Hello again

20, What is your personal goal when you set off to work? Is it money or to entertain etc?

Money is important when I work, simply because if I did not earn enough to make a living
then I would not be ablr to continue to do something I love
Usually though the money has been sorted out before I leave, so my thought process is
to do as good a job as i possibly can, partly for the client, but mostly to be honest it is
for personal satisfaction. If I get a photo at the end of the day that is a bonus, but I
must admit that my photography skills are not so good, I have lost count of the times
somrthing I thought was good just did not come out well in the photograph, but I think
that is possibly true with a lot of balloon work it is difficult to capture the magic of
real life

21, What are your balloon goals for the future?

My goals for the future are to try and keep improving both technically and artistcally,
and to improve my golf ( sorry not a balloon goal, oh well )

22, If you could start all over again, would you change anything?

I cannot think of anything, possibly to have stsrted twenty years before I did would have
been good

23, How would you like the future of balloon modelling to develop?

I really think that in a few years we could be the next big thing in the publics eyes
I look at the sand sculptures just now possibly not so much in Britain, but in europe and
America, and it is perceived as real art, and alsoreceives very good funding, I certainly
think that balloon modelling has the potential to emulate that.

24, Who's the most famous person you have made a balloon creation for?[/quote]

I did balloons for David Bailey a few years ago for a magazine shoot ( of course I did not
know it was for him, I turned up and met this scruffy guy ( Bailey ) he told me what he
wanted and I pretty much told him he was stupid, as I was doing so the penny dropped as
to who he was. :oops: .
Apart from that I cannot think of anyone famous, there was a big event I did a few years
back where everything was going Ok but I knew I would be working right up to the time
the guests were due in (thanks to last minute additions by the client ), anyway the band
were doing rehersals and they sounded good, but they finished and wandered down to
where I was and tried to engage me in conversation about how wonderful the decorations
were and they had seen nothing like this before, etc. however I was pretty short with
them as I really needed all my time to finish.
Next day I had to pick some things up from the venue and I was chatting to the staff
I said I thought the band sounded pretty good, to whih they replied they should be
they were the drifters  :oops:  I think they were possibly more used to adulation than
some balloon guy blowing them off

These are the last few questions;

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

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

27, Who would you like to work with dead or alive?

28, What makes you laugh?

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  
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?

You ask a dour Scot what makes him laugh    I don't know lots of things, probably ironic
things. I remember in China last year we had a delegation of clowns with us ( honestly )
one night they held their AGM in the bar of the hotel, and they all arrived in shirt and tie
looking very serious. Now that amused me already, but one of our team decided that
guerilla raids with 260qs into their meeting would be fun, it would be fair to say that
the clowns did not see the humour, I do not think that I have ever laughed so much
as I did that night.