BACI - Balloon Arts Convention Italy - The Sculpture Competitions

This year BACI took centre stage at the 76th edition of 'Art', the International Arts & Crafts Exhibition at the Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy.

BACI

The theme for BACI 2012 was ARTS & CRAFTS throughout history (in Italy “Arti & Mestieri”)…from the Big Bang to Bunga Bunga, from the gladiator to the aviator, Christopher Columbus to Barak Obama, from Leonardo da Vinci to Albert Einstein, from poets to astronauts, Buffalo Bill to Bill Gates, from rain dancersto lap dancers!

The large sculpture competitions are an integral part of BACI, where there are two catagories:

Championship Master for those people who have won an Italian or Internationally recognized competitions, and the BACI Championships, which is open to anyone who wants to create a large sculpture at BACI and does not fall into the Championship Master category.

(to view the complete rules follow this link: The Rules)

This is quite an unusual competition, as it is a requirement that  BACI instructors compete and create their very own large sculpture... and if you know anything about me, you will know that large sculptures are not my speciality and if I am really honest, I find them very daunting!

Why? I suppose the shear scale, the mechanics and structure, timings... give me a centrepiece any day!!

I have spent the past year or so trying to overcome my 'fear' of creating large sculptures, I attended Luc Bertrand's Sculpture Course which I found extremely helpful and sought advise and help from some of the best sculpture artists in our industry. Rodney Fisher gave me some really great help regarding frame building and working with Fiona & Rodney Fisher on their amazing Titanic sculpture really gave me the confidence to tackle my own large sculpture!

I started my preparation many months ago, when I was informed that the sculpture theme was 'Arts & Crafts'. I knew instantly that I wanted to build a 'Tiffany' style lamp and that the lamp really would fit well within the theme "Arts & Crafts".

The Tiffany Lamp that I used for my sculptures inspiration.

It would allow me to work with the Qualatex Starpoint and Taper balloons which I really wanted to do (for the colours, textures and of course the shapes, which for me look like the cut glass used within a Tiffany lamp).

I spent many many hours designing and preparing. I practised many of the techniques that I wanted to use, like heat sealing foil balloons to create new 'custom' shapes rather than leaving new techniques to chance during the 24 hour build time and potentially running into problems!

I experimented with colour and created some really great and intense colours using the double stuffing method, Pearl Sapphire Blue inside Sapphire Blue, for a truly intense shiny Sapphire Blue, Chocolate Brown inside Gold for the metal work, Onyx Black inside Sapphire Blue, all worked really well when used with the shiny texture of a Microfoil balloon!

The Competition

The competitions officially started on Thursday 19th at 2pm, when teams had 6 hours to  check their product and build frames and structures... but no balloons could be inflated until 8am the next day, not all the competitors used framework in their sculptures... so a few found other things to 'amuse' themselves during this time!

Robbie Furman's Thursday afternoon 'creation'.

I have made a short video that really shows all the stages of the sculpture building from start to completion, it's amazing to see how each of the sculptures evolved...  I hope you enjoy it!

I can honestly say that I really 'enjoyed' building my sculpture. I worked with a truly great team, who embraced every task they were given, including double stuffing many many 100's  of 5" balloons and the continuous layering of 'Balloon Shine' they had to apply - a tip that Fiona Fisher shared with me when we were working on the Titanic to ensure that the balloons remained really shiny and to protect them to!  I would also like to give a huge personal thank you to Peter Berggreen from Denmark, who not only volunteered to help me build my sculpture a number of months ago, but also spent many weeks learning how to 'Tak' weave to create the column for the lamp... and he did an amazing job and to Linda Ceccon  from Sweden who worked as part of my team last year and came back for a second year to help me!

Peter at work!

The Teams

"Leonart"

Alessandro Patane

Monica Pengo

Leonarda Rombi

Roberta Scionis

Alfio Sapia

Simona Carbone

Pasquale Cinotti

Jamaica Longo

Elenora Gori

" Buon Compleanno Balloon Express"

Dmitry Tishenko

Olga Kosova

Svetlana Kolyvantseva

Elena Monshnikova

Yuliya Andreyyeva

Vadim Shushkanov

Alexandr Solomatin

Olga Boranova

Olga Samoilova

Maxim Tsymbal

"MIIII..... Che Pasticcio!!"

