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Mame
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any body go to mabs this wknd ?
have any photos to share with us , unfortunately i had to work.
 

Bill S

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Working on it, haven't stopped doing something re. bonsai since 8am Friday morning. My wife asked if I had a relaxing weekend - nooooooooo, it was very busy, exciting, and knowledge riddled. Did'nt win the contest or any raffles, but it was worth every minute. An afternoon workshop yesterday, and lecture / demo/ workshop last night, rounded out the weekend.

Now it's time to get to work on everything else around the yard. Isn't spring grand?

I have some demo, and exhibit pix, but only partial on the exhibit, my crappy camera finally bit it, but I have some coming from some of my fellow club members.
 

Bill S

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I should post this in the vendor area, but don't buy HP camera equipment, the %#@&*%# stuff sucks.

Everything I shot for the weekend needs at best to run thru photo shop to be made anywhere to useable. Good thing is as a group we get photos and post them at our web site - not there yet, but they will be. http://midatlanticbonsai.freeservers.com/Festival.html . The site has the previous festivals up, and hopefully soon this years will be there. Waiting on the Joshua Roth photos as well.
 

cbobgo

Mame
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I went to MABS and had a good time, though dissapointed I lost the New Talent contest. I did get a bunch of pots, a few tools and a few trees as well.

I thought the visiting masters did a good job with their lectures and demos. The member's displayed trees were nice but I would have thought there would be more trees with so many clubs in attendance.

The Hotel was a little run down and poorly lit, but the food was OK.

I don't really have any pictures to post, as the only thing I ended up taking pics of was my contest tree.

- bob
 

Fangorn

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Michele Andolfo had a nice yew to work with for one of the demos. As on another juinper he worked on, instead of peeling all the bark he used a non permanent white paint to show where eventually the life lines should be.
 

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Bill S

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Dave, that yew was a thing of beauty, guess I didn't get enough raffle tix.:mad: I thought all the artists demos were good, and have to say I did learn some good things. Michelle Phaneuf did some good things with teaching deadwood techniques, and Ceronio was good there and our club workshop and demo.

Bob, what contestant # were you, I was #8, didn't realize you were from the forum. Just answed my question when I look back and see you are from Cal., hope your trip to this coast was enjoyable.

Fanghorn, it was a pleasure to meet you, I had a good time as well.

Bob tree #s are based on certain room sizes, and the need for room between the aisles for good viewing of the trees. We kicked around using one of the ball rooms but as you noted there are lighting issues, we would have needed a light for all the trees. The future looks brighter, so stay tuned.
 
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Bill S

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Not bragging, if for no other reason as I didn't win either, but the winner and runner up of the Joshua Roth New Talent Contest are either part of the MABS board, or with my club or our sister club in Hartford.

Good showing from all the contestants, nice material to work with, tree were picked as luck of the draw
 

Fangorn

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Not bragging, if for no other reason as I didn't win either, but the winner and runner up of the Joshua Roth New Talent Contest are either part of the MABS board, or with my club or our sister club in Hartford.

Good showing from all the contestants, nice material to work with, tree were picked as luck of the draw

To be fair to Geof Holmes, who eventually won the popular vote counted 20% (I think) and it was unanimous in his favor from the demonstrators, who also voted

It was a good showing by all, and everyone that had the guts to enter deserved a big hand for sure
 

Brian Underwood

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Thats one hell of a yew! I would love to see all the new talent contestant photos if anyone has them. Thanks for sharing the event, unfortunately I couldn't attend.
 

Fangorn

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I’ve been putting off posting more pictures hoping that someone would put up some that were better than mine. Since that doesn’t seem like that will happen, here are a few more. My apologies to the Joshua Roth contestants, these were taken before the banquet with a hand held camera and the lighting wasn’t too good
 

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Tachigi

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Wish I had been there to see Michele's demo in person. The yew is some killer material and will make a super tree one day. I do question the proposed image after studying the tree and sketch for the past hour. I think that the sketch maybe a bit glossed over in the light of reality and what the tree offers.

To bad this type of material wasn't present when Graham Potter visited ...would like to have seen what he would have done. Thanks for sharing those images Fanghorn.
 

Fangorn

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The rest of them
 

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Fangorn

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Wish I had been there to see Michele's demo in person. The yew is some killer material and will make a super tree one day. I do question the proposed image after studying the tree and sketch for the past hour. I think that the sketch maybe a bit glossed over in the light of reality and what the tree offers.

To bad this type of material wasn't present when Graham Potter visited ...would like to have seen what he would have done. Thanks for sharing those images Fanghorn.

No problem Tom, I’m glad you like them, I know from past posts you’re a “yew guy”. I know in my hands that picture wouldn’t become reality any time soon, but after seeing Michele's progression slides of what he can do to a yew in a few years I wouldn’t count him out.
What happened to Graham that year was a travesty. I commend him for the stand he took, and I was one of the many giving him a standing ovation at the end of his talk.

