I don't often get time to play about with balloons as much as I'd like to lately, so I decided to put a day by and have a play and some fun.
I made the rose in June 2007 for the millennium jam, it was my entry for the one balloon competition. I like the three tone effect with the leaves, it took me ages to paint them on    So from this being under glass we had a play with getting some other designs inside of the clear balloons in the next post. Not sure who was the first to come up with this? maybe Patrick Brown??

My grandson was around this morning blowing up and playing with the balloons although I always have tied them up for him, so I showed him twice about tying the knot and like all children he was saying "I can't do it" etc.
So I just explained that at first he couldn't blow a balloon up on his own with a pump, and now he can. He used to not be able to ride a bike, and now he can, he used to not be able to put his shoes on and now he can and that he used to not be able to walk and now he can. Well it must have done the trick as he sat there for a good 15 mins trying time after time to tie the knot. He seemed to be tying it twice somehow and when he took it off his fingers it would come undone so I showed it to him once more and then 5 minutes later after I said he'd get a pound if he managed it he had his very first knot  
So here he is with the balloon and the dog he made after with it, his mum accused me of making the dog for him but it's definately 100% from blowing the balloon up tying the knot and making the balloon all Harry's work. Little Harry is five and a half.

We have the balloon order going in on Wed of this week to Columbia so if there is any items you need me to get for you that are not stocked in the UK at the moment let me know ASAP by PM and I'll add you onto the list. We normally order things every three months so don't forget to try and get enough stock till the next order arrives.
All stock items are on the website http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk
and all other items can be found at http://www.sempertex.com

As we had no work booked in for yesterday and my good friend Michael Pearse was in the gala show we decided to have a day at the convention. It turned out to be a really nice day as well, very relaxed with enough to see and do for the whole day and then a nice gala show to finish off. What more could you want  
Here's Pearse performing part of his legendry juggling act that has non stop gags all the way through it. He was definately the star of the show again. Will try and post some more pictures later but just off up London to the magic circle.

This was taken on the new camera from right at the back of the venue, my old camera would have been just a blurr, so very pleased with the new one as I was waiting for a show to see how well it would perform.

Going to film a back to basics DVD this week with all the 15 twists etc that are in the tutorial section plus some one balloon anilmals
Dog
Giraffe
sword
Swan
Hippo
Pig
Rabbit
Frog
Poodle
Flower
Dolphin
My little pony
Teddy
Lady Bug
Parrot

What other things/animals etc should be on it for the complete begineer?
All suggestions most welcome.

The model for this month is a cat, will again post the instructions about half way through April.
Have posted a few different views to try & help out.

Went along to the Bexley heath magic club last night to represent the Kent magician's guild which I ran for about 5/6 years a little while ago. I'm an honorary life member there now.
Four of us, Simon, Colin, Ron and myself all done a 30 minute spot which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a great fun night, sorry I didn't plug or promote the event but I only knew on Tuesday that I was going to do it. It was all last minute. I managed to also pick up a copy of the very last abra so that in a few years that could well be a valuable collectors item    

Ron did a couple of card mental effects that were cracking, I was impressed and will investigate them further when and if I get a few minutes to myself.
They have to be good, simple and direct to impress me nowadays.

Just Marie is the next volunteer into the firing line  
Some of Marie's work can be found on her portfolio page; http://justmarie.balloonhq.com/

and website; http://www.balloonartbymarie.com/

I've known Marie a little while now and she is passionate about our art and a bit of a laugh at the same time  

Rollie, Lee James has agreed to do the interview for us this week. looks like I'm finally getting organised  

Playing about and come up with this one balloon vacum cleaner :?:

We have the UK's newest full time balloon artiste answering questions for us this week, as off the 1st April,
yes going full time from the 1st
In fact it could be said that three interviews in one will be going on with "The Balloon man" "Billy Bongo" and "Normski" all answering the questions at once :lol:  So should be fun and I hope everything works out for you full time.

We have two competitions going on the forum at the moment to celebrate the sites 1st birthday, here are the links;
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1387

This one is to try to encourage the members who are yet to post, dosn't seem to have had too much impact as at the moment we only have one person who has taken the time & trouble to enter  viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1388

When I set up the forum last year I tried to buy .com as well as I was advised this was a prudent step to take but it was already taken. So Yvonne's post about someone offering it to them via spam pricked my ears up when I was at Thelma's last week.
I tried to buy it, signed up and paid and then had to wait 36 hours for confirmation.......alas someone beat me to it.

I then get an email to say I could buy the domain name for $99 so off I go to buy it again, alas someone beat me to it again.

Then I get another email saying I can buy the name, but this time for $49 so off I go to buy it again, and this time I get it so I'm now the proud owner of .com.

The plan is to just redirect to the existing site although I think we may get more hits from abroad and especially America with a .com domain tag

Here are the updated details for the vase tutorial;

I saw this on another forum and thought it may be of interest to some??
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/cr ... 9_03_20%20

I went on a basic balloon decorating course yesterday with Graeme (Billy Wiz) at Pam & Paul's balloons & tunes warehouse, Birmingham way.
It was a very pleasant day and I picked up quite a few tips about the decorating and facts on helium and the industry in general.
One of the funny bits was my attempt, or lack of it when attempting to tie a helium balloon onto an arch. Thought I'd done it, as it flew off up into the ceiling, dam tricky this mono filament line  :lol:
Here are a few pictures from the day, if anyone is interested we are planning on organising a full days training with Pam & Paul taking charge of the day so this may be a good time to see if you fancy tripping over to the other side and doing some decorating. You cam also join NABAS once the course is complete and you pass the test so that you get insurance and a really great deal on a large advert in Yellow pages for only £100 which would cost anywhere from £450/695.

I also got the chance to see Graeme's balloon box up close and personal, which was very impressive and very light to carry & manoeuvre about.

Found this balloon advert on the internet while looking for............... :lol:
http://www.bofunk.com/video/8348/budd_l ... maker.html

This is an interview that Rie did for a magazine; http://antenna7.com/root/interview-daisy.html
and some more of her stunning work; http://www.pu-tai.com/blog/2009/03/ball ... daisy.html

Just to encourage those that are still to post for the first time, you can either post the sculpture/model that got you interested/hooked on twisting or something to wear, hat, wings, jewellery, wristable, costume, shoe etc etc. it's just a fun competition to encourage everyone to join in and participate with the form, as they say the more the merrier.
Everyone that enters will go into the hat and the winner drawn out on the 1st April.
The prize is any stocked DVD/CD from the website http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk and 3 bags 260's and 2 bags 160's.
Looking forward to seeing a few new fresh faces on the forum

As the balloon chat website is one year old today, 15th March. To celebrate this amazing fact we're having a competition with some prizes to win. DVD's, CD's and even a selection of balloons. There will be two competitions, one that is open to everyone and to try & encourage all those members who have not posted as yet we are having a seperate competiton for them.
The idea of the competition is just to post the sculpture/model that got you hooked or the first serious thing you attempted to twist. It's just a fun competition with all entries going into a hat with the winner being announced on the 1st April, no kidding, honest :lol:

The competition for those that have never posted is here; http://www.balloonchat.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1388
and the newbies can even join in with both competitions if they like so you get the chance to win both competitions.
The prize for each competition is any stocked DVD/CD from the website http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk
and 3 bags 260's and 2 bags of 160's.
So good luck and keep the entries coming. You can also enter as many times as you like with different models