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Our Monday was a reward for the crowded and tiring two days before. The complex was closed for visitors and we had everything at our disposal.

I want to thank here our hosts, who made us feel at home there and who were so helpful and kind. Thank you , friends!!! We already dream about our next gathering there!


I love to dip again in the calmness of the place early in the morning




Someone is there already, enjoying the silence



Fresh and fit, Mihai and Matte started the day with a brain-storm


After quick breakfast we occupied the whole restaurant and prepared for working


Tha-dhaaam! Ken's bow - box arrives on wheels


And he started his workshop - Bamboo Backing an Ipe Bow. He brought the prepared boo and ipe stave and now he showed us how he reaches the reflex form.


Preparing the supports on the benches






Testing the reflex amount



Checking the stave and the bamboo





Explaining how to tapper the stave and the bamboo




Cleaning the bamboo again to avoid any fat and dirt





And it is ready to smear with glue - Titebond 3






Then it has to be wrapped carefully





Put it carefully on the supports



And fixed in reflex on the bench




Then he decides that he may change the form some, using small additional wooden blocks to lead the curve as he likes it


Fixing the mummy again


Carefully, not to damage the surface


And measuring the distance to make the shape equal at both limbs


Then clamping


And voila!


Well, let's check one more time


Ready! Good job, Ken!!!! And thank you again!



Well. let's start scraping at least!


Juri






Paolo (who is Brazilian) came with his wonderful son Ricardo. The flight company lost his bow case and after few days they finally returned it to his home in Finland, but they upset us and deprived us to see them. Well, Paolo was not discouraged and started working on the next bow immediately, cheerfully as you can see.





Andrei and Andrea :)







And Mihai - always ready to play




Matte








Everybody hard working :)




Using the sunbeams to see better the chased ring





Where are the bowyers?





Here! Charging the batteries ...


And then back to the fun!

Ken and Jon brought gifts to us, sent from our Pasadena friends! Wow, this was such a nice surprise! Thank you so much, dear friends!!!!

Ken put the names of the participants in his hat and let me pull them, so we felt like on was Christmas



Some feathers for Andrei


A fancy arrow and feathers for Marian



Something for Jorik (?? forgot what is was )


A book for Mark



Something for Paolo (forgive my bad memory , pls)


Some turkey feathers for Matte



And something for Juri




It was no easy to clean the shavings ...



Here few photos of the presented bows, just to add. This is John Scordo's bow, amazing craftsmanship!







Jon and his ipe (?) - boo baked bow - beautifully colored!



The sun sinked sooner then we wanted... Paolo prepared AMAZING dinner for us (maybe the best meal in the week!) look at Jorik's thread, unfortunately I have no pictures, but it was DELICIOUS!!!

We thought we have to organize more days like this, if possible, for the next year. It was really a first class day in the bowyer's heaven!

Iliana

(edited few days later to add more photos, which I fortunately found in a folder they shouldn't be )

Rick, it will be even better next year! We'll start the preparations earlier this time, so we could benefit the lower air ticket prices in the winter. It is easier now, when we went this path already.

We spoke with the guys about the next gathering and maybe it is a good idea to have the date fixed - around the Summer Solstice 2009. The place is the same! If more people come we could have the whole place with the houses only for us. And I dream about it, as you can imagine

It would be great to welcome you and Thimo here!!!!

Iliana


(edited spelling - Solstice - sorry for the misunderstanding :) )

Sorry Mark, I didn't see your question till now .

Yes, maybe we can make it again around 21 June 2009? Of course it is too early to determine a date, we will have plenty of time till then .

But it feels good to have a spot in the distance to aim at .

Iliana

Wednesday we drove to Varna and visited the Archaeological museum there. The director of the museum showed us the unique finds, dated 5000 years BC, in a tomb found near Varna. They suppose these golden rings were put on the bow of the noble man, who was buried there.
Can you imagine, this was about 1000 years before the earliest Egypt communities!!! They still didn't make enough research to tell what civilization it was.

The picture is from the web site of the museum.




Unfortunately they have no idea how the bow looked, they found only wood traces there.

Ken took a lot pictures of the primitive artifacts they showed us, maybe he will post more later.

After that our big group went to the beach and we spend the afternoon lazy under the sun. Jorik took more pics


At the other morning Kati - Juri's wife, Philip - Kosio's son, Paolo and I drove to Varna for horse riding. Kati was eager to ride, she loves horses so much and I'm sorry that we couldn't go there more then once (Kati, next year we will make it much better for you! )

Philip rode first. He is confident with the horse and sits very stable on his back. The coach recognized the good background he has






Then was Kati's turn and she did it great! She coped so well the coach let her ride trot. She looks so beautiful, isn't she?










We four had great time in the town, shopping some, then we had lunch and some tired from the heat we arrived back in the early afternoon. And I started scraping my yew bow with Ken's and Jