been open for twenty eight years this year! The shop specialises in boutique partyware and modern balloon styling. We still do classic decor, but we have chosen to focus on the modern goodies for now. I am the shop's fifth owner and have now owned it for nearly twelve of those twenty eight years. I have five employees. One is my newbie and is full-time. The other four are permanent part-time, and all have been with Born To Party for the long haul. We are a family-run store and our staff are like family, too. My dear Mum works with me, as well as helping in the shop, helping look after my little ones. She also does the admin side of things for me as it is not one of my hidden talents. She is my godsend! I couldn't do this without her or my other staff members for that matter, either." 



What do you believe has worked well for you to grow your business?
"We worked hard at getting the word out that we specialise in the more modern type of balloon decor that is sending Pinterest and Instagram crazy! We do expos, work on collaborations with some of Sydney's most loved stylists on styled shoots, and got involved with an influencer/blogger. We are currently working on a complete makeover. We've just launched our new logo. We are also having all of our stationary re-designed and our new sparkly website is currently under construction. I want our new website to take us to the next level, so watch this space! 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Alberto Falcone, CBA. Is On The Road For The Qualatex World Tour!

I love this display. Alberto created this for an exhibition trade stand for a baby clothing company. The use of his fabulous flowers is pure art and
injects so much colour and vibrancy to the display. 



Who cannot love the fabulous work of the very talented artist, Alberto Falcone, CBA? Alberto's balloon career started 20 years ago after attending an event organised by Balloon Express in Florence, Italy. For the first few years, like so many of us, Alberto's balloon career started out as a hobby. But after many requests for event decor, Alberto felt it was time to take his hobby more seriously!



Alberto loves to work with all Qualatex® balloons, but at this time he favours Quick Link Balloons™. When I asked him why, he told me that he has so much to discover, each time he uses them it is a surprise for him.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Qualatex® World Tour Has Started - Enter the Mystery Box Competition to win a free registration to WBC 2018!

The Qualatex® World Tour—#QualatexWorldTour17—has officially started! With sixty-six stops scheduled across the globe, this is going to be one amazing worldwide Qualatex event! 


Tina Giunta, CBA and Chris Adamo, CBA kick off the Q-Tour in Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Australia and New Zealand opened up this amazing tour with classes being held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, Australia plus Auckland, New Zealand.  In Europe, the tour kicked off in Belgium, closely followed by Greece! The U.S. tour starts in Miami on the 30th of March! To find out all the stops and class details click HERE for the U.S. and HERE for the rest of the world.