How we made the balloon tea pot

Here you can see the aluminium frame - the good news is, it already looks like a tea pot.

The 3D frame was made of multiple 2D shapes, mainly circles. We bent the circles on the floor to stop them from buckling, then we gaffa taped them together. The frame had to be assembled on site because it would not fir though a door way.

The handle and spout were easily covered using 5" balloons as garlands.

Next we covered the main frame area with netting. The netting was attached to the frame using small cable ties.

The light blue 5" balloons for the main frame were inflated and stored in plastic bags before the event day (we knew the bags of balloons would fit though the venue doors).

The 5" balloons were tied in clusters of 2 (duplets). We used paper clips the clip the clusters onto the netting.

In the past we have covered sculptures with bubble wrap and then clued the balloon on. This method uses less balloons but we found the balloons were not very secure, they would fall off when it came to rigging.

The paper clip method uses double the balloons but they are more secure.

Once the balloons are attached they need to be pushed and pulled tp try a make a smooth service. We try to picture 6 balloons touching the sides of every balloon.

The lid was simple. Balloon garland wrapped around a aluminium ring, then 360Q's to a centre point with an 11" pearl Sapphire balloon on top.

A nice balloon tea pot - all we need to do now is hang it.

We added a foam board mouse and an 11" brown balloon as a tea drop.

The sculpture was rigged using 4 lengths of 50lb fishing line.