I was channelling the feminine powers of the Suffragettes and all they stand for last Friday. Bristol was snowed under and Lucy and myself had to get to City Hall to build the balloon suffragettes no matter what. The Bristol Women's Voice event was not going to be cancelled on Saturday and we were providing fun and unique balloon sculptures that were to decorate the lobby. The balloons had been bought, the plans were made, we had to make it happen!


Knowing we weren't likely to be able to build them off-site, we were lucky the event at City Hall in the conference room on the Friday was cancelled so we could build the sculptures there. Lucy and I were down an artist, Amanda. She was stuck on the other side of the bridge in Wales unable to get to Bristol. Knowing this, I needed to start building the heads and hats on the Wednesday so all we needed to do was the bodies on the Friday.


I got stuck in the snow twice on the way and luckily with my Canadian driving prowess and snow whispering I was able to get my little 1997 Nissan Micra free and plough on to City Hall. Slow and steady and with a car full of balloon heads I made it to City Hall in good time. Lucy arrived soon after me and we hunkered down and without saying much to each other we twisted for 6 hours straight. Around 3pm City Hall decided they would close early for the day, leaving us with even less time!


In the end we built 5 life-size suffragettes that everyone loved! Even the Mayor of Bristol had his photo taken with them. They stayed up until today, International Women's Day. Feeling very proud and looking forward to the next commission .

I have been working very hard doing research and development into a comission I have coming up for Bristol Women's Voice. For women's day, March 3rd, myself and my team of 2 other artists will be building a balloon installation at City Hall.  I am designing an ARMY OF SUFFRAGETTES! They will be placed in the reception under the giant clock for the Women's Day event that will be held there. At the moment, I am in my studio twisting and scheming to come up with a great design. There are many different elements. First of all, they are to be life-size so the body of the ladies need to be large. I have been in my studio trying to figure out how many balloons, what colours, what technique looks best, and how to install them/weigh them down so they don't blow away when someone opens the door! I have been a part of other big builds before, on somone else's team. This is very exciting to be the one doing the grand design and having my very own female team. I will be working with Lucy Lost-it & Masquerade Faces to help me execute my vision. According to my calculations thus far we will be using close to 1500 balloons and it will take us about 9 hours! Ideally our hands will not fall off but that remains to be seen. Here is a draft I worked on in my studio yesterday, not including the sash, sign and hat -that I will be designing next!

It has been over a year now since my last website was hacked by meanies. This was especially hurtful as my last website was created from scratch by my genius late partner, Vid Warren. I loved that site. I have been putting off making a new one for so long as it was really daunting.

Luckily, after doing a new 2018 photoshoot with the lovely, Farelight Productions I felt ready to tackle it myself. Not too difficult I learned. It is also an incredibly productive thing to do when it is January and no one needs balloons. Correction, no one wants balloons. I would argue that it is the month where balloons are needed the most. We are all out of money, looking down the barrel of a grey winter and the lack of vegetation makes the litter more prominent then we want to admit.

Imagine it, dragging yourself out of bed in the darkness to the sound of the howling weather trying to muster up the courage to face the day, you turn on the light and VOILA a balloon bouquet of colourful flowers or a balloon teddy bear there to greet you. Try not to have a smile on your face for the rest of the day!

Back to reality - No one wants balloons in January and so I have the time to make a website. Oh, and do my taxes... if only someone would bring me balloons while I do my taxes it would just make it just a little more cheerful.