Which balloons to buy for balloon twisting?

Hi there,

I am buying balloons for a school summer fair, one of the mums has been practising some basics with the very cheapest and they seem ok. Is there any disadvantages in using cheap balloons over better quality ones? What do people normally charge for a basic balloon model at an event like this? We were thinking of doing it for free, would this cause chaos? What are the really skinny ones used for?

I have no experience with balloons as yet so any help would be much appreciated!

Many thanks,
Saskia 

My husband and I are balloon twisters - we use mainly Qualatex balloons, mainly the 260s, but we have done some experimenting with the 160s (the really skinny ones) I used them over Christmas to do the beard on a Santa hat. Normally I don't use them much, if at all. Cheap balloons will break more easily, in my experience, esp. if you are either working in heat or cold. More breakage = more product used = higher cost to you.
As far as doing it for free...typically I am against that, simply because what you are doing has value...and if you don't put a value on it, others won't either. I hate to do PPB (Pay per balloon) and would much rather be paid by the hour. Right now we are averaging $100 per hour for our balloon services. You could always put out a tip jar and figure if you get a dollar or two per balloon, your expenses will be paid and then some.

Hope that helps!

That's awesome. Thanks.