Skywhale Inflates In The West

Cameron Balloons has revealed its latest special-shape hot-air balloon. ‘Skywhale’ was designed by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini, to celebrate the Canberra 100 - Australia’s year long programme of events to celebrate 100 years of the country’s capital city.

Nick Purvis at Cameron Balloons who has been working alongside Patricia and the Canberra 100 team who commissioned the balloon, explained that they are showcasing not only the new and exciting art events and projects but also Canberra’s existing elements:

"We are delighted with performance and aesthetics of the highly technical and detailed special-shape hot-air balloon and how it has been built, absolutely true, to the Piccinini design. This highly confidential balloon could not be even be spoken about in the factory and only those that were directly involved in manufacture of the shape actually knew the full details such was the secrecy! I am delighted to say customer confidentiality is something Cameron Balloons is extremely good at, as we know how important it is to launch a product or balloon with a big marketing ‘splash’. "

The balloon is a huge 22.7m tall including the basket & wires, with an overall length 34.4m, a width 28.6m and weighs 338kg in fabric alone as it is made up of over 3500metres of fabric, much of which was specially printed, to give a graduated colour effect.

Patricia Piccinini on receiving the photographs of the top secret Bristol inflation said:

"WOW!  I'm so happy!!!! I am so impressed by how wonderful it looks. So true to the ideas and the design, and so BIG. I almost can't believe you pulled it off, but I always knew you would. Everything has worked so well: the fades between the printing and the raw colour are perfect and it looks so natural. I can't wait to meet her in person. WOW!"