News Archives
Sunday 17 May
It looks like our London leaf collection point is working well. Today we received a bunch of photos of leaves that Lucy Quinnell has received already. Lucy is kindly photographing and cataloguing them as she receives them, which will make our job that much easier at this end. Thanks Lucy.
Saturday 16 May
A beautiful overcast Autumn day saw the blacksmiths at St. Andrews Market amongst the gum trees. Perfect weather for a hot cup of chai and for standing close to the forge. A very big thankyou to Doug and Pam who were up early to set up. Doug worked hard at the anvil all morning producing gumleaves. Great to see Dale who, despite a terrible shoulder injury which has just about put him out of blacksmithing action, came to give his support. Dale is organising the blacksmiths to come to the Yarra Junction event on the 21st June. After a long journey from the Ukraine, Paul came from the airport to the market with a small selection of leaves made by the blacksmiths of Europe. Pictures coming soon! Thanks to Jo for picking him up from the airport and also to Rachel for all her work and photography. A special thankyou to Pete, (maker of the wish box,) and Nancy who respectively contributed home-made minstrone soup and lasagne to Paul and Amanda who are way too tired to cook. Thankyou to the St. Andrews Market organisers and the people of St. Andrews for having us. If you've never been to this special market, come and visit one Saturday morning. Full of interesting crafts, vintage and original clothing, massage, fresh produce and seriously good food, the St. Andrews Market is a little jewel in the bush.
Monday 11 May
Thankyou to Alexandra Timber Tramway for having us at the Alexandra Market on Saturday. The Timber Tramway and Museum is a fascinating place and well worth a visit on the days they've got the steam train running. Over the weekend of 24 and 25 October 2009 the Alexandra Timber Tramway will be celebrating the Centenary of the opening of the railway to Alexandra.
Thanks to our two charming blacksmiths who worked hard on the day; Doug Tarrant and Don Gathercole. We'd also like to thank Kat Gannon, Events Coordinator of Murrindindi Shire Council who lets us know of the events in the Shire.
Thursday 7 May
After weeks of searching, we have found a sponsor to send Paul Mills to the Ukraine in time for the International Blacksmiths Festival this weekend. The Ukrainian Union of Artist Blacksmiths have organised blacksmiths from 12 countries to contribute steel gumleaves to the tree. They want to hand over the leaves in an official ceremony at the 7th International Blacksmithing Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk. For weeks and weeks we tried without success to find a sponsor to send him then, on Monday this week, Melissa from Harvey World Travel in Eltham came to us and offered to help. Thankyou to Melissa, Amber and Kylie. Harvey World Travel Eltham has funded most of the airfare, the rest is being funded by a blacksmith who wishes to remain anonymous.
The funds we have received from people sponsoring leaves are strictly for the tree only; to pay for stainless steel, copper, welding consumables and installation. No money gathered for the construction of the tree has been or will be used to fund the trip to the Ukraine.
The festival is important to us as it gathers together over 300 blacksmiths, many of whom have made leaves for the tree. Last year these blacksmiths forged a tree they call the Happiness Tree which stands in Ivano-Frankivsk. The support of the blacksmiths from Europe has been amazing and we are excited to be able to send a representative of Australian blacksmithing to the festival.
In the words of Festival Organiser Olga Polubotko, who, for many weeks, has been a tireless ambassador of the Tree Project: "This is a very symbolic project– making the world more unite, people closer, understanding better, cooperation more fully!" We couldn't have said it better!
Paul will return on Saturday 16th May and come straight to the blacksmiths demonstration at St. Andrews Market. He will have with him a selection of the leaves from Europe. The rest will be sent to London at our collection point. Qantas Freight will be freighting all the European and UK leaves from London at the end of June. See the Postage Details page for the address of the London collection point.
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