ballooms' biodegradable flower balloons grow from natural latex

Balloons crafts Biodegradable flower balloons

Meet Ballooms, Canada’s first balloon florist whose bouquets of garden flowers are made from natural and biodegradable latex. Each flower is made using balloon twisting or sculpting, where long, thin modeling inflatables are folded and locked into shapes. Making a single flower takes time and skill because these materials don’t behave so well when twisted tight. In Ballooms’ case, they’re flexible and sturdy, enough to hold onto like a bouquet.

The color palette Ballooms uses can catch eyes. It’s not the loud, primary colors seen at a kids’ party. It’s softer: dusty orange, pale blue, cream, and bright yellow-green. These colors bring the flower balloons by Ballooms to life, shaping each of the flowers the studio interprets, from the stem to the petals and styles.

all images courtesy of Ballooms

Natural latex that comes from rubber tree

These flower balloons by the studio Ballooms are made from natural latex, which doesn’t come from a factory. It comes from a tree such as the Hevea brasiliensis, or rubber tree, which is originally from the Amazon rainforest in South America. Farmers make small cuts in the tree’s bark, and a white, milky liquid drips out, the latex. It’s been used for thousands of years, and ancient civilizations used it to make balls and waterproof clothing.

Today, most of the world’s rubber trees grow in Southeast Asia, with countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The latex is collected, treated, and shaped into the thin, stretchy material used to produce objects such as the flower balloons by Ballooms. When it comes from a rubber tree without synthetic additives, it is 100 percent biodegradable, so it breaks down naturally over time. The studio uses exactly this kind of latex, so there’s no plastic involved in the making and twisting of its garden flowers.

Meet Ballooms, Canada’s first balloon florist