Sue Bowler: The Balloon Expert

BACI 2013 was all about 'Stars',  everything from celestial, whimsical, astrological, marine life or the famous, STARS could be depicted in any and many ways!   I would like to thank The   Darkroom photography school   and   Balloon Express , Italy for the use of the sculpture pictures! To see more great pictures visit the Darkroom photography website...    www.thedarkroom.it The Darkroom photographers Francesco Mauro Annalisa Cavallari Alessia Fabbri Giulia Zanelli Ilaria Vangi Jessica Cannizzaro Sara Piazinni Silvia Collino Silva Rocchi Valentina Borgioli The event started last Thursday - April 18th, when the sculpture teams had the opportunity to start building the structure or frames... but no balloons can be inflated! Framing byTeam Alberto Falcone! Framing by Team  svetlana lugovaya With the frames well on the way to being completed the first day of the sculpture build started in earnest. E...

Here is the concluding collection of heroes. I have enjoyed each and every story that has been sent to me or that has been added to the end of the blogs, so I would like to thank  you all for sharing these with everyone. Heroes and Inspirers the finale. Pascal Grooten- Frisky Balloon, Belgium Oh my, I’m only allowed to pay tribute to 3 names.  Well, gonna make that a quartet tribute. I like to mention Pieter van Engen, Patrick Van de Ven, Antonio Bécares Rodrigues and Hyun-Gu Park aka Beating. Patrick Van de Van For my opinion, these guys are nowadays the pinnacle of the ‘twister community’. Each one of them is a true balloonartist. Giving all credit to the “old skool” twisters from the late eighties, beginning nineties you saw after the millennium a whole new generation of twisters appearing. For many years they worked hard and slowly developed their own style of twisting. Their designs are instant recognizable.  They took the level of creati...

This was the first time that I have visited one of the Caribbean Islands, and although the island is small approximately 100 miles long and only 35 miles wide the welcome was huge! Qualatex Event Puerto Rico Event Hotel... yes, it's true! Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico in 1493, and the name Puerto Rico actually means 'Rich Port', due to it's worth as an important sea port... today Puerto Rico has many claims to fame including being the rum capital of the world and home to the worlds largest radio telescope along with being adorned with the most beautiful flora and forna and some incredible creatures such as the 'Coqui', a tiny tree frog and the endangered Leatherback Sea Turtles! Thank you Benny Nieves for my final evening guided tour and history lesson, it was just perfect!

Heroes and Inspirers!  Part 2 Ted & Betty Vlamis - Pioneer Balloon Company I am so excited to present the second part of this blog. Just in case you did not read part 1, I asked some of my balloon industry friends to share with me who their ‘heroes or inspirers were? I limited each person to a maximum of three people knowing that it would be hard to select only one, but easy to list many! As you will see, not everyone stuck to the rules of only 3 heroes :) Once again, if you would like to add your own personal heroes please feel free to add them to this post in the comments section below. 

Heroes and inspirers! Part 1 Whether a hero or an inspirer, I would suggest that most of us can name at least one person who has given us the urge to do what we do today, In fact, I would like you now to stop reading for just one moment, and consider who might be your ‘hero’ and why?  Can you think who it is? If you would like to be part of this blog why not add your hero at the end by simply using the comment section, I would love to hear who your hero is and why...

Deco Fusion Tour    Sydney Wednesday 6 th - Perth Sunday 10 th - Brisbane Wednesday 13 th & Melbourne Sunday 17 th March 2013. Wow, after months of preparing and planning, my trip to Australia has already happened and I am now back in the UK preparing for my next trip away! Visiting Australia always leaves me filled with great memories and this trip was no exception! Firstly, I would like to start by thanking the awesome Qualatex Australia Team, who worked so hard to make the tour possible! Bruce & Rachelle Fraser and the very lovely Karli Hose, who work very hard to prepared everything to make my life so much easier:)  The super organised Kari Hose - Qualatex Australia