Enza Mondello

Leo Mondello

Valter Saladino

Matilde Tortorici

Elisacetta Bennardo

Cristina Mura

Tiziana Arena

Lara Maratta

Antonino Saracino

Maria Vittorio

Barak O Barak

Manon Dudziac

Ester Cuono

Stefano Cammisa

"She has Sung"

Robbie Furman

Graziella Onano

Massimo Armando

Pasqualina Simonelli

Valeria Fraschini

Massimo Coello

Antonella Fanelli

Angela Casaccia

"The Lamp - Inspired by Tiffany"

Sue Bowler

John Bowler

Anna Elisabetta Auletta

Iris Ball

Davide Mercurio

Andrea Papolino

Peter Berggreen

Milena Raino

Anna Paladini

Linda Ceccon

"Balloon Artist at Work"

Fiona Fisher

Rodney Fisher

Carmel Galea

Sharon Galea

Cristina Mura

Angelo De Francesco

Kerenina Lykins

Ben Lavis

" Anonimus"

Alberto Falcone

Simone Falcone

Luisa Verlezza

Roberto Cataldi

Lucia Frezzaroli

Tiziana Zanero

Loriana Liuzza

Fabio Valentini

Ludmila Mek'nik

Andre De Olivera

Alberto Nava

"Anyone Can Cook!"

Alberto Nava

Milko Stefani

Teresa Antinoro

Mirko Laporta

"IL Coraggio Del Toro"

Federico Onida

Carlo Vavenotti

Veronica Onida

Ester Onida

Massimo Castangia

Mauriizio Aru

Cristina Usai

"Grandma"

Keith Stirman

Tanya Joselowsky

Elisa Helman

Marina Ferranti

Svetlana Lugovaya

" The Temple"

Howard

Hui Chuan Huang

Kuan Chuana Chen

Hsiu Chung Chen

Ling Hua Hsiao

Keng Hung Lu

Chia Chang Chan

Yuan Chang Cheng

Shu Chuan Chen

Ya Ting Chang

"Essere O Non Essere Superdany"

Elisa D'Onorio

Emanuelle Del Vescovo

Alessandra Romano

Nicola Catanzani

Sara Zampini

Anna Di Febo

"Wow"

Yi Wei Chen

Sheng Tang Lee

Kou Yi Lee

Chia Chiano Lee

Jiun Kang Shiu

Yueh Shuan Lee

Meichun Chan

Cheuk Lam Leung

Hsuan Chun Lin

Yu Li Sun

If you have never worked on a large sculpture, I strongly recommend that you do. It is a huge learning experience and a great way to meet new people, and you never know, one day you might be building your own large sculpture!

I would like to thank The Darkroom, for taking and sharing such great photographs www.thedarkroom.it and to Balloon Express for hosting another great BACI!

Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you enjoyed it!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

World Balloon Convention Day 1 - the build up to a great event!

Wow, what an incredible week we have just had! Delegates arrived from 47 countries around the World and joined us at the Sheraton Hotel, Dallas, with only a few delays caused by a pretty big Texas storm early on in the week! The hotel shook with thunder and the skies lit up with lightening... and then the sun came and stayed with us for the rest of the week!

There are many photographs from the World Balloon Convention,  so I thought that I would document WBC from a slightly different perspective. This is the first of my WBC blogs.

Day 1, Monday 19th March 2012 and the start of the Signature Sculpture, designed  by Azusa Ieizumi, CBA, Japan.

Azusa Signature Sculpture - her vision!

Here are a few photographs of the elements being created for Azusa's sculpture, try and relate them back to the original picture...

The Frogs with Akane

John, Luc & Ines make the sky... looks to me like they are having way too much fun!

Keith & Dom make the trees

Azusa making the bears

Robbie making the fish... yes he is using 321Q's!

