the red balloon project

those of you who have been following for a bit may remember the beginning of this project - which kind of started last year.


every year for the past three, in september, my mama does a 150 mile bikeride to raise money and awareness for research towards a cure for MS (multiple sclerosis), a disease that's affected the lives of many people we know. last year, i stitched up nine of these red balloons and donated the money from the sales to her fund. really, i wanted to to 99, as in "99 red balloons," but being as i thought of the idea about a week before the event, that wasn't quite possible. (see the post from last year's project here.)


it ended up that these little balloons, which i stitched up really quickly with basic embroidery stitches -- nothing fussy or mind-blowing, caught a lot of attention and got some really sweet press notices (some of which you can see here). all of the pieces sold. so -- i'm thinking, this time around, i have the time -- i'm gonna do the 99 red balloons.


but i need some help -- i need drawings of hot air balloons! i did the initial pieces from clip art and simple vector illustrations that i was able to find online. but that's not gonna cut it for this year's project. so -- i'm looking for artists and illustrators who'd be willing to donate line drawings of hot air balloons that i can then stitch. the drawings should be simple -- not too much detail, because the idea of this project is that i can stitch them up rather quickly, and then sell them for a good, low, attainable price. last year i donated the entire portion of the sales -- but this year, with the larger scope of the project, i'm gonna have to scale back a little and donate just a portion, which i havent yet figured out but it'll be at least 50%. so, if you are decent draw-er, (which i am not - which is why i need you), get out the crayons and the pencils! draw me a hot air balloon (or two! or three!) and send it on over!
some pieces may have up to three balloons in them - i'll be stitching a total of 99 balloons, not 99 pieces, so keep that in mind. also please note that i may need to change the scale or some of the details of your drawing to make it work with stitches. of course, if i use your drawing, i'll send you a photo of the finished piece!
please send drawings to: kimberly scola/chez-sucre-chez, 5074 glen iris avenue, los angeles, CA 90041. (i'll also accept love letters and checks written for large sums of money.) or, you can send it via digital format - pdf, ai, or jpeg, to chezsucrechez at gmail (.com) thanks so much!