I’ve been adding some short videos of trees from Bonsai Europa 2015 to my Youtube Channel in case anyone wants a closer look. My son’s camcorder is a little iffy with lower light levels but I think they are still very viewable.
Here are the two longer clips showing a little of what the show was like and then some of the deciduous trees. Other trees can be found on my channel but sadly my battery ran out before I got to get them all. Apologies if the tree you wanted to see is missing.
These three balloons worked a treat in attracting attention to the venue as they could be seen across Bury.
I think I missed this one from the Conifer post earlier.
Some general shots although the highest rank present was Sgt Major ‘Ba doom tish!’
Some of the trade stands
Loved these guys, Sperling Keramik from Germany.
Iain Baillie’s amazing pots
This is Will Baddeley’s Stand, or is it, I’m confused.
The kids workshops were an amazing part of the weekend.
The Awards
An Overview
The Akamatsu Club display
The Venue
Stephen with his Exhibit
My bearded self with my Escallonia
The Wirral Bonsai Society display
And now the wee trees.
And now for the Deciduous trees. If I have missed any out it’s due to poor photos not personal taste!
I’ll break up the exhibits by posting them in different groups, conifers, deciduous, Others, Shohin, Accents. My photos are just ok, I found it hard to get the right set up with the lighting but these should give you a good feel for the event. Here’s the first instalment.
Bonsai Europa for me started on Wednesday morning packing the car and making sure everything would fit. It did, but it was like bonsai Tetris!
On Thursday morning I caught the 7.30am boat to Scotland. Here’s the view pulling out of Belfast harbour and the sun rising over County Down. A good omen for the weekend perhaps.
I made it to Bury by 2.30pm and met up with Tony and a few of the early arrivers. A few beers to start and then we had some unloading of stands to do at the venue. Once done, I managed to catch the Northern Ireland Vs Greece match, and with the aid of alcohol, had a great night watching the Green White Army qualify for the Euros for the first time. After a sleepless night in Burrs, don’t ask, I made my way to the the venue on Friday morning along with the rest of the ‘Special Branch’ helpers for the weekend. These guys deserve every bit of credit for the work put in over the weekend. Many were Wirral and Akamatsu club members but some had come from other parts, including myself, just to make this event happen. Work commenced on the staging.
As the finishing touches were being made many of the exhibits had arrived and were being photographed by a professional photographer. I did a little last minute prep to my tree and the other two I had brought belonging to friends, and got in the queue for the snaps. Will ‘I’m Will Baddeley’ Baddeley was in front of me with the tree that went on to win the Sonderpris.
My trees turn
Then Josh’s Contorted Hazel
followed by Stephen’s Raft Maple
Three of the main guys shown here. All worked tirelessly for months to get this to this point. Tony Tickle the front man and Terry Foster and Dave Barlow working away in the background in more ways than one.
Finally the exhibits were installed, the trade stands completed and everyone retired to the local beer houses of choice in anticipation of what was looking like a stunning display of trees.
Next post I’ll cover a chunk of the trees on display.
Back home and unpacked after a great time at Bonsai Europa. Many have already said their piece about how good it was, and I just want to echo that sentiment. Best exhibition I’ve been to, great team setting it up, good vibe about the show, loads of friends, old and new, trade stands from all over Europe, even Japan! If you live within 5 hours drive, love bonsai and missed it, you need your head read!
Well done Tony Tickle and Terry Foster who both did so much to make this happen. Both have probably been running around all day today getting everything squared away, the work no one sees. Thanks for driving this event for the last 2 years. Gold stars all round.
Already looking forward to 2017.
Tony the front man and Terry and Dave work away quietly in the background 🙂
Well bar a few tiny tweaks, that’s my tree ready for Bonsai Europa. I even have two accents ready just in case!
If you want to see the rest of it, you’ll have to be in Bury this weekend 😉
I have a tree making it’s way over to the Bonsai Europa Exhibition in a few weeks time and a while back I had to start looking for a suitable table for it. This proved harder than expected with many of the usual stand makers being snowed under with work and most of the tables I seen for sale being wrong for the tree.
Then out of the blue, a local chap on Facebook started to chat about bonsai with me and after doing a bit of stalking on his profile I saw he was rather good with wood (oh er!). Did this mean that he was already making stands and tables? No. Did he have any experience in this? No. In fact most of his work was done with a chainsaw!!!
So we got chatting about stands, his names Jeff by the way, and Jeff said he’d give it ago.
Would you trust this man with a delicate job?!
I had my doubts that he’d be able to turn out a table for Europa. However, I also saw these that he had made, and the finish achieved impressed me and gave me hope.
This one was craved out with a chainsaw!! The book not the text 😉
I’d been looking around to try and find some nice wood for the table to be made from and after chatting with my parents this old table was acquired.
My Grandmother bought this table second hand in 1920 and I have many childhood memories of crawling under it. It had been placed against a radiator and over the years the drop leaf had warped and was no longer usable. I asked Jeff if he could use it and got the nod. Turns out it’s Oak, none of us were sure.
I gave the table to Jeff with a rough idea of what I was after knowing that he was going to be restricted in what he could achieve with the material given, I kept my fingers crossed. This is it coming together.
Dismantled, some nice grain there
The natural wood colour after some sanding
Some edge detail added
Leg work
Starting to come together, can you tell what it is yet?
Some decisions about colour
and then…
Final colour finish
Jeff’s skills in finishing car body work, did I mention he does that too, really paid off in getting a great finish to the table. There’s still a little waxing to be done and the transit box to be made for it but I’m absolutely delighted with it and the history of the wood makes it even better for me.
Jeff has now been bitten by the bonsai bug and I’m helping him on the road to having some nice wee trees and the bonus is, he actually enjoyed making this bad boy, and and has already started on other projects for me with a few club members queuing up with orders too. Watch this space for more about Jeff’s work.
Jeff, thanks for the hours you put into this project, I’m delighted with the result. You had to work with dodgy wood, no idea what this was all about, and the size was restricted by what we had and yet you still achieved a fantastic result. I can’t wait to see this next one if this is your first attempt!!
As usual the photos don’t really do the table justice, why not see it for yourself at Bonsai Europa in October….
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