Lisa making the mushrooms

Lollypop! Made by me

Other Lollypop tree's, frames made by Brenda Fink and balloons by Dom  & Keith

After 2 days of much balloon inflating and many volunteer helpers, Azusa's Signature Sculpture is ready to greet everyone!

Congratulations to Azusa and all those who helped to create the 'World of Wonder', Signature Sculpture.

Watch out for my next WBC blog tomorrow :)

Sue

Spring Fair 2012 review with photographs...

2012 is a big year for celebration!

 

This years Spring Fair took place from the 5th-9th February at The NEC, Birmingham, England.

Against a backdrop of economic pressure and inclement weather (snow) it still attracted over 63,500 buyer visitors. The Spring Fair is divided into 13 main categories, 

	Contemporary Gift & Home
	Gift & Home
	Volume Gift & Home
	Greetings & Stationery
	Kitchen, Dining & Housewares
	The Summerhouse
	Toys, Games & Kids Gifts
	The Party Show
	Festive & Floral
	Art & Framing
	Body, Bath & Home Fragrance
	Fashion Jewellery & Accessories
	The Jewellery Show

Balloons, costume and party goods were represented within the new 'Party Show' sector in Hall 3.

New 2012 Catalog

The Spring Fair for Pioneer Europe (Qualatex) is the perfect opportunity to launch the 2012 Everday Catalogue, to showcase the amazing range of Qualatex balloon products to new and existing customers.

With both the 'Education Centre' and 'The Stage' daily demonstrations, visitors were 'wowed' with the endless ideas and profitable designs being shown to them, the demo teams was made up by myself, Dee White, Dom Cassidy & Keith Stirman.

Me in one of the Education centre's... before the show had officially opened!

To give you an idea of the size of the entire show, 17 miles... yes miles of carpet was used to cover the endless walkways between the aisles and halls!

I have been part of the Qualatex Spring Fair team for many years. I have had the privilege and honor of designing and creating the stand/ booth window displays, showing a host of new products and design ideas. Working along side Jodie Norris & Dee White, who each year create the most incredible stand/booth decor, which I can honestly say makes the Qualatex stand probably one of the most colourful and professional looking stands in the entire show!

Spring Fair is very much a team effort, with a number of the Qualatex Sales team (Michelle, Mark, Debbie, Linda. Jag, Michelle) being an integral part of the stand/decor build as well as being on the stand once the show opens talking to customers and of course taking order!

Preparation starts earlier in the week prior to the show with stand builders building the stand.

Dee White adding graphics to an 8' Giant Cloudbuster- Chloroprene balloon

View of the completed stand/booth - Stand designers Jodie Norris & Dee White

                           

                           Retail display... Microfoils, Bubbles and Qualatex Retail Latex

New Microfoils & Bubble balloons

Beautiful new Special Shapes balloons

The Qualatex Hot Air balloons with Dee's fantastic Smiley Face men

New holographic balloons... they are lovely!

The Animal head shape balloons worked so well, especially with Dee's added touch for the 'ladies'!

View from the other end of the stand.

Window displays using the beautiful new holographic balloons!

Birthday Display!

Numbers Display!

If you would like to see a little more, I have put together a short DVD that gives you a great look at the stand, the fantastic new balloons and some inspirational design ideas!

Spring Fair 2013 will be 3rd-7th Feb 2013... mark the date in your diary!

If you attended the show please add your comments to this blog, we would love to hear what you thought of the stand decor, new balloons... anything really!

I walked around the show after I had finished my stint on the stand, I only actually managed to visit a few of the other halls. I saw some great new products that will work very well for balloon artists... watch this space as I hope to try out and review some of these soon!

Sue :)

Has attending The Qualatex Event inspired you?

Last week I wrote a blog that gave my own personal summary of  The Qualatex Event. I felt that it would be great to hear what others thought too! So I invited a few delegates and some who also took their CBA exam at the event to share their experiences and maybe a photo or too! A huge thank you to those that responded with a few personal highlights from the weekend!

