A grouping of different kinds of balloons outside the gallery near the end of the show.

Finally, the official press writeup of our Balloon Factory project:

Balloons are familiar and loved objects, but few people realize that with some amateur kitchen chemistry techniques, the process for manufacturing them can be replicated on a small scale. Product designers Caroline Linder, Lisa Smith, Michael Savona, Thomas Moran, and Steven Haulenbeek—all members of design collective Object Design League—-aimed to demystify and illustrate each step of this process with their Balloon Factory on-site at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from July 5th through 10th. Freshly-made balloons were available in limited numbers from the MCA Store for the duration of the event.

"Balloon Factory" functions as a workspace and spectacle at once. Through it, the Object Design League explores methods of producing objects for consumption in a direct way, collapsing fabrication, distribution and purchasing into one space. The designers are replicating a hidden manufacturing process, but more importantly, taking ownership of it. By making a product by hand that is only known to be made industrially, they locate their practice on the fringes of mass production.

In September, the Object Design League will be launcing an online store based on some of these principles at www.o-d-l.co.

A short video illustrating key moments of the balloon making process.

"Balloon Factory" is part of "We Are Here: Art and Design Out of Context," curated by MCA Design Director James Goggin with MCA designer Alfredo Ruiz. Other participants throughout the month of July include Golden Age, Tim Parsons and Jessica Charlesworth, and Sonnenzimmer. Details here: http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=286

Various shapes and coloring methods produce a variety of unique, handmade balloons. Over the week, techniques continue to evolve through experimentation in the gallery.

The final and most exciting balloon of the show: a balloon with two necks, which can be blown up from both sides at once, floating at equilibrium on its side.

Guests may purchase balloon vouchers from the museum store and exchange them in the gallery for a balloon of their choice.

Balloon Factory replicates the existing balloon manufacturing process inside a gallery. The installation is organized into a balloon production line, with eight stations: preparatory dipping, drying, latex dipping, handpainting, soaking, heating, stripping, and inflation.

40 balloon molds pass through the production line several times each day. Formal characteristics must be exaggerated in the hand-sculpted molds to remain legible in the inflated shape.

Balloon molds are dipped in latex.

A heart-shaped balloon right after demolding.

In the last step of the process, the molds are heated in a low-temperature oven to strengthen the latex.

The oven is made from light bulbs, aluminum foil and an IKEA futon frame.

The finished balloons on their molds, ready to be stripped and inflated.