News Archives
Sunday 21 June
The Upper Yarra Historical Society hosted the biggest turnout of blacksmiths yet with 13 turning up to forge over 90 leaves for the tree. Right: Ray Gard prepares to forge some copper leaves
Left: Chris Vincent hard at work with the smiling Andy Jagger behind him. Right: Pat Aulich forging his first ever leaf.
Left: Scott 'Bully' Turnball Centre: Cliff Overton, proud owner of a new anvil Right: Liam Egan, another first time leaf forger makes leaves for the tree
Left: Doug Tarrant and Paul Mills hard at work. Right: The Wish Box is filling with people's wishes for the fire affected communities and will eventually be buried under the tree. Thanks to Pete McCurly for creating the beautiful box.
Left: Is Ray's anvil going out on a date tonight? Right: Stamping a name on a leaf. Each letter of a name is individually stamped onto sponsored leaves.
Many thanks to Dale Russell who worked hard to organise this event, to the Upper Yarra Historical Society and Museum for having us, for the fabulous Sandie and Pam who worked as support crew and to all the blacksmiths for their work on the day. Blacksmiths in attendance were: Ray Gard, Andy Jagger, Chris Vincent, Steve Nicholl, Cliff Overton, Paul Mills, Doug Tarrant, Dale Russell, Pat Aulich, Liam Egan, Scott Turnball, Tony Jones and Grant Morris.
Saturday 13 June
Another fine day for a leaf making demo by the ABA(Vic) blacksmiths. Today saw an energetic bunch turn up at the Eltham Town Square to meet and greet a bunch of new faces and some familiar ones too. A huge thank you must go to Lucy Anderson from Eltham Shopping Centre for organising and promoting this event. Not only were there blacksmiths making leaves and heavy branches, (thanks Doug & Paul for the sledge-hammering,) but there was music by local band Just Cruisin’ and a sausage sizzle, (thankyou to Lucy and her helpers,) all proceeds of which were donated to The Tree Project. The constant stream of wide-eyed onlookers, most of which had never seen a blacksmith, especially in Eltham, and the enthusiasm they showed for the project was great. Thanks to Cliff, Dale, Doug, Mary, Nick, Paul & Rick for coming along and forging leaves, thanks also to our tireless support crew of Amanda, Jenny, Maree and Rachel, and thanks for all those who turned up to watch and sponsor a leaf.
Sunday 7 June
Above: The first branch sections watched over by Zoon the blacksmith's kelpie and the first branch takes shape
The first major branch of the tree was forged this weekend. Working hard over the last two days, Doug and Paul forged branch sections and twigs from the steel donated by Dalsteel Metals. The first branch was welded together from some of these sections and 75 leaves added to it. Over the next weeks more leaves and gumnuts will be added. You can see the two happy blacksmiths below hamming it up for the camera.
Also today, our online credit card facility went live. Many, many thanks to Russell who spent many hours over the past days getting this working for us. See our Sponsor a Leaf page. Thanks also to Brad who wrestled with an uncooperative virtual shopping cart earlier this week and still managed to stay cheerful.
We've received a lot of leaves this week, including some stunning copper leaves made by the 1st Year Apprentice Jewellery students from NMIT, which takes us well over 600 leaves received so far. We're way behind in our Leaf Gallery at the moment, please bear with us, we'll have a great collection of images to see in about two weeks.
Saturday 23 May
Whittlesea showgrounds was the venue for the Bushfire Rebuilding Expo. It was another chance for us to meet yet more of the locals and spread the word about The Tree Project to those affected by the Black Saturday fires. With Melbourne putting on another glorious Autumn day, the crew from the ABA(Vic) put on a great demonstration for those attending the expo. Thanks to Tanya from Whittlesea Council and Cliff from the CFA for getting us involved and to Amanda and Rachel for their brilliant organisational skills, to Ash, Cliff, Doug, Gavin, Michael, Paul, Rick, Roland and Stephen for swinging the hammers and making some leaves. Thanks also to Christine Nixon and Whittlesea Mayor Mary Lalios for their leaves and support for the project.
Thursday 21 May
Thank you to Dalsteel, in particular Louis d’Alpuget for the donation of stainless steel material. Dalsteel have generously offered us stainless steel round-bar from 25mm down to 4mm. This material will enable us to start making some of our smaller branches for the tree and begin attaching some of the leaves that have been made and received already.
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