Shohin Convention, Santa Nella

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The Shohin Convention comes to town only every other year, but boy is it worth the wait. There are vendors that come to this as their only show in Cal. Some of these people don't even bring this kind of stuff to the GSBF convention.

In the first pic you can see the motel that the convention was run out of. All the vendor, display, and workshop room are on that long line of rooms to the right. The second pic is the first vendor room. Hard to tell what is in there, I should have taken the pic from the other side since this is where all the choice stuff is. Pic three is vendor room no. 2. This was a little sparse, and is sort of an overflow room.

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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I have taken photo's of the more popular vendors. In photo one, That's Michael Hagedorn fron Creatagus Pots. He make some wonderful handmade pots in all sizes.

Second pic, that Mendocino Coast Bonsai, Bob and Zack Shimon specialize in redwood trees. Shohin size all the way to mammoth wood. They also carry full line of Royola Pacific pots and some Sara Rayner pots. More about that later!!!


That third pic is of none other than Mas Ishii, of Chikugo-En Bonsai Nursery, in So. Ca. He is shown here with his excellant kishu Shimpaku grafted on to San Jose juniper.

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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This first pic shows Fred Fassio of El Dorado Bonsai. They came in with shohin stock, azeala, hornbeam, tridents, and ilex serrata. Great prices and some hard goods too.

In the second pic thats Mike Muth from Northwest Bonsai Supply. They bring down all the great burnished Tokoname ware pots from the state of Washington. These pots are to die for, and you won't see the assortment of pots all in one place as these guys have.

In the third is Tian Tao Viewing stones. They sell all sorts of suiseki and veiwing stone. They also sell imported Chinese stands.

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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The workshops are the backbone of the convention. The people come for the workshops because, one, they are cheap, two you get real good stock and real good instructors.

In pic one, Thats Bob Hilvers from Hanford Cal, doing the Penjing workshop

In pic two and three we have the Ishii's. They did workshops with their kishu shimpaku. Thats Mas in two, and Gary in three. You can see the great stock.

__________________
It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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In pic one we have Bill Valavanis from New York. Bill was using Dwarf Hinoki Cypress as his medium.

In pic two thats Ted Matson, he's using yaopon holly.

In three thats Kathy Shaner. She is doing the most expensive workshop of all. Those are shohin size black pines. These trees were started by Lonnie McCormik in 1990 from seed. They are now about 11-12 inches tall with a 2" trunk that tapers right to point. These were exquisite trees. The workshop was limited to six lucky persons, all drawn by lottery.

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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I took these two foto's of a couple of students in the workshops. The first is Jennifer Beck. Name sound familiar Matt? She was in the yaopon holly workshop with Mel Ikeda. Thats him in the background with the white t-shirt.

The second is Carol Goehausen. She was in the Ishii workshop, I thought she had the best tree.

__________________
It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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Jim Gremel did a demonstration on Saikai. If you have never seen jim in person, then you have really missed a great comedian. This guy had everyone rolling in the aisles. Some of his interaction went like this:
Audience-- Because you have taken off so much roots, are you going to prune the top?

J.G.-- I don't need to. Most of the green part will fall of tomarrow.

You now have taste of the Jim Factor.

__________________
It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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Shohin Convention would not be complete without pics of the dshohin display area. Here we go. Soory about the first set of pics, my scanner read them as black and white. Not enough color I guess.

__________________
It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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Remember, Shohin means tree's 11 inches in height or smaller. These images are very small tree's indeed.

__________________
It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...