It's been a hectic few days at the 2017 AABC Convention at Royal on the Park in Brisbane city.
I had 4 largish trees accepted in the exhibition. Getting trees ready usually offers a busy few days. Last minute pot changes, surface dressing, foliage manicure, stand selection and prep etc etc and then getting them to and from the venue. On top of all that was about 50 pots for my trade table. Fortunately I didn't have to bring too many home.
Marc Noelanders was the international guest demonstrator and spent a few days on his feet talking.
He was of course absolutely first class in every way. I had the honour of sharing the stage with him for two and a half hours doing a pot making demo while he worked on a black pine.
Doing the demo was great for the delegates. Many said that when they saw pot making was on the agenda they expected something about as exciting as watching grass growing. Afterwards it was a different story and they came away entertained, informed and awakened. It was a great promotion for all potters and especially good for my trade table sales. My sales page on the blog has now been considerably depleted. I feel some more potting coming on.
Some of the new colours and styles of recent pots were very well received. Things like Pots 288, 292, 294 and 297. Those antique bronze/cast iron glazes were picked out fast and people just stood there stroking those sweet satin glaze surfaces.
I had an ambitious plan for the demo - to make a pot from scratch and then take it through two firings to a finished glazed pot. In preparation I bought a big cardboard box and dressed it up to look like a kiln. In convincing voice I told the audience it was brand new experimental technology that was powered by a mix of plasma and microwave technology and like all good appliances these days was wireless. Wouldn't it be great to really be able to go from a wet clay pot through to bisque in 3 minutes, and the same for a glaze firing!!!! Lots of fun.
This is my sales table. The drawcard was one of my ceramic tanukis. I had my book "Bonsai Foundations" there too and sold 50 copies over the two days. This will be a great step to getting the message of 'Bonsai like trees, not trees like bonsai' out to the Australian bonsai community. It should also expand coaching opportunities as an AABC Visiting Tutor.
I've taken photos of nearly all the trees in exhibition and will get them posted soon.
I had 4 largish trees accepted in the exhibition. Getting trees ready usually offers a busy few days. Last minute pot changes, surface dressing, foliage manicure, stand selection and prep etc etc and then getting them to and from the venue. On top of all that was about 50 pots for my trade table. Fortunately I didn't have to bring too many home.
Marc Noelanders was the international guest demonstrator and spent a few days on his feet talking.
Doing the demo was great for the delegates. Many said that when they saw pot making was on the agenda they expected something about as exciting as watching grass growing. Afterwards it was a different story and they came away entertained, informed and awakened. It was a great promotion for all potters and especially good for my trade table sales. My sales page on the blog has now been considerably depleted. I feel some more potting coming on.
Some of the new colours and styles of recent pots were very well received. Things like Pots 288, 292, 294 and 297. Those antique bronze/cast iron glazes were picked out fast and people just stood there stroking those sweet satin glaze surfaces.
I had an ambitious plan for the demo - to make a pot from scratch and then take it through two firings to a finished glazed pot. In preparation I bought a big cardboard box and dressed it up to look like a kiln. In convincing voice I told the audience it was brand new experimental technology that was powered by a mix of plasma and microwave technology and like all good appliances these days was wireless. Wouldn't it be great to really be able to go from a wet clay pot through to bisque in 3 minutes, and the same for a glaze firing!!!! Lots of fun.
I've taken photos of nearly all the trees in exhibition and will get them posted soon.
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