Like all professions there are qualifications within the balloon and party industry that demonstrate the prowess of your next party designer.

To achieve a CBA the candidate will have embarked on a course with different modules that builds and tests the candidate’s skills and knowledge. They progress toward an exam that they take that is marked by their peers. To achieve this level the candidate must create two different designs paying due care to the ‘elements and principles of design’, create a delivery bouquet, and demonstrate that they also have the business skills by sitting in front of a panel that tests this knowledge in a live question and answer session. Candidates also have to provide a portfolio of their previous work to demonstrate their broader skills in this field. When a candidate has demonstrated sufficient skill and professionalism they gain the status of Certified Balloon Artist. This exam lasts approximately 3 hours.

At 4urparty we are proud to say that all staff have achieved their CBA

The environment is, increasingly more apparent, very important to every living creature. Did you know that when your balloons are made from natural latex, we use Qualatex, the balloons will ‘break-down’ in the environment at about the same rate as an oak leaf? They really do. Not all balloons are like this. As an example of a different balloon – foil balloons should always be attached to a weight directly and should never be released into the environment.

When it comes to what makes balloons float – often refered to as balloon gas, it is typically 95% helium with air being the last 5%. Did you know that one way that the Earth looses mass is the loss of Helium that permiates up through the earth, up through the atmosphere and ultimately lost to space. It can get ‘trapped’ by the same rocks that ‘trap’ natural gas. That’s why you will often find that where they are extracting helium you’ll find that they are also extracting natural gas. Different gases, different extraction, just one led to the other. For transportation though, it’s far more cost effective to liquify helium and store it this way. However during storage it vents releasing helium into the atmosphere. Also when pure helium is used by industry, it often vents to atomosphere. Collecting this ‘vented’ gas means that it is typically contaminated – with air. This is a ‘recycled’ product that the party industry can use as balloon gas. So nothing goes to waste.