Balloon Chat

Quote from: "Graham Lee"Colin,
I'll go through the set questions & take out the ones that are not relevent to you. So here we go with the first few, if anyone else wants to fire away at Colin with other questions then please do :D
First of all can I thank you for asking mr to do this, I think that Graeme has done a wonderful job with the forum in such a short space of time.  Anyway to the fray :D
1, What road led you into balloon modelling?
It was a natural continuance from decor work, people would ask for small sculptures which usaually work better with non round balloon, so I started doing the usual basic twisting from Marvin Hardy book, my dogs are still pretty bad,

2, when did you get started with balloons?
My wife Ray and I started a party shop in the early 90's, with no thought at all of doing balloons, it was purely to sell party goods and fancy dress, but people kept asking for us to inflate balloons

3, What's your best twisting experience?
Gosh that is a difficult one, the best experiance, there are so many, I have been so lucky over the last few years to
have been involved in a lot of great projects, travel to places I never dreamed I would visit, and also meet a huge amount of very intresting people some of whom I can now call friends.
But probably the most rewarding experiances for me is the ability to make someone happy from something, that is made from my mind and hands


4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?
A wedding job quite a number of years ago, involved making a canopy across the dance floor, which is time consuming but not especially challenging. Anyway I had just finished the canopy when the best man walked in, and said wow that is
great but I did not think we were having balloons at our wedding.
I phoned back to the shop and of course the hotel I should have been in was actually next door. (The scores hotel St Andrews, not the St Andrews hotel on the Scores
I will not bore you with what happened next nor am I particularly proud, but I did transport everthing next door, and even got a thankyou from the bride a couple of weeks later, saying how professional everyting was
but the feeling in my stomach when I realised I was in the wrong place was definately the worst moment for me

5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?

Quote from: daveandrewsHello, Colin, nice to meet you.

HI Dave and nice to meet you also, thanks for the questions

That's some neat weaving, and the work in your portfolio is simply b***** incredible. I'll get up from the floor and give you a couple of questions.

1. Have you never twisted in public.
I did once twist in public :oops:  quite a few years ago at our local gala week, I suppose it was ok apart from the howling wind and driving rain ( normal summer weather in Scotland ). To be very honest my basic repetoitre is very limited,
I can probably make anything but usually, I have to look at a picture first, I think like anything practice makes you better

2. If not, would you like to, and would it be 'strolling' or an actual, say, birthday party.

In some ways yes I would like to attempt public twisting, before i did i would have to practice to have 30 or 40 good
simple sculptures to do. I actually have a dream of taking two weeks off. travel to Europe with a few bags of 260q's
and see if I can earn enough to survive, although I would probably take my Visa card just in case  ;)


3. Which actually came first. The decorating, or the twisting.

The decorating was first, millons of weddings and birthday parties, only after about four years of decorating did I start to twist. I suppose the twisting came because people asked for specific sculptures and I had to learn how to work with 260q's to make the sculptures. One of the reasons I think it took so long before I really got into twisting was that I could not
blow a 260q up by mouth (  :oops:  I still cnnot )

Quote from: "Graham Lee"Colin, some more questions that are suitable for you I think?

Questions suitable for me   :lol:  

8, What's your favourite thing to make at the moment?

Difficult one Graham, I suppose the current project is always the favourite, I have to make a tractor for the weekend,but that is one of the best things about the job, I never know what will be asked for next, it could be unusual decor, a sculpture, or even a balloon dress, I must admit i like all aspects of balloon work equally.


9, What is the most asked for sculpture?

Probably at the moment, the sculpture I am doing most is a seven foot thistle ( hoots mon ), I first made it at a competition about three years ago then really very occasionally, but I have made eight in the last few weeks



11, Who is your market aimed at?

Good question Graham, that is something I should think about  :idea:

12, What kind of work do you do mostly - parties? Corporate? Etc

In summer time most of our work is for weddings, ( for my sins, ) still nowadays it is good repeat business. In the winter
time it becomes far more corporate work, it seems most componies have their balls in winter

13, What is your favourite/ideal gig to do?

My favourite gig, I should say one that pays well and is not stressfull to do. but really I prefer a challenge of something that I have not done before, which of course usually involves lots of stress, but ultimately a lot of satisfaction if things go well.
One of my current favourites was the job we did together at the Cafe Royal.


I know you were a good friend of David Grist & worked with him a lot. Do you have a funny moment that you could share with us all about the both of you?

Quote from: Graham LeeHi Colin, a few more questions;

14, What irritates you most at a gig?

I really cannot think of anything that irritates me when I decorate, I try to get along with
whichever facility I am working, my usual motto is to keep my head down and only speak
when spoken to.

Okay I do remember about a year ago I got pretty upset with a band ( they thought they
were good which they were not ), I had just about finished setting up and the drummer
said what would you think if I popped all your balloons, I looked at him and asked what he
would think if I smashed up his drum kit, there was pretty much silence after that

15, How do you book yourself?

We do some wedding fairs, but pretty much all our bookings come from word of mouth,
although I have been thinking of trying to work with an agent, especially for work in the
London area, so if anyone has any good contacts ????????   :lol:

16, What's the biggest thing you've ever made?

I am honestly not sure, it probably is the monster truck that David grist and I made for
a competition in America, although the poodle is pretty big as well, thankyou Graham
for posting some pictures onto the forum


17, What has been your proudest achievement in our wonderful world of twisted latex?

Hopefully that day has not come yet

18, What advice would you give to someone starting out, or wanting to increase their business?

To someone just coming into the business I would really reccomend to try and learn as
many techniques as possible, which will give you so many tools to work with in the future.
In just a few years the amount of information availlable has increased hugely, I know I
am pretty sad but everyday I look at pictures on about four websites to try and increase
my knowledge. I also think entertainers should try and learn at least the basics of decorating
a lot of events you are performiing at may be intrested in having some decoration done
beforehand, which is I think a great way to increase income.


19, What road in latex do you see yourself taking in the future

A really good question Graham, this is something I have been asking myself a lot recently
I really do think the world is opening up to balloon art, we were of course both lucky enough
to be invited out to China last year. I think opportunities such as this will become more
frequent, as the public are exposed to good examples of what the balloon world has to
offer.

I have really enjoyed doing this so far, some of the answers have really got me thinking,
so please if anyone has anything they would like to ask, fire away.
I am sure you have some questions Thelma, even if it is just to ask how I manage to
retain my youthfull good looks   ;)

Quote from: "Graham Lee"These are the last few questions;

25, How do you keep the enthusiasm going & what still excites you about our great world of latex

My enthusianm for balloons is easy to maintain, I just think back to the twenty five years
I spent delivering milk, getting up at crazy hours in all sorts of weather, making balloons
seems to me a pretty good alternative  :D
What still excites me is that balloon art is still in its infancy, who knows how the industry
is going to grow in the next ten years, I would really like though to be in the middle of
that growth

26, What inspires or is your thought process in coming up with a new design

All sorts of different ways, sometimes if I misinterperet something I see I can see something
quite different, it can come from a client request, sometimes I can just be playing with
balloons, make something pretty ordinary but turn it upside down and there is quite
different there, I would then try and develop that

27, Who would you like to work with dead or alive?
David  (Grist) just once more,
Michael Gjerek,  who I think is the best balloon artist in the world

28, What makes you laugh?