Lucy Hennessy CBA

I really enjoyed the event it's just a shame I couldn’t fit every class that
I would of liked to have seen, each time you walked along the corridors you were simply stunned by the creations. It was nice to meet old and new friends that all share a passion for balloons. The parties were great fun and the decor fabulous. I can't wait for the next event!

Lucy Hennessy as Miss Piggy with Friends

I'm doing a job on Saturday using the new Minnie & Mickey mouse designs that
were sitting in the corridor ( not sure who created them) and  have also
taken an idea from Fiona Fishers class on foil numbers and adapted it for

the same job increasing the clients original order by over £150.

Lucy Hennessy CBA

Soo Wheeler CBA & Paul Webber CBA

When we heard about the Qualatex Event, we were not sure we were able to go due to costs etc, but we are so glad that we decided to go. From the moment we arrived (on the Friday), we felt like we were part of an exclusive family of like-minded balloon mad people. Our work with balloons started straight away as we were helping with creating a piece for the medium balloon sculpture competition. In a way, we are glad that it was non-stop as it gave us a bit of space to NOT think about our CBA exam that was scheduled for the Saturday morning. We were both extremely panicky and nervous about the exam as we had completed our QBN part of the CBA back in 2007 and we brought the dvds with us to enable us to have one last swot before the morning! We didn't get much sleep that Friday and were still up in the early hours of the morning! Don't forget to "like" us on Facebook www.facebook.com/PartyBudsBalloons
Many thanks

Sue & Paul, CBA

Sue &   Paul with Jo Uddin

Sue & Paul With Robbir Furman and Niko Fric

Sue & Paul with me :)

Vicky Wilson CBA - Missy Moo Ltd

OK here are my thoughts!

This was the first event me and mum had attended and had no real objectives except our CBA so the run up to it and first part of the weekend was all about our CBA exam.  It was a great feeling to do it at the event though and made it extra special! 

I came away from the event with a very proud feeling - its hard to describe...  I always used to listen to my husband talk about conferences etc that he had been on with his work, and he used to say that he would always leave them very buoyant and proud to be working for the company he did.  Having never been to a conference etc before, I hadn't experienced this feeling - but certainly have now.  I found the video montage at the gala dinner very moving (and I wasn't even drunk!), it just brought a few tears to my eyes, but left me feeling so excited and pleased to be a part in such a great industry, with such fab, helpful and talented people!  And the fact that really talented people are happy to teach you their tricks of the trade is amazing!

We met some great people, and picked up some good tips - just little things, but stuff that makes your day to day work better!  We learn't some brilliant new designs, which we are already selling your bubble bouncers and are trying out different varieties of them. We are also taking one of Luc's designs and playing around with that too.  However we have lots of ideas for the future, and most of these have come about in some way, shape or form because of the event.

Vicky - Missy Moo

Tony Hanscombe CBA

As someone who has been in the balloon business for some years I wondered if I would find anything of interest and use at the event. As it turned out I needn't have worried as I found several things of interest and some that I am putting into practice, in particular - the decorated numbers, Dee White's belly buddies, Colin Miles ideas for what I call 'bespoke' decor and your giraffe. The whole weekend was very enjoyable and it was nice to meet so many old friends.

All I can hope that is that this becomes a regular event alternating with the Dallas WBC.

A final note from me: 
I know from my own personal experience that attending conventions and events are so inspiring, not only do you learn from some of the best instructors in the world, but you also make friends and contacts, people who will help you when you need advice or even help you out on a job! Your confidence grows and so does your business! Conventions may seem to be costly at the time, but those costs are soon turned in to profit! It is great hearing feedback from those who attend, as an instructor it is even more rewarding when we here how our ideas are being put into practice and making money!!

Picture sent to me by Debbie O.Neill of 'Gerry the Giraffe', a design that I taught at The Qualatex Event... congratulations Debbie, he looks perfect a the Zoo!

If you have never attended a balloon event or convention, then why not make it your 2012 resolution and sign up for the World Balloon Convention, you truly will not regret it!

Sue