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Opening Weekend

Started by Carl Heinz, April 06, 2009, 11:16:18 AM

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Carl Heinz

Spent a bit of time doing meet & greet outside front gate both days.  Had a bit of fun teasing Den Dunn (Jake Butkiss) about his having a half page picture in the program brochure.  He hadn't known about it.  Spent much of the rest of the time cruising, talking to visitors, and providing photo ops.

The number of first time visitors was a pleasant surprise.  Guess the effort of getting the word out is bearing fruit.

Had a number of conversations with old friends among the crafts people that I hadn't had time to converse with during workshops.  There are a few new ones, one coming all the way from Maine.  That booth had some very reasonably priced marionettes.

Spent some time with Dr. Jim Hrisoulas (Atar) at Salamander Armory.  (His doctorate is in metalography.)  He had a few differently shaped pointies I hadn't seen before.  When I commented, he said that sometimes doing the same things got a bit boring.  :)  His new Japanese ware attracted quite a bit of attention.  (As an aside, I stronly recommend his work to forum members who don't know about him.  His items are meant for combat--not wall hangers.  Many of the stage combat folks out here use his because those from other sources frequently don't survive contact with them.  Their balance is tops.  It's kind of a standing joke that he really should place pads outside his booth opening morining to catch the saliva pools left by Queen's Guard.  His fourth book on sword smithing is nearing completion.  His web site is www.atar.com .  His in stock items page is empty while he's doing RPFS, but there's plenty of other information available including a process for custom work.  And, no, I don't work for him.  :))

Younger daughter and grandchildren drove up from San Diego Sunday, so we spent a fair amount of time with them.  Her quest was a mountain lion hand puppet.  Her husband is a park ranger in San Diego County and had found a dead mountain lion that he had to carry a fairly substantial distance before he could put it in a vehicle.  It was a collared five year old male that had died of natural causes.  Couldn't find a mountain lion hand puppet, but did find a finger puppet.

All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend.
Carl Heinz
Guild of St Cuthbert