Sue's 2012 review... the best bits! Part 2

Happy 2013 everyone!

Well 2013 has finally arrived along with a lovely crisp and sunny morning, making it somehow feel like a new year! 

2012 was a great year for fantastic events and not such a great year with the helium 'crisis'. But Qualatex jumped to the rescue offering a range of 1 day demonstrations and a fantastic booklet filled with inspiring air-filled designs - The Qualatex Air-filled Advantage! Which if you did not get a copy is available to download just click HERE 

So here are my remaining 'best bits' from 2012!

April

I was very lucky to be invited by Fiona and Rodney Fisher to help them to build their amazing 14,000 balloon, 40' replica of the famous liner Titanic! If you did not read my blog before I recommend that you do, as Fiona shared some great information! Click HERE to visit the Titanic blog!

Fiona & Rodney Fisher's Titanic project!

What an incredible experience working on such a large sculpture and with two of the most talented balloon sculpture designers and builders in our industry!

Talking about sculptures, that brings me nicely to the next event and BACI! 

BACI or Balloon Art Convention Italy is it is also known is an annual event that is held in Florence, Italy. This event is unlike any other as it is not held in a convention hotel, therefore offering those who attend the opportunity of seeing an amazing city on a daily basis throughout the convention!

I wrote a "BACI" blog earlier in the year that shows all the amazing competition sculptures, so I thought that my BACI collage should reflect the true spirit of this event, the competitors and their many helpers, always smiling, always having 100% fun! ! To read the 'BACI' blog click HERE

As an instructor it is not very often that you get involved in competitions, however, BACI has a different rule and encourages Instructors to take part in ALL the competitions! Building a large sculpture has never been my 'forte', but in 2012 I really embraced the challenge and with my amazing team built a 'Tiffany' style lamp that stood over 4m high!

Tiffany Lamp by Sue Bowler CBA and BACI Team!

If you would like to know more about BACI and BACI 2013 please click HERE, it is a truly great event and all the classes are taught in English as well as Italian, and I forgot to say that Florence is an amazing city to visit, which is an added bonus!

So the first 4 months of 2012 was pretty busy with some very memorable events, so what were the best bits for the next 8 months?

May

OK, so this next collection is not strictly May, in fact this is a collection of pictures that have been added to the Qualatex and QBN Facebook pages over the past 12 months... I just love how we have such a sharing community with an amazing talented group! Sadly, I struggled to view all the pictures from 2012 as so many had been posted, so please do not be offended if I missed one of your's, but there are soooo many fantastic pictures, thank you all so much!

June

I cannot believe that 'The Very Best Balloon Blog' celebrated it's 1st Birthday in June! I am truly loving writing the blog and getting such great feedback from those who read it! So a huge thank you to you!

July

July saw the launch of our new Facebook Group for QBN members, the perfect 'meeting' place for all CBA's and QBN members working towards their CBA accreditation! All you need to join is your QBN membership number and approval from HQ and then your in! Click HERE for a direct link to the page! We have a monthly challenge... just for fun for members to submit photographs of a design in a pre-determined category, and the designs with the most 'likes' are the winners... here are a few of our winning designs from Decembers Valentines Challenge! Congratulations to Eva Antonello CBA, Nadia Azar CBA and Fiona Fisher CBA! 

So if you are a QBN member and have not already joined the group please come along, we have many new idea's for 2013!

August

A busy month for everyone with wedding work and vacations, so I took this opportunity to look a number of  'Tools' that could help decorators with the designing process and with the help of others, I was able to put together a great blog on 'Working with Balloon Clip Art' and app's for IPAD's that can also help to work with clip art.

"Working with Balloon Clip Art... and how to use a Image Manipulation Program to help you to present your ideas and suggestions to your clients and customers."

Last month Ken Stillman very generously 'gave' some truly amazing Balloon Tools, which allow you to play around with designing columns, walls, arches and much more! Click HERE for a direct link to his website and the free software!

What better way to show your customers all the different ideas you have and custom building their decor in front of their very eye's and without actually inflating a balloon!

Ken Stillman of Balloonmaster.com  - Balloon Tools

September

It is not very often that I actually take on any balloon decor work, however, I was approached earlier in the year and was commissioned to design and create a 'balloon cloud' and it was a challenge that I could not resist!

Balloon Cloud Installation September 2012

The 13th International Moscow Balloon Festival September 2012, I have seen this event and the standard of balloon artistry grow every year! This year they added a new category to the competitions 'Dress's made from balloons' - Russian theme! Azusa Ieizumi CBA with Akane Shibata CBA from Japan represented Qualatex teaching some great classes and also building a large sculpture!

Moscow Balloon Festival 2012

October

This years CMAG was a truly awesome event! Alex Arroyo CBA and Pepe Posada CBA of Globimagen.com, Mexico City are the dynamic duo who produce this amazing balloon event each year with 2012 being no exception! With an amazing line-up of instructors including Enza Mondello CBA, Federico Onida CBA, Marco Castro CBA, Patty Jacobo and not forgetting Robbie Furman CBA, it was an action packed 4 days!  Once again delegates were wowed with amazing Balloon Costumes!

November & December

For me the final months of the 2012 were spent in the UK teaching Wedding Series 1 and 2, which I will continue to teach in 2013! I also started to work on projects for 2013, Spring Fair windows to design and a tour of Australia and a few more exciting projects ahead!

So to complete my review I have one final collage of pictures that I have selected from the Qualatex Facebook, there were so many great pictures posted, so selecting just a few final design was very hard, but there was something in each of these pictures that made me smile!

So, I would like to complete this blog by saying a huge thank you to everyone who contributes and helps me with this blog and the Qualatex Facebook pages, your input is very much appreciated and I would also like to thank all those who read the blog too... I hope that you continue to enjoy it!

I wish you and your families a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com