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| Starry Celebration from the new Qualatex Recipe Collection. |
While we're not completely clear of trouble yet, it's always fun to report good news. All of you that made phone calls, wrote letters, generally spread the news, and most importantly, continue to educate other balloon artists and clients about safety precautions with balloons, have done a great job to at least slow down, if not stop, the current round of legislation endangering metallic balloons.
If you missed the news last month, the senate in California was expected to vote on a bill that would ban the sale of helium-filled metallic balloons in the state. This was a concern for more than just those people that actually sell or use helium-filled metallic balloons since the wording of the bill could be interpretted rather broadly to impact just about anyone that uses balloons. You can read more about it in last month's ramblings.
The day the California senate was expected to vote on the bill has come and gone. It appears there just wasn't enough support for the bill to pass - at least so far. That was in large part due to the efforts of balloon professionals to spread the word that this legislation existed. Read more in last month's column so you can see what you can still do to fight this.
Don't forget that this can always come up again. It's been 20 years since the last time a bill of this nature appeared, but that doesn't mean it can't happen once more. Let's be proactive. Make sure you educate everyone that works with balloons and all of your customers about the proper handling of balloons. The more people understand about the materials they hold and the fewer misunderstandings about them that circulate, the less likely it is that we'll see this sort of thing in the future. The issue at hand was the danger of metallic balloons shorting out power lines when they float away. Luckily, there are some very basic rules we should all follow, outlined by the law enacted 20 years ago. You can read all about it in the Guide to Balloons and Ballooning.
Thanks to the folks at Pioneer Balloon, we have a new feature available on BHQ. All BHQ members can visit the (very slow growing) library for a new set of Qualatex Recipes. As of this announcement there are 6 new recipes available. More will be added regularly. These are balloon creations that will be easy to construct by following the simple steps provided.
The recipe section works much like the existing BHQ photo area. You'll be able to offer your own comments and suggestions to each recipe. This will help build the database for future artists to work from.
While working with the Qualatex team, we've come up with a number of things we'd like to improve in this new feature section, making it easier for new recipes to be added and even easier for you to follow along. Let us know what you think.
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| Tiger in the Balloon Jungle by Up, Up & Away |
Balloon Artistry by Up, Up & Away provides award-winning balloon entertainment and decor with artistic flair! For over 11 years, they have served the KC metropolitan area, the central Midwest, Florida's Gulf Coast and beyond, performing in 17 countries and creating unique decor for thousands of events.
Visit the portfolio of Johnna Perry
