Well the Guild Show has come and gone for another year, and I hope those of you that attended enjoyed it as much as I did. As some of you will have heard by now, our show ended on a high point this year, or maybe I should say a low point, or even a blunt point. Confused, I am. Anyway, a young lady with a very unique talent appeared at the show on Sunday afternoon and proceeded to amaze all in attendance with a display of her abilities. Yes boys and girls, She is Australia’s only female Sword Swallower.

Pretty impressive show. And yes, we did check out the Sword. Very blunt with a nice round point, but definitely not a trick blade. All is not lost however, for those of you that missed the show, as we have booked her to do two demos at next years show. Tables will book out early now, even I might get it done on time.

We are going to post this on the fliers for next years show, along with any other demonstrations or displays we can organise. If any of you have any ideas or suggestions on this, please speak up. However, please be mindful of the limitations our venue imposes. One thing that did appear to be popular at the show was the Knife making videos that ran all weekend. Judging by the number of people that sat and watched these, and the number of questions people asked, there is a lot of interest in our craft and we need to do all we can to foster this.

The high point of the show for me though, was a bit more low key, but it reinforced in my mind what being a member of the Guild is all about, and it made me proud to be a member. We had a young guy exhibiting for the first time, and to say he was a bit nervous would be an understatement. Anyway, to make a long story short, two of our more experienced members sat with his guy for quite a while, giving him advice and encouragement until his head was spinning. After speaking with him, I am pretty sure he went home happy and inspired boy, and hopefully one with a good view of the Guild. Now I know these guys will shrug this off as just part of the deal, but sadly this is not always the case. So thanks guys.

While I’m in thankyou mode, here are a few more important ones.

Adam and Terry, for all their work in making the show run smoothly.

Sandy, for her work over the last year, and for taking on both the Treasurers and Secretaries position for another term.
 

And last but not least, Michael, for all his work in getting the Newsletter done with a minimum of help from the rest of us. And for not choking me for ALWAYS being late with this column.

Not much else to add this time except my congratulations to all our award winners, and my thanks to all of the members who supported our show.

All done, Doug