Getting the opportunity for unstructured experimenting in the studio plants the seeds for all sorts of innovation. The idea of playing with materials with a child's heart, a designer's eye and a scientist's brain is so important when it comes to developing new ideas and techniques. If you ever want to make Kelly's day, show her a new-to-her material or process and she'll tear it apart and put it back together again. Sometimes we share the results of these experiments on our instagram page (like this one) as sketches to inspire future projects.

It's only fitting that as she heads off to the FLOAT Convention (a balloon industry convention focused on Decor) as an instructor on manipulating or "modding" foil balloons that this recent project gets highlighted. Inspired by the mushrooms she built while playing at a previous FLOAT convention, the refined mushroom designs were incorporated into a gorgeous scenic roomscape, under the direction of the Mary Howard Studio for the Greene Street Opening of Loewe at the Ukranian Institute in NYC this past December 2019.

The foil balloon mushrooms dot the room like tiny pieces of jewelry, emerging from the organic greenery lining the wood floors, and made for a stunning magical immersive backdrop for the evening's event. We'd love to do more projects like this, and we are happy to offer our expertise in process and material knowledge to bring fancy to life.