Well Devo and I finally made it home to sleep in our own bed... yippee
We had already spent time away in Nsw visiting family before heading to Jondaryan for the 14th Annual Letterhead Meeting
Ian's meeting at the Jondaryan Wool Shed was a blast, and I know that all who attended had a fantastic time!
A personal thanks from Devo and me, to Ian & Kell for all their hard work... with an added hug for Joan and 'the kids' for their marvelous hospitality, over what I know was a very hectic weekend for the whole Stewart-Koster family
It was wonderful to catch up with old friends, and meet some new ones, and getting to slop some paint around with Deb Fowler again was just too cool
Anyway I know Ian will do a 'big' report of the event when he comes up for air... so until then, here's a pic (or 2) for you all to take a look at
The bloke's in charge, exhausted before the event
Where we slept, not that much of that happened
Great food... top company
Gable Project, hard work paying off
3 generations of pure gold! Image of the father, created by the son, admired by the grandson
The Mighty Mack at work
'Cattle Call' Oz style
Again a big thanks to all who made this such a great weekend... see ya next year at Woodstock (hehehe)
cheers gail
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
Nice pics thanks Gail.
I see the lunch one was taken "pre-food" on the table, although I came prepared with blue aerosol can of "****-off" and am practicing my "Aussie (fly) salute"
Great Meet thanks Ian. Really enjoyed the company and projects.
Posted by Paul Jordan (Member # 1198) on :
A big THANKS to Ian and his family and also to Kel. We had a great time at the meet. There was always something to do, pinstriping, talking, airbrushing, talking, gilding, talking, lettering, talking or just taking in the beautiful outback scenery. The atmosphere was terrific, the food was fantastic, the flys were bloody annoying but hey this is Australia.
Posted by david drane (Member # 507) on :
I'll second that Paul. Ian, Joan and the kids went right out of the way to see that we all had such a great time. A most memorable weekend and now that I am back at work it is rather depressing even though I did win a great book in the raffle and the lovely trophy for the "Name that font" competition. Thanks Ian for all you have done and I am already looking forward to going down south next year to the Red wine tosser's meet. Posted by Steve Shortreed (Member # 436) on :
What memories this brings back. Just a short year ago, Barb and I spent a day at Jondaryan with Bushie and Sue. Many of the faces I see in the photos are Letterheads we have met in person. Kel's face always brings a smile to mine. What a guy!
It's so good to see our twisted pals Gail and Devo back at live meets. Nobody had more to do with the launch of Letterheads in Australia than Gail. I remember.
Special thanks to Ian. We know how hard he worked to ensure this meet was a success. How I wish we could have been there. Our visit to Ian's home and meeting his incredible Family was one of trip highlights. We learned a valuable lesson about what Family really means that day. Well done Mate!
Posted by Paul Jordan (Member # 1198) on :
Steve, I used the photo you took of Dad for the Goldfather panel. Thank you for such a good photo to work with. That was the first time I have tried to produce a panel like that.
Thanks to Kelly, with her painting of Dad and also the auction at Moosejaw, we now have a sizable amount of money put away in 'The Goldfather Fund'.
With the help of my good friend and fellow gilder Jeff Harvey we chose the first person to benefit from this- a young man called Ollie Hardt. Ollie showed a keen interest in the art of gilding, asking lots of questions about how to gild and also where to get the various tools to gild with. He received a gilders tip, mop, pot, knife, pad as well as a book of 23k goldleaf, a book of silverleaf and some books of aluminium.
It is our intention that this will be a regular occurence at future meets.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Thanks folks for the above posts & all the kind words- it was an honour to have such a great crowd attend the meet- 50 altogether, if you count Larry the cook & the panels he did, and his daughter Shara, too!
I'm still in zombie world from prep & packing & all the great late nights! I haven't put any pix up as I'm trying to keep a heap of patient customers content, after they were graciously put on hold for three weeks...and we're going away this weekend as a family to get a break- well, it's a holiday compliments of another happy client!
So...I'll get some pix up and a report, but it'll be a while, (sorry!) before it happens.
It was a good time, and I've had a lot of nice emails from attendees after they returned home, thanking us.
Kel & I stayed back there Sunday night with Brian Petty who'll host next year's meet- Australia's 15th- at Cowra, NSW, on the same weekend- the last weekend in October 2008, so mark your calendars for another good time! We have convinced him you ought not to have to shift shop- it's just too hard- he'll have it at his home/workshop. Larry has offered to prepare & cook food, voluntarily, too, if Brian just organises it, which is a great offer.
We also went over a longish checklist of organisation & promotion ideas for him for next year, and he's still keen!
