World Masters Finale!

What a great week we had!  Our show was such a success in so many ways.  We had such a fun and fantastic time meeting and talking with so many wonderful people.  For the last few days, they relocated the medal ceremonies over to our area so we were fortunate to share the experience as well.  We were even singing along with the many national anthems being played each time a gold medal was awarded.  It was very uplifting and such an emotional experience.

We kept a list of the many different countries of the athletes that made purchases from us . . .

Austria, Australia, Barbados, Bulgaria, Canada (5 provinces), China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine,
U.S. (7 states)

I feel like one of my favorite TV characters (Quark from Deep Space Nine ) where a little piece of me is being distributed around the globe -- but I didn't have to die first. lol !

5th Day at the World Masters

We had another exhausting yet fun day at the World Masters today.  This is Dave with Vybostok Vladimir from Slovakia holding the gold medal he won in the 60 meter dash.

This is me with Paul Reinhold from Germany.  He won the gold medal in the Javalin throw and it was his second world masters title.  He had just purchased something special for his wife, Angelica.

We are totally exhausted and plan to crash a little earlier this evening but I first have to make up a few things for some special orders to be picked up tomorrow.  This has been such an exciting event to sell at with so many wonderful people we have met and enjoyed visiting with.

4th Day at the World Masters

Wow!  What another great day!  It was really exciting talking to more of the athletes today.  I asked one gentleman who was shopping for a gift to take home to his wife if he knew what type of jewelry she wears.  He told me they have been married for over 60 years and he knew exactly what she likes.  I thought that was so sweet and he looked quite young and energetic to be married that long!  He then told me he won several medals yesterday and one was his first gold.  He was quite excited and I think I was just as excited for him!

Dave and I took a couple of breaks to sneak away and watch some of the events.  We were both impressed by the excellent facilities at the University and how everything is so organized.  With so many people and different languages, it is amazing how everything seems to be running so smoothly (from our point of view, anyhow).

Today we sold to someone from Barbados -- he bought some of our handcrafted beads to take home to his sister who makes jewelry.  We also sold to someone from Finland and Germany both shopping for gifts for their wives and daughters.  We really do seem to be working our way through the alphabet!   I wonder who will be coming by tomorrow?!   We can hardly wait!

Day 3 at the World Masters

We had another long but enjoyable day today at the World Masters.  This is a photo from a "bird's eye view" of our booths.  We are set up in one of the Kamloops University gymnasiums where all the athletes come to register for each event and return to see their results so we see many of them several times throughout the week and is nice to hear how they did.  Many of the athletes use to compete in the Olympics and now continue on competing in the World Masters.  I met a lady close to my age with her 86 year old mother from Germany who told me they were both competing in several events.

With so many languages, there are official translators who volunteer for this event.  There are more than 20 of them that travel around to all the Masters Indoor and Outdoor Championships to volunteer in this capacity.

I spoke with a University student from Japan who is volunteering as a translator.  She was interested in the clay jewelry and how it was made.  She was really surprised to see the Japanese writing I showed her on the blocks of Kato clay we had on display and said she had never seen anything like it before.

We really got to know some Austrians and Australians today and we will work our way through the alphabet throughout the week!

Our Local Artist Friends

We are back from another long but fun day at the World Masters.  There were a lot of new athletes arriving all day and spoke to many new people from all over the world.  There was plenty of activity and  a TV was even set up so we could all take in the Olympic Hockey game to watch Canada win.

Our booth is together with a local art gallery and 2 other artists from our area that we car pool with each day.

This is our good friend Rosemarie Foster weaving some pine needle baskets and her beautiful paintings and other artworks.  You can see more of her artwork on her website here.

Our other friend is Judy MacKenzie who is another very talented painter.  She mainly paints scenes of Chase, Kamloops and surrounding areas which you can see displayed in her booth.  I love the wooden boxes that her husband makes and the scenes Judy paints on them.  She has a website as well and you can find it here.

After speaking with some of the athletes, we found out that many compete year round, all over the world, in both indoor and outdoor competitions.

The opening ceremonies was today and the competition begins tomorrow so we hope to take in as many events as we can.

First day at the World Masters Indoor Championships 2010

We had our first day at the World Masters Indoor Championships today.  It wasn't too busy yet as only some of the expected 1600 athletes arrived and the remainder will be arriving tomorrow.

I thought it was so cool to see all the flags on the wall at the registration table with 62 countries represented.  The U.S. and Canadian spots were there as well -- I just couldn't fit them all into the photograph.

Here is our booth set-up.  Everything seemed to fit just nicely with some extra space for more designs.  I even have a nice little work station in the back corner.

We are extremely exhausted and have another early morning tomorrow so will show you more photos later.

Gone Fishing

I finally finished a bunch more Marigold flower lapel pins to sell at the World Masters Indoor Championships.   The city of Kamloops is surrounded with lakes and rivers that are great for boating and fishing.  The most popular and famous fish is the Kamloops Trout.  It is revered around the world by anglers as a great sporting fish.  It is know for its beautiful color as well as its "fighting" nature making them very challenging to catch.  Apparently it can jump more than three times its length straight into the air, sprint as fast as a racehorse and empty a fishing reel of line in seconds.

We made some Kamloops Trout lapel pins to go along with the Marigolds.  I came up with three different styles and we couldn't decide which one we preferred the most and so went with some of each.

Each fish is individually hand sculpted which took a little bit of time at first but once I got a few under my belt I found it a little easier.

My good friend, Joan Tayler, is my mentor in clay.  She is the person that first introduced me to it and  she makes fantastic little animals of all kinds.  I've watched her during her creating process and she makes it look so easy.  Sculpting things doesn't come to me as easily and I find it a bit of a challenge.  Sometimes I surprise myself that the project I'm working on actually turns out somewhat recognizable!

Now I need to finish up the new jewelry pieces I've been working on -- I will hopefully have photos of some to show you by tomorrow.

Seeing marigolds

I've been working on some new stuff for the coming show at the World Masters Indoor Championships.  The official flower for the city of Kamloops is the Marigold and so I decided to make some lapel pins for the occasion.  I never thought of making these flowers before but I'm glad I have the opportunity as I love their deep rich colors.

I made these by first creating a cane and then sculpting out the petal shapes after slicing.