The Whelan shop has been building two Special Shape Balloons here in the Ottawa, Canada area. See the http://ncballoonclub.ca blog for up to date with information on that Balloon. If you’ve been following that blog, the first of the two, named “Bunch of Bees” or BoB has recently been completed. BoB is a tribute to Bees, being a representation of a hive with 6 bees.
So what’s at the core of a beehive? a Queen Bee, of course. The second Special Shape Balloon is going to be a “Queen Bee”. Since a girl will be flying this balloon, she wanted the queen bee to be very feminine – with eyelashes and red lips, and a crown.
Here are the 3D Composites of what the balloon will look like when completed:
Alot of work has already been done on the balloon, and it is progressing well. We helped cut out the pieces for the crown, and did some sewing, and other National Capital Balloon Club members have been helping cut and sew the thousands of pieces required for the balloon.
Here’s a video of a completed eye (notice the size of the hands holding it up!)
And finally a video of the inflation of the crown:
This is going to be quite the distinctive balloon. It will debut this summer at the Quebec City Festivent festival, the St-Jean-sur-Richelieu Balloon Festival as well as the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival.
