US/TX/Houston/ABS Conference Oct 2005

[Bamboo Events Desk]

The American Bamboo Society Annual Convention was held at Mercer Arboretum, Humble, Texas on Oct 20 - 22, 2005.

There were additional bamboo events before and after the Convention - read about it here:

A pre-conference Five Day Bamboo Workshop conducted by Carol Stangler and Michael James Long was arranged for Friday- Tuesday, October 14-18 at Mercer Arboretum (http://www.hcp4.net/mercer/index.htm), Humble, Texas. Full details are listed here (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=237&day=2005-10-14&c=1)

The ABS Board of Directors met on Wednesday, October 19 at the host hotel, the Sheraton North Houston (http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/booking/reservation?id=0507287938&key=DC774).

Thursday, October 20 was set aside for a pre-conference tour which included a visit to Bruce and Elizabeth Grunden's private residence See photos (http://priceyourtrip.com/pondtour/index.html). These gardens have won many national awards, and have been featured in magazines and the Houston Chronicle.

Friday and Saturday, Oct 21-22, was filled with talks and presentations by:
Noelle Barkley – Bamboo DNA
Martin Coto - Building Bamboo Furniture Workshop - www.bambues.com (http://www.bambues.com)
Darrell DeBoer - Bamboo Architecture (http://www.deboerarchitects.com/BambooThoughts.html)
James Clever - The People of ABS; Landscaping with Bamboo
Mike Hotchkiss - Bamboo Identification (http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/horticulture/GrowingBamboo.htm)
Robert Saporito - Recent Research on the Bamboo Mealybug: Palmicultor lumpurensis (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=535)
Jo Scheer - Building a Bamboo Tree House (http://www.tropical-treehouse.com/) -- see Jo Scheer's Gallery (http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=78)
Carol Stangler - Building Bamboo Fences and Screens: Tools and Techniques (http://www.craftandartofbamboo.com/)
Adam Turtle - Transplanting large bamboo

In addition, bamboo exhibitions and vendors were on hand to enhance your bamboo experiences.

Saturday afternoon featured the traditional fundraising auction with auctioneer, Adam Turtle.

And Saturday nite - a celebration with a banquet dinner and Frank Meyer's (http://www.thangmaker.com/) special live band at the Sheraton Hotel.

There is a special treat and a great opportunity scheduled for Sunday, October 23, 2005 at Mercer Arboretum, Humble, Texas

Bamboo furniture demonstration by Master Craftsman Martin Coto from Costa Rica

Trained by the Taiwanese to build furniture with their phyllostachys varieties, Martin has spent the last 25 years expanding his bamboo obsession to also include large diameter tropical varieties and the building of hotels, an art gallery and bamboo houses. Martin will demonstrate some of the joinery methods he uses Saturday(?) at ___, as well as at a special hands-on workshop all day Sunday from 10-5 under the "TreeHouse" at Mercer. The workshop will cost an extra $50 per person and tools will be available for use as well as for purchase. Martin is one of the most skilled craftspeople many of us have ever met, and he has a tremendous sense of humor even if your knowledge of Spanish is limited. Your efforts to pick his brain will be amply rewarded, so please try at every opportunity. His wife, Grace - a fount of knowledge herself, speaks fluent english so the tough words can be bridged.

Registration details and fees for the American Bamboo Society conference are posted here (http://www.texasbamboosociety.org/abs2005.html)

The current schedule of events is posted here: (http://bamboo.home.texas.net/ABS-TentativeSchedule-9-29.html)

[Bamboo Events Desk]

Selby Clark has put together 2 CD's from the ABS Annual Meeting that was held at Mercer Arboretum, Humble, Texas in October 2005 and is asking for help in getting the word out.

Message from Selby Clark:
"Can I please ask you to help get the word out to everyone that either attended the ABS meeting or would have any possible interest in a CD with 350 photos of the ABS meeting and surrounding events? I’m guessing there may be some folks that were unable to attend that might enjoy the experience vicariously through the photos so we probably should get the word out to as many people as possible.

I finally have all the photos resolutions standardized so they fill the screen and fit on a CD. I have a nice photo label made and the photos will display as a slideshow on either a computer or a TV (if your DVD player will play VCD’s). There is nice flute music in the background and all the photos are also available on the disk as jpg files if anyone simply wants to add them to their own personal collection.

Here is a picture of the cd:
439

I will duplicate them and mail them out for $5 each postage included.

I also have another CD’s worth of Darrel DeBoer’s photos of Coto’s bamboo furniture making workshops around the world. Darrel DeBoer sent these pictures to me to use however it might further the understanding of bamboo craft everywhere. I can include this CD for another $5 or a total of $10 for the pair including postage.

Lastly, it should be understood that no photographer receives any credit anywhere for any of the shots on the slideshow CD, but if anyone is actually interested in receiving a CD of all the photos arranged in folders by photographer then I can create such a CD for them for another $5.

Easiest thing would be to have everyone interested simply send a check to me, MADE OUT TO: Selby Clark, 2907 Sunset Blvd., Houston, TX 77005 and any funds left over after expenses I will deposit in the Texas Bamboo Society account.

Selby (selby@selby.net)

Many of the photos were contributed by different people who attended the conference.