posted                          

cont'd:
Dean Tomaselli striping a truck in a standard style of his



and the usual fridge, here being flamed...


Someone's glass panel, nearing completion:


and a panel Mike Meyer did (not yet completed here) for Ash, which turned out really nice:


I'll sign off for the moment till I optimise some more pix, and firstly get some catch-up sleep & catch-up work done!

The weekend was a blast- sorry to all who didn't make it there!


The commentary from earlier:

quote:

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Well, we're all so busy that no one's posting any details or photos. Like trusting letterheads we all left our USB leads at home so we can't post any pix from our cameras till later, but everyone's so absorbed in the spirit of it all that we're having a great time.

Aussie John hasn't changed much, although I'm sure he's growing a Yankee accent. We'll have to chain him up a bit more often.

Yankee Mike, or Mazeppa Mike, has proven to be a wonderful bloke- we've just had our Federal Government elections, and have voted him for Prime Minister, but were told that a Letterheads Party wasn't a legitimate political entity.

Mike's been giving us a few talks, learning to blow a didgereedoo (or trying to learn as it involves sucking, blowing & vibrating the tongue simultaneously- something we aussies are very competant at ), and Mike's brush scripts are just beautiful.

Rod (Ticks) has been hanging off his iwata, along with Heath Saunders, doing some great panels.

Big Kev has flamed the ash trays, fridge, and anything else that moves or can be restrained for more than a minute, as well as painting a Major Mitchell Cockatoo that looks better than real life- it's awesome.

Ace (Adam Howison) has been a great help with behind the scenes organising & following suit with cockatoos, flames & assorted great panels. Added to that is a pair of flamed shoes he did (a la "The Flash") awarded to the "Young Gun" of the meet- the very worthy Ash Carver from Adelaide.

Mark Stokes has everyone's jaws dropping with his oversized airbrush portraits- so fast and so darn accurate- plus a full sized full colour panel of Pamela Anderson (complete with realistically inflated parts)- It's a sight to see- great work!

Ian S-K has given a small slate carving workshop, modelled on Rob Cooper's styles, which has had a keen little bit of interest- it's not that difficult, really!

Brian Petty from Cowra now features as the ONLY aussie to have attended EVERY national aussie letterheads meet since their inception- congratulations Brian.

Liam Uppill from Clare used his new Versacamm to plot & print some great stickers for everyone to take home- the colours & detail are too good to be true. It was designed on a combination of photoshop & corel by Jamie, one of our host Brett Sustrom's employees.

John Jordan has a beautiful home made panel prepared for the meet, and everyone attending gets to keep a glass panel- about half were underway. Ian S-K woke everyone up by stippling his from the back, while looking from the front, till it fell off the rack and scattered throughout the aircraft hanger.

Brett Sunstrom has a lovely wife-Sue- who has kept us all topped up with caffiene, bread rolls, scones, and healthy tasty lunches & dinners, and is still smiling- she's a good one!

Ron Andrews made the trek from Canberra on his new 1200cc BMW complete with GPS satellite navigation system & aussie map built in. He organised the plaques for the weekend, and gave us another dummy presentation (or is it a gnome presentation- they ought to be able to breed by now, he's made so many, but I guess most have been male gnomes, and Ron's very handy with a sharp knife, which says it all...) (poor gnomes).

Two families braved the Nullabor Plain to come over from West Aussie. [to translate- Nullabor comes from the latin Null (no) Arbor (tree)- and for over 1000 km there's not a solitary tree, just desert-Each to his own I suppose...!] that trip is somewhere around 2500 km each way, or more. Stan Butler from Parnell Signs rode his motorbike over here. (He's still recovering) . The Lilly family- big Kim & co- also drove over from WA, and have been getting involved in the glass & slate panels amongst other things.

Sarge (John Serjeant spelt right there!) and Ricky have survived their drive of 2000 ish km- now they have to go back!!! Me- I'm flying, after I con a lift back to Adelaide airport on Monday.

Dean Tomaselli (who resembles a movie star from a 1950's detective story on TV) gave a demo of lettering & striping a prime mover (which you may call a tractor trailer?) We'd all like to be that quick!

A few well-known faces are conspicuous by their absence, (for various reasons) while there are a lot of first timers, which is great for the movement.

Brett's other employee Roger somehow manages to work around this invasion of 'his' space! Brett's workshop is a huge aircraft hanger. There must be two dozen caravans, six garden sheds, twenty ? cars, Brett's workshop itself, and room for a few games of tennis inside it.

There are a few more people whose names I've forgotten as they aren't wearing their nametags. The weekend has been a "Panel Jam" with no surplus murals or buses to paint, but it's working out really nicely for everyone involved.

More updates later as I can think of them, unless Mr Meyer gets here first!

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Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged |