Bard Balloons

FMG is a wrap. A big thank you to everyone that has made this festival possible this year.

Our BB Tiger balloon is available worldwide for 2022, the year of the Tiger. Tonight was the first appearance at a festival in a very, very long time. It's good to be back!

Great shot of the Bard Balloons designed BARD 85H hot air balloon (foreground) built by Mark Harris.

The big reveal is coming soon. Watch this space!

After many months of work, here is BBTiger, the latest special shape hot air balloon to come out of the Bard Ballons workshop. It will be ready to travel in 2022 - the year of the Tiger. Using the same elongated shape, round top, and super-smooth profile as its cousins MyDeerling and LoveBear, it is a bit smaller at 68,000 ft3. It has two pointy ears and a tiny little nose. We hope you all like our version of this majestic animal. We were waiting for the first flight... before revealing the pictures of this first test inflation, but it seems the weather isn't cooperating, so we will have to wait a little longer for some in-flight pictures. According to Transport Canada rules, the balloon needs to complete its 10 hours of test flights, which we will be doing over the next few weeks, but we may have to wait for the spring of 2021 to complete the flights - as winter will soon be upon us up here in Canada.

#lovebear is in the air (again).

Today's project: making droplines and pouches from scratch.

Into full production mode now.

My helper wasn't helping. He was taking a video instead. How do you get a 13ft long panel paper pattern on the table by yourself?

Announcing BBTiger - our newest special shape hot air balloon - paying homage to 2022 - The Year of the Tiger. Currently under construction in Canada and will be ready to travel worldwide once restrictions are lifted. It includes a couple of hidden (or not so hidden) surprises. Can you find them?... If you like and share the page - you can get updates on construction of this balloon - watch this space for more announcements of new balloons.

Here's how the parachute attaches to the balloon.

Finally got to inflate the Mini LoveBear . This balloon will accompany its full-size companion whenever we get to travel again. It was a bit windy!

Take a peek inside the Tiger Balloon's ear.

Really loving the new addition to the sewing machine. See the wheel behind the foot? It pulls the fabric for me. I've got the pulling tension just right for some nice pucker-free seams.

The sound of cutting 12 layers of fabric in one pass. New balloon starts now!

Lots of you have asked in the past. Now is your chance! Get your Alien Rocket, Deerling, LoveBear and Bard Balloons Merchandise on our brand new merchandise page here: http://bard.ca/merch We have pins, hats and t-shirts. Some items are very limited quantities.

The mini-lovebear is complete and waiting for it's mini-basket to arrive from Germany for its test-inflation (can you spot the red mini bag?) In the meantime our next full-size special shape balloon has all the paper patterns printed already - and are getting cut before cutting fabric. (The balloon has almost 500 pieces). Stay tuned for the annoucement of this new special shape balloon!

Inch by inch we get more special shape hot air balloon patterns printed.

A bit of progress on the #lovebear mini model balloon.

During this lockdown, we've been busy designing lots of different special shape ideas. Stay tuned to find out more about these. In the meantime, we are building a radio-controlled model balloon version of #LoveBear. At 26 ft (8m) tall - it will be a large model balloon (1/3 the size of the real thing). When the full-size LoveBear Hot Air Balloon finally gets to travel - it will be able to come out with a twin at the same time.

Wednesday means its #BalloonStories time! Hi everyone, the name’s MyDeerling. . I was built in Ottawa, Canada . It took 6 months (500 hours) for my owner, ...Alain Bard to build me. That makes Canada my home and Alain Bard, my darling. . Since I live in the North Pole and Santa resides here, my job is to carry the spirit of Christmas holidays around the world even when it’s summer. . I’m about 90,000 cu ft. And yes! I am the largest reindeer you’ll ever see! I was ready to flaunt my large antlers around the world in 2020 and lucky enough to have been able to bring the holidays to Penang, Malaysia & Chiang Rai, Thailand in February. . However due to the #covid19 outbreak, my plans to continue the Christmas spirit tour around Asia and other parts of the world was halted. . I’ll be resting at home for now. I hope the situation improves so I can share my excitement with you. . Drop a comment if you have any questions . Photo by @wanderingmunchers . . . #hotairballoon #myballoonfiesta #FlyingAtHome #stayhome See more

Self-isolation continues, and so does the design process. Many people have asked for a 65k Racer pattern. This one has 16 gores that are very, very slightly lofted. Should look good, and perform well in the air.