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Based in Northampton, UK, I live with my husband Adam, our Cocker Spaniel Bruno and Deeley the Bengal cat. I work full time as a Creative Artist / 3D Designer and part-time with my creative endeavours. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my work and other random ramblings, from the satisfying successes to the catastrophic failures! Still, it's all good fun, which is kind of the whole point really...

Tuesday 26 July 2011

BOYCC Part 4–The Dinner!

Don’t worry! This post won’t be anywhere near the mammoth length of my previous post, promise!

BOYCC ran from Thursday through to Sunday, Thursday and Friday were Workshop days, Saturday and Sunday morning were the Show and Sunday afternoon was the final Workshop.  Saturday evening, part way through the show we had a lovely evening meal, a group of artists, some present, some not, had each dressed a table with the theme of their work.

The artists were;

  • Joanie Berkwitz
  • Addi Hude
  • Sarah Minkiewicz*-Breunig (*which I found out is pronounced – Mink-e-vich, certainly not Tinkywinks, which Laurie Jo found hilarious – sorry Sarah! Embarrassed smile) – Sarah wasn’t at BOYCC as her father was poorly, but she sent along ample gifts for her table including the amazing OOAK sculpture she created prior to the show.
  • Karen Gerhardt
  • Donna Chaney
  • Marge Para
  • Kristina Lucas Francis

I think that’s all of them.  Here are some photos of their tables:

Ok, so somehow I didn’t get a photo of Joanie’s table (I’m SURE I did, I’m definitely missing some photos somewhere!!), but this is her centrepiece, it was so lovely – Joanie took an Otto, a Collier and a Limerick and turned the Otto into a teapot (yep, you read right!) and the two smaller horses into a creamer and a sugar bowl!  I can only find this photo of them (yes, I must have lost some as I took a load of these as I liked them so much!) but they are shown here incomplete (photo taken prior to the show).  Joanie added some lovely wire handles to each too, and glazed them to this beautiful sea-green colour.  Each member of Joanie’s table was gifted a horse pin, glazed in this same colour.

Joanie Collier Otto Limerick BOYCC gift art glaze teapot sugar creamer

Addi Hude, her centrepiece was a unique bowl she had made herself, filled with a heap of goodies including chocolate and tea.  Her gifts to each table-member were some pretty little pins she had made.

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Donna Chaney – Donna had created an amazing centrepiece scene model, with a Venus, Cupid and this beautiful Palm Tree too!  I’m such a fan of her work and my favourite model is Cupid, so I thought this piece was simply divine!  How she managed to fly it over from the UK safely is beyond me too, but she claimed it was no big deal – Donna has a great track record for flying her models round the world, the lady knows how to pack well!

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Each of Donna’s table guests was treated to a custom glazed chess piece model.  I was a little envious, but the following day my cats model won me one of these, so I was ultimately very happy!

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Kristina Lucas Francis’ table was a tropical delight!  Kristina wasn’t able to attend, so a photo of her was placed on “her” chair, I thought this was a lovely idea.

Kristina’s gift was her Tiki-Saurus model, and her guests were each treated to a little pin she made, I’m not sure what it’s called, I have one from a few years ago, it’s a little leaping pony, and each was glazed to a similar (possibly the same, they were in envelopes so I only got a sneaky peek) colour as the Tiki-Saurus.

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Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig’s table was watched over by her smiling photo.  I was a little sad that I wasn’t able to meet her during my trip, but knowing how lively and bubbly she is, and how exhausted I was after my trip, I’m happy to hope I’ll meet her another time. From all the stories, I hear she is a whirlwind of enthusiasm and creative energy which was certainly proven by the amount of goodies she sent for us in her absence.

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Sarah’s centrepiece was the talk of the show, all of the models and donations were incredible, but, perhaps as we’d watched it developing on Sarah’s blog in the previous weeks, we all enjoyed having this gorgeous little pony around for the days leading up to the dinner!  Sarah’s guests were each treated to two magnets glazed in some really beautiful colours.

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I didn’t get photos of Marge Para’s table sadly, her centrepiece was the brightly coloured pot I pictured in my previous post.  Her guests didn’t know what their treats were, as they had been boxed and wrapped up prior to the event and were sat on each guest’s chair.

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Karen Gerhardt openly admitted that she may have got a little carried away with her gifts.  As I was on Karen’s table this was no problem at all!

Karen’s centrepiece was the humungous Boreas custom model, he was surrounded by pine needles and cones from the forests where she lives.  Her gifts were… (pause for dramatic effect)… a Halfling Boreas (!!!) art glazed, and some of the models had also been claybody customised slightly – an ear twitch here, a mane edit there.  Each Halfling Boreas was accompanied by a little photo frame featuring a sign for one of the Passes in Boulder (where Karen lives) and a map showing it.  Boreas is named after a Pass I believe, so these added a lovely personal touch to already over-generous gifts.

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Here is Karen with a couple of my table-mates, Michelle Platt to the left, and Sue Stewart to the right.

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Nobody knew this before the show, but we found out on the first day – each table centrepiece was TO BE GIVEN AWAY to one of the guests at the respective tables!!!

This added such an air of excitement to the show and the dinner – everybody was so thrilled with their gift and it was decided that each artist would throw a die and then count the resulting number to the left around the table, the person the number laded on would then WIN the table centrepiece!

First up, Kristina Lucas Francis’ table – her is the winner (sadly she wasn’t wearing her name badge so I don’t recall her name):

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On to Marge Para’s table, the winner of her centrepiece was Pauline Entin:

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And in those wrapped up boxes – hand made pots and candle-holders, they were gorgeous!

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On to Donna Chaney’s table and the winner of the amazing Venus and Cupid scene model, was Deb McDermott!

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I don’t think the rest of her table minded though, they all seemed very pleased with their chess piece models.

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On Addi’s table, the winner was Liz Holm!

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On our table, the proud winner was Kim Knight, I think her face says it all!

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Again, though, nobody lost on our table!  I was actually the first to arrive too, so I conveniently positioned myself next to this gorgeous ruby-red Halfling, he now sits proudly on my shelves and is a treasured part of my collection!

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So (insert drumroll here please) – Sarah’s table!

Dum dum dummmmm, and the winner is…..

Katie Younger-Gehrt!!!  Congratulations Katie!

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…you can’t hold an event like with without some speeches! Joanie thanked everyone who had contributed to the show, which was probably most people in the room, hehe!  Then Addi took to the mic’ to express her thanks to Joanie and tell us about the mammoth preparations she had undertook to make the BOYCC 2011 Event a success.  The applause shook the room and last a long time, it was obvious how much everyone appreciated all the hard work that went into the show.

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After the silliness of dinner…

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…and the drawing of the door prizes (I added a copy of Inferno cast in bronze, and my number was drawn so I got a reject time, yey!!!) – check out those Hammies, hehe!…

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Lesli Kathman held her talk on Colour Genetics and disproving some preconceptions about horse colours.  I didn’t get any photos from this but as Lesli is planning to release her book soon, it should all be in there.  Lesli has a wonderful way of explaining genetics, if you’re interested in horse colour genetics (and other animals too), check out Lesli’s blog, The Equine Tapestry.

The following morning it was time to say goodbye to the Lake San Marcos hotel and head back to Joanie’s house for the final workshop – Mold-Making with Margaret Olson, for those who attended my Making a Simple Medallion workshop on the Wednesday.

This is the view from our “Party Bungalow”

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And here you can see the outside of the show hall, it actually sat in the lake!

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On the way back from the hotel to Joanie’s house, we saw this guy giving it large on one of the junctions.  I’ve never seen a man dressed as a hotdog before, especially dancing away on a street corner, hehe!

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During the Mold-Making workshop on the Sunday afternoon, I didn’t take many photos, I was too enthralled with what was happening (and did get drawn into a few great gossipy conversations, I admit!).  I took this photo on my iPhone though, as I felt it summed up the whole event, and the feelings of those who got to “play in the mud”:

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BOYCC 2011 was over, people headed home or back to their hotels and there was a collective, mixed feeling “sigh” as we all realised it was over but also knew we had memories to last a lifetime and many, many new friends.

The next post will be about those Goodie bags!!

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