I won a Juniper this year that was worked on by Michel Phaneuf,which I hope fares better than the one I won in 2006 done by Shinji Suzuki. It's still alive, but it's not the same tree that it was. Michel's tree seems to be doing fine, but I'm superstitious about posting it until I'm sure it's going to make it. There is pictures HERE though
 

Bill S

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Tom, your are right on all 3 counts. We've been trying hard to provide better demo materials, working better with some new blood aboard. Maybe missing a bit via photo visual, but the sketch was for the most part doable, sketches that I have seen including Mr Adams always seem to be ,boy it would be nice if I could turn the tree into this:rolleyes:. This tree when Grahm was here would have solved some issues for sure, didn't realize you were there for that.

Dave, yours are better them mine thanks.

Keep an eye on the A.B. S. site, I'm hoping that they will get a full compliment of photos up, they had a guy there all day snapping away so there should be some good ones somewhere.
 

Fangorn

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Here’s a few more pictures of a huge Korean Hornbeam that I liked. I know some people that weren’t too keen on it, but it did win the "President's Award" and "George Lebolt Memorial People's Choice" award.
The last picture is on of the many Pitch Pines growing on the surrounding mountains near the hotel. Ever since the festival has been held here I’ve made it a point to spend some time up there and will be missed now that it has been moved next year to PA.
I came home this year and told my family that I wasn’t too sure I wanted to make the long drive down there and maybe I’d take a break next year. After all, it’s smack dab in the middle of a very busy time for Bonsai stuff and yada yada yada. To which my daughter replied “Dad you’ll be going, you always say that” :rolleyes:
We’ll see
 

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Bill S

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That KHB is a pretty cool tree.

Dave all the way home while driving 87, I was sooooooo tempted to stop and collect. With all the ledge along the highway every thing was growing in a thin sheet of soil, all kinds of trees too. Figured I'd get a visit from Smokey the bear if I did that though.
 

Tachigi

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No problem Tom, I’m glad you like them, I know from past posts you’re a “yew guy”. I know in my hands that picture wouldn’t become reality any time soon, but after seeing Michele's progression slides of what he can do to a yew in a few years I wouldn’t count him out.

Maybe missing a bit via photo visual, but the sketch was for the most part doable

Fanghorn and Bill,

I have no doubt that Michele is a talented artist on many different levels....his work shows it. This tree is superb yew material and my hat is of to MABS for supplying it and to Michele for an outstanding initial styling. The permanent white wash was creative...something I hadn't seen before.

I guess I'm getting older and have become a bit skeptical after seeing so many sketches done by different artists that come close but never hit the the vision from their minds eye. While this tree will be a stonker in the future...it is hard for me to imagine that it will achieve the smooth graceful, almost feminine lines and flow that the sketch portrays.

The lower right branch is far to thick vs. the thinner one in the sketch..even with further reduction of the life line. I would guess the upper foliage pad (based on what the pics show) might be doable but probably wishful thinking. Also the graceful line to the apex in the sketch is very pleasing. The real tree doesn't afford this, though still nice, ...even with a new potting angle slightly to the left which his sketch seems to indicate

Don't get me wrong, I love this tree , artist and see its potential.....just trying to make a statement about the seduction of sketches. If your a realist and and exercise your mind you may see some things differently.

I do have a question...did he oil the bark ...looks very glossy in the after picture vs. the before picture

Disclaimer.......Not seeing this in person and appraising this strictly off of images on this thread and Fanghorn's link things might be very different in 3D ....I just could be wrong :D
 

Bill S

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Disclaimer......., understood perfectly. By the way the white wash he said would be gone after a good rain I think he said.

Bark - this could be a long thread in itself I think. Most of the artist I've seen from most places will take the brass brush and heave to, to remove the rough stuff so the "inconsistencies" can be found and embellished. Ok I'll try to Splain it Lucy:D (for you Victrinia), I sat at a club meeting last year when Isao Omachi was touring around, and watched as he checked over the demo material provided, when nobody was watching his assistant got a brass brush and as Omachi spoke thru Hadeko(sp?) started brushing away at the obviously old bark knocking it off, so the nice red color started to show up. As this happened about 2 dozen people simotaneously just about sucked all the air out of the room:eek:, followed quickly by "what are you doing, don't you want all that beautifull rustic old bark :confused: The answer was no, you take the bark away to find the knots, blemishes holes, etc., so you can use them to make the tree look better/aged. Michele Phaneuf from Canada gave us the explanation that too often Jins and shari's are made without first knowing what is behind the bark, and quite often there are little details that can by using good techniques for deadwood, jin, and shari work make a real differance, and often by not finding them first they are ruined by the jinning process, or breaking that part off entirely. For the others Tom, I know you know the drill here.That said, I can't remember if I saw it in the after pix in person. Phaneuff was really great with the deadwood work too, we had good stuff coming at us all over the place, all weekend, yes this is an endorsement for having Mr Phaneuff in for workshops. Ponit being that by and large the polishing practice seems to be more prevalent out of the US, whats your take on debarking for asthetics??

My other point is that I kind of agree with you re. the sketch to reality, thats what I was trying to say with the part about Peter Adams, I can't remember looking at a Bonsai Focus and seeing that the tree could be made to match the sketch, close maybe, but most often I see there is a little artistic license involved. I think that Andolfo was pretty close, but I didn't put that much effort into looking while I was there. Might have had something to do with my raffle ticket numbers not being quite what they called out.:D
 
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