ABS LEARNING SYMPOSIUM: June 11-14, 2015

[lordy]

An event of great magnitude is set to come to the Baltimore-Washington area in June 2015.

Turf Valley Country Club, June 11 thru 14, 2015. http://www.absbonsai.org/2015-abs-learning-symposium

Below is a brief synopsis of events. This will be a once in a decade event. My club has even offered a subsidy to existing members to register. And it even starts on my birthday . I gave myself a present already and registered.
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Capitol Collections: Collecting in the 21st Century 2015 ABS Symposium

Schedule of Events

Thursday June 11

8-5 ABS/Joshua Roth New Talent Competition
9-3 ABS Board of Directors Meeting
9-3 NBF Board of Directors Meeting
8-8 Registration
10-3 Rocky Mountain Juniper Workshop with Ryan Neil $1900 limit 8
6-7:30 Welcome Reception
8-10 Demonstration Ryan Neil

Friday June 12

Morning Session 8-11

Lectures

Colorado Spruce: Design and Care - Larry Jackel
Traditional Bonsai Display - Jack Sustic
Designing - "Native" Tray Landscapes - Arthur Joura
Japanese Black Pine: Balancing Energy through Needle Management - John Kirby
Shohin Conifer Care - Pauline Muth

Workshops

Bald Cypress - Guy Guidry - $575 limit 10
Rocky Mountain Juniper - Andy Smith $XX limit 8
Yew - Martin Schmalenberg - $100 limit 12
Carving Deadwood - David Knittle - $45 limit 10
Wiring - David Easterbrook - $25 - limit 12
Colorado Spruce - Ryan Neil - $1000 - limit 10

Afternoon Session 1-4

Lectures

Bald Cypress Design and Care Guy Guidry
Rocky Mountain Juniper Design and Care Andy Smith
Literati Style Martin Schmalenberg
Nontraditional Bonsai Display Jack Sustic

Workshops

Colorado Spruce - Larry Jackel - $YY - limit 10
Satsuki Azaleas - David Knittle - $180 - limit 8
American Hornbeam - Arthur Joura - $75 - limit 8
Japanese Black Pine Needle Management - $50 - limit - 10
Wiring - David Easterbrook - $25 - limit 12
Chuhin Yew - Pauline Muth - $75 - limit 8
(Ongoing RMJ Ryan Neil)

5-10 - Reception at the National Arboretum

Saturday June 13

Morning Session 9-12

Lectures

Black Hills Spruce Design and Care - Andy Smith
Pitch and Virginia Pine Design and Care - Martin Schmalenberg
Tool Care and Sharpening - David Knittle
Alternative Pot Design - Ron Lang
Repotting and Soil Dynamics - John Kirby
Shohin Tropicals - Pauline Muth

Workshops

Dawn Redwood - Guy Guidry - $200 - limit 8
Douglasfir - Larry Jackel - $YY - limit 8
Deciduous Shohin - Jack Sustic - $YY limit 10
Tray Landscape - Arthur Joura - $135 - limit 12
Eastern White Cedar - David Easterbrook - $200 - limit 10
(Ongoing RMJ Ryan Neil)

Afternoon Session 2-5

Lectures

Douglasfir Design and Care - Larry Jackel
North American Bonsai Pottery 2015 Panel Discussion - Ron Lang, Sharon Edwards-Russell, Jim Gremel, Ryan Neil
American Hornbeam Design and Care - Arthur Joura
Eastern White Cedar Design and Care - David Easterbrook
Kusamona - Young Choe

Workshops

San Jose Juniper - Guy Guidry - $225 - limit 8
Black Hills Spruce - Andy Smith $XX - limit 10
Literati with Eastern White Cedar - Martin Schmalenberg $YY - limit 12
Shohin Juniper - Jack Sustic - $YY - limit 10
Exposed Root Japanese Black Pine - John Kirby - $350 - limit 8
Tropical Shohin - Pauline Muth - $YY - limit 10
Carving Deadwood - David Knittle - $45 - limit 10

6-7 - Social Hour
7-10 - Banquet/Auction

Sunday June 14

Morning Session 9-12

Lecture

Collecting in the Modern World Panel - Guy Guidry, David Easterbrook, Andy Smith, Larry Jackel, Clinton Scott

Workshops

BYOT - Ryan Neil - $100 - limit 8
Kusamona - Young Choe - $100 - limit 15

$XX: Participants will choose and pay for their trees on Andy Smith's website,www.goldenarrowbonsai.com
$YY: Participants will choose and pay for their trees at the workshop

 

[Vance Wood]

A great bargain for the well healed. Why is this a once in a decade event? I read through the syllabus and there doesn't seem to be a lot more here than at a lot of large shows except the charges for some of the work shops. $1,000 for a Blue Spruce work shop? I suspect the tree is collected? Juniper workshop $1900? Wow!

 

[lordy]

Sorry Vance, perhaps I should have said "for this area". I did not create the pricing or lineup, just passing the info on.

 

[Vance Wood]

Thank You for sharing this. I hope it is successful and a lot of people find it worth the price they are going to have to pay, not only for the show but the lodging as well.

 

[lordy]

That's the beauty part for many in the Baltimore / Washington corridor. We can drive there in about an hour, then go home for the night, and repeat for as many days as we like. I'll be doing the trip at least 3 times that weekend. I can spend the room money on bonsai stuff while I'm there.

 

[rockm]

If you go onto the website, there are photos of the specific trees that will be sold for each of the pricier demos. The spendy ones are collected by experienced collectors like Randy Knight. All were personally chosen for use by Ryan Neil.
http://www.absbonsai.org/2015-abs-learning-symposium/workshop-descriptions

Noted bonsai pot craftsman Ron Lang is also putting together a third national pot competition to run with this event.
http://www.absbonsai.org/2015-abs-l...ional-bonsai-foundation-juried-pot-exhibition

For those of us on the East Coast, this event is a bit of a consolation for the Artisans Cup on the left coast in the fall.
http://www.theartisanscup.com/

 

[rockm]

Can't understand Vance's apparent disdain for this event. It is being held at the same time and for pretty much the same audience that's drawn to the annual Potomac Bonsai Association show and sale every year at the National Arboretum. Hotel rooms run $100/$140 a night for a decent room within five miles of this resort. You can also get a $55 room in West Baltimore, but if you're a fan of "The Wire" you probably know that's a bit shaky. There are more than a few bonsai enthusiasts that enthusiastically drive as much as five hours for the PBA event every year--I've seen the N.C. tags in the Arb parking lot every year...That event has been postponed this year, to focus on the PBA show.

 

[barrosinc]

If you go onto the website, there are photos of the specific trees that will be sold for each of the pricier demos. The spendy ones are collected by experienced collectors like Randy Knight. All were personally chosen for use by Ryan Neil.
http://www.absbonsai.org/2015-abs-learning-symposium/workshop-descriptions

do they keep the trees?

 

[rockm]

You pay $1,200, you get to keep the tree.

 

[lordy]

Can't understand Vance's apparent disdain for this event. It is being held at the same time and for pretty much the same audience that's drawn to the annual Potomac Bonsai Association show and sale every year at the National Arboretum. Hotel rooms run $100/$140 a night for a decent room within five miles of this resort. You can also get a $55 room in West Baltimore, but if you're a fan of "The Wire" you probably know that's a bit shaky. There are more than a few bonsai enthusiasts that enthusiastically drive as much as five hours for the PBA event every year--I've seen the N.C. tags in the Arb parking lot every year...That event has been postponed this year, to focus on the PBA show.

And this should be much more well-attended and with more big names under one roof than the PBA festival. But for free, the PBA event is pretty damn good. I expect a pretty good event in 2016.

 

[Vance Wood]

Can't understand Vance's apparent disdain for this event. It is being held at the same time and for pretty much the same audience that's drawn to the annual Potomac Bonsai Association show and sale every year at the National Arboretum. Hotel rooms run $100/$140 a night for a decent room within five miles of this resort. You can also get a $55 room in West Baltimore, but if you're a fan of "The Wire" you probably know that's a bit shaky. There are more than a few bonsai enthusiasts that enthusiastically drive as much as five hours for the PBA event every year--I've seen the N.C. tags in the Arb parking lot every year...That event has been postponed this year, to focus on the PBA show.

I don't disdain the event, please try to get my position correct; I disdain the cost, making this event accessible to only a few with decent incomes or those that think spending a couple of thousand dollars they may not have is cost effectve. I now of someone who spent in excess of 10,000 dollars thinking he was going to become a world master and within a couple of years all of the trees were dead along with his dreams of becoming a world class bonsai master.

 

[lordy]

Vance, there are people like that in every hobby. The guy who buys a Ferrari who cant drive a manual trans and wastes the clutch: $10,000. The guy who wants to ski like the people he works with but is the biggest clutz around: $3000 and a broken leg. The guy with no coordination who takes up golf and joins a country club: $50,000. They're everywhere. But this show wont cost you a grand unless you want it to. I got in and am taking 3 workshops and 2 lectures for about half that sum. Yes, it's a lot of money, but so is good material (and I'll come home with 3 new trees and styling help from masters), so are good pots, so is various soil components, so is time and labor caring for what I have. You yourself have complained that your trees are less than you'd like them to be. Consider an experience like this a college education for bonsai. You can go to a junior college and end up managing your local hardware store, or go to Johns Hopkins and manage Mass. General. I guess it's all in what you want out of it.

 

[mj_barb]

Is this really a once in a decade event, or are you using that as a figure of speech? Seems pretty cool, but I would need get my feet wetter before I invest that kind of money.

 

[lordy]

Is this really a once in a decade event, or are you using that as a figure of speech? Seems pretty cool, but I would need get my feet wetter before I invest that kind of money.

If you are truly new to this hobby then this is probably not for you yet. Attend local club meetings until the PBA 2016 festival which is largely free.

 

[mj_barb]

If you are truly new to this hobby then this is probably not for you yet. Attend local club meetings until the PBA 2016 festival which is largely free.

Yes, I agree, just wondering how often this event occurs!

 

[rockm]

"making this event accessible to only a few with decent incomes or those that think spending a couple of thousand dollars they may not have is cost effective."

Horsehockey. If you read the schedule, you will see only three or four of more than a dozen workshops have high-priced collected trees. The vast majority of the workshop trees are under $200. There's also bring-your-own. The cost to exhibit a tree is $10,. That's pretty much in line with just about every bonsai show I've seen or attended. Cheaper, in fact, than many. The judgmental tone is also a bit out of place. So what if someone wants to blow a grand on a tree. It's their money and their reputation. Decent, established and OLD collected stock (have you looked at the demo trees posted on the site?) is expensive to begin with, IF you can get it...

 

[lordy]

Yes, I agree, just wondering how often this event occurs!

around here, once in a decade-ish for something of this significance. IIRC, the last one around here was in 2005 in DC. I missed that one.

 

[Vance Wood]

Vance, there are people like that in every hobby. The guy who buys a Ferrari who cant drive a manual trans and wastes the clutch: $10,000. The guy who wants to ski like the people he works with but is the biggest clutz around: $3000 and a broken leg. The guy with no coordination who takes up golf and joins a country club: $50,000. They're everywhere. But this show wont cost you a grand unless you want it to. I got in and am taking 3 workshops and 2 lectures for about half that sum. Yes, it's a lot of money, but so is good material (and I'll come home with 3 new trees and styling help from masters), so are good pots, so is various soil components, so is time and labor caring for what I have. You yourself have complained that your trees are less than you'd like them to be. Consider an experience like this a college education for bonsai. You can go to a junior college and end up managing your local hardware store, or go to Johns Hopkins and manage Mass. General. I guess it's all in what you want out of it.

So there is no cost to attend the show? I stand corrected. I understand your analogies

 

[Eric Group]

I think $1,000 is a LOT of money... But, go try to buy any of Ryan's trees for that. True, you might not be getting one of the masterworks he is selling on Bonsai Mirai, but you get some advanced collected material and get Ryan to style them with you for WAY less than you'd pay for a completed bonsai of his! It isn't cheap but is costs a lot less than you could pay for a quality tree from Ryan!

 

[Vance Wood]

I understand all of your points all of them. But; I don't want Ryan to style a tree for me. I don't want to buy a completed bonsai of his, or anyone else's for that matter, so this kind of thing has no appeal to me. This my be worth it to someone who has more income than they know what to do with but at my age I don't have that luxury. I am sure not going to endanger my families security by spending money I may need for food sooner rather than latter. If I am going to spend that kind of money it will not be to buy the art work of someone else.