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Laura meets... Chloe Ferguson

Laura meets... Chloe Ferguson

Thursday 18 January 2024

Laura meets... Chloe Ferguson

Thursday 18 January 2024


With her rainbow coloured hair she is definitely easy to spot and when children see her out and about they tend to follow her around "like the Pied Piper" and call her "the bubble lady" which sums up her work quite nicely.

The official term though is "bubbleologist" which covers anyone who has spent time perfecting their craft as a bubble artist.

There aren't many of them around - Chloe is the only one in Guernsey, and she is one of a relatively small number of bubbleologists internationally that she knows of.

Chloe says it is a male dominated field but her experience has seen her join the bubble equivalent of the magic circle.

The Association of International Bubble Artistes has just 106 members internationally so it's an exclusive group. 

bubble lady

Pictured: Chloe Ferguson performing during the summer.

It has taken years of training and honing her craft to be admitted in to the circle, and Chloe's journey can be traced back to her school days with her own children later giving her the inspiration to build her business.

"I've actually worked since probably the age of 14. I've worked in every possible job I can think of, and now I like working for myself," she said.

"I like doing stuff for myself and if I can add creativity to it then OK."

As a student at the Performing Arts Centre for a while, Chloe was keen to pursue music as a career going on to study music business at university. 

She sings and plays guitar, with an interest in folk music particularly but she has also performed with rock bands. 

She made her money performing before having her two sons and daughter and being struck by inspiration while planning her eldest child's third birthday party.

"My son's got autism so I was looking for something that would be sensory appropriate for him.

"I remembered from Blue Peter, a guy called SamSam the Bubble man putting people inside of a bubble so I decided to make my own makeshift equipment and then it's taken off from there."

"I did my other children's birthdays and the children just absolutely loved it."

Chloe's background performing musically came in to play here as her idea took off and she started doing more children's parties and then bigger events with corporate bookings coming in too.

"I went to buy the equipment, and then I discovered videos of other people doing it and I was like 'I really think that looks really fun' so I learnt it myself and then it kind of grew from that. It was kind of a spiral."

When we met, Chloe was preparing for her first full show to date. She has booked the Performing Arts Centre for the first weekend in April performing three shows across two days.

"It brings your inner child out"

It's the first show of its kind like this that Chloe has put on and it will feature new tricks and special effects that she has not performed before.

She already incorporates different equipment, smoke, lights and more to entertain the crowds and now she's adding in even more.

She also wants to ensure everyone knows that bubbles are not just for children.

bubble lady

Pictured: Chloe's bubble show have proven to be very popular. 

"Oh no, I've done adults and I'm trying to push that because it's not just for children, it really isn't. I'm trying to push that because people think of a bubble and go 'that's childish', which it is - it brings your inner child out.

"It's also things that you wouldn't have seen as a child and I think that it's really good for you. It's very therapeutic."

The shows on 6 and 7 April will be a showcase of all of this and more.

"I went to a bubble convention in London last year and we went to the Magic Circle and they had several people performing on stage and I though 'I can do all of that'," she said.

"...this isn't the same as any of the stuff that I've done previously. This is completely different. I'm creating the music, my husband's doing costume design for me.

"...(the show is) going to be featuring light, smoke, fire, there's going to be some shadow theatre, so it's going to be like a variety show. It's going to go through different phases."

"It was 28.653 square meters which is the height of my house"

Looking ahead to the rest of this year, Chloe will likely be at the summer shows, the Guernsey Together Festival and other public events as well as performing at a number of private parties. 

Her work mainly keeps her busy over weekends leaving her more time during the week with her children, two of whom are at primary schools and one at pre-school.

The whole family gets involved with Chloe's research with her husband gaining a Guiness World Record title alongside her.

Screenshot_2024-01-18_at_11.46.04.png

Pictured: Chloe Ferguson won a Guiness Word Record for her bubble making alongside her husband Stuart.

"Last year I did the Guinness World Record and I made the whole thing and I was like 'you're gonna have to help me hold it' so he's got the Guinness World Record too for the World's Biggest Bubble. The first one was half the size of what we did, so we doubled it to beat the record. It was 28.653 square meters which is the height of my house. It was really heavy. So yes, he literally gets wrangled into everything," she said while laughing.

With his work in IT, Chloe says "he's the logical brain and then I'm the creative.

"He takes it all in his stride. He's absolutely fine (with the bubbles). My children, I think they've probably seen it so much now that they're like, 'yeah anyway...'.

"My son talks really proudly about it actually. When we were going to see the Nativity and I was walking past his classroom and all the children came running up going 'it's the bubble lady' he was going 'that's my mum'."

Watch: The World Record attempts: Credit: Guernsey Bubbles. 

With both herself and one of her children diagnosed autistic Chloe is very aware of the sensory benefits and limitations that bubbles may pose for some people and she takes that into consideration in her work.

"I think that's probably why I'm into it and that's probably why I've got that interest in bubbles.

"There are currently individuals trying to work on bubble therapy, which I would be really interested to get into. These individuals who are working in those environments, children have been able to communicate through them, just to get their feelings out. These are children who are non verbal, but also in homes for people with Alzheimers. I'd really like to do that when I'm able to work more, once all my children go to school I was looking into doing some kind of bubble classes, sensory stuff with bubbles. The mixture itself is all safe and it's something that (parents) can do at home as well with their own children.

"My first son, his first word was 'bubbles'. We'd turn the bubble machine on as it was one of the tricks we'd learn with the speech therapist, you've got to make fun out of it and I'd say 'bubbles'.

"When I went away to the UK and I met these people and they were telling me what you can do, and a lot of them have gone from performing into working with people and it's really inspiring, really interesting. I'd love to look into that stuff."

"The ultimate soap is Fairy"

Speaking to Chloe about her life and work I had two burning questions I needed the answer to:

"Could you fit me inside a bubble?"

The answer was a resounding yes... and not only could she fit me in a bubble but Chloe told me how she can easily fit multiple people inside her bubbles.

"...there's people who've been able to put 300 people in a bubble," she said.

She also said that nearly everyone likes being put inside a bubble.

"Mostly I work with children. Some adults get embarrassed and don't want to do that (be inside a bubble) in front of them and some children can be a little bit wary when they approach it. I won't be forceful to them but I'll slowly encourage them and once they, once they all do it, they absolutely love it."

halloween bubble lady

Pictured: Bubbleologist Chloe Ferguson is known to many as 'the bubble lady'.

And the final question: "what do you use in your bubble mixture?". It turns out there is no secret recipe.

"The ultimate soap is Fairy. So I do use Fairy, but we've got a concoction of different mixtures for different things you're doing so giant bubbles are very different to the trick bubbles so I've got lots of different white powders to make the bubbles stronger as you need to make the walls thicker and all sorts of things so it gets a bit complicated.

"That's the other side of it. It almost becomes like a science lab in my kitchen."

READ MORE...

WATCH: Guinness World Record for largest bubble net

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