Prize Winners of the various competitions- I'm working from memory, though I do have them written down: Best Logo- Tom Vagg, Best Airbrushed Panel- Rod Tickle, Best Alphabet Panel- Peter Tierney, Best Mannequin - Christine Whitty, Best Glass Panel - Paul Jordan, Farthest Travelled - Deb Fowler from USA of course! MG Award - Brian Fairchild Spirit of Letterheads- good bloke & Life Member award- Brian Petty, Young Guns Award - Jake Savas, runner up Lewis Dickson, Fastest Striper- (was that me?- John Elliott was pretty good except for some underhand moves that ought to be declared illegal !) Name That Font - Dave Drane, 32 out of 50- very good! Fridge Raffle- Hannah S-K (she's over the moon with glee, and is still working out what to decorate the other side with!) Assorted donated items & multidraw raffle I can't remember, but not too many missed out, and Craig Goss was lucky enough to win a plotter, compliments of Signsheet Distributors (Alupanel) & Troy Mackintosh & Patrick Smith.
Other sponsors, mentioned beforehand (in another thread) were also extremely helpful, and their support was invaluable, including Pitt & Co & Visualise, Smart-Artz, Controlzone & John Hadfield, Spandex, Graphic Art Mart, Supply-1, Aust Graphic Supplies, ASI Plastics (York Precisiion Plastyics),One-Steel, Multipanel, Metalmasters,Art Materals Online, Mack brushes, and we (Traditional Signs)donated the Von Dutch book & the four Old Aust Signs books, and Jordan Signs donated the Goldfather award kit.
Steve, ALL our kids want to go to next year's meet- they'll send me broke!!!
Statistically, we had 8 children taking part all weekend, and 13+ adults who were new to Letterheads, so it was a good mix of newcomers and the first time in many years that a good collection of 'the old crew' were back together again.
One person said to me he wished some of them would speak out & show you how good they were...as he'd known of many of them in name, but hadn't put the face to the name & realised that these were who he was thinking of, till it was al over, and he'd wished he'd taken the chance to talk to more of them... (I said, yes, the ONE rule of Letteheads here always was "leave your ego at the door before you enter", and most of us are pretty humble blokes (women are included in that 'blokes' generalisation, by honour).
Another said he'd never gained so much weight so quickly- the food was so good, and the time to talk was not long enough.
Two others discovered they'd worked together on a job about 20 years ago, though they now live about 400 km apart.
Joan & the kids really enjoyed it too- we all have a soft spot for the woolshed museum, as that's where we both met- working as volunteers there 21 years ago.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
OK, some more winners: Justin King won the Smart-Artz clipart CD Paula Hullah won the business marketing cd from KIM/Controlzone/John Hadfield Bernie Morrison won the voucher from AGS Deb Fowler won the voucher from ASI Plastics Larry McPaul won the Von Dutch book Peter Tierney & Christine Whitty, & someone else won Smart Artz colour design books I did not keep track of who won the four Old Australian Signs books, nor the bundle of charcoal sticks, not the signcraft mags Dave O'Hanlon & Paul Jordan won Application Fluid bottles Helen S-K won the bundle of fitches & lettering brushes Patrick Smith, Brian Fairchild, Bushie & Ticks won something- Ticks' name came out of the barrel a lot, as did Brian Fairchild's!
The First Registered Letterhead trophy went to Kel Lawton- and it's not the first one of those he's won, either!
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
Ditto to all said above; such great hosts and friends; we missed all of you that couldn't come here; I meant to post earlier but it's been so busy, still on the road in Oz, discovering what a wonderful place it is! I'll post a proper post very soon to thank my hosts and dear friends.
Posted by Brian Fairchild (Member # 1594) on :
Hi Ian,
Just a quick note to say thanks for a great event. Brilliant to catch up with so many Aussie friends in one fell swoop and also great to make new friends of the calibre that events such as Letterheads attract.
I'm absolutely stoked with the MG award - it will be my future privilege to staunchly defend the honour of being compared to that legend we all know as Mick George. Mick, I hope I can do you proud!
Also stoked to learn that there's sixteen or seventeen Aussie 'heads and partners heading over the Tasman for the 10th NZ Letterheads meet at Chris Fields' shop in Auckland in a weeks time. I trust we can make you feel as welcome in NZ as you have made me in Australia.
Thanks again Ian and family.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Thanks Brian- it was great to have you here- and that MG award was only just won by the hair of your beard- there were four others who nearly snatched it from you!
I've put a bundle of photos here, in another thread but I can link to them here too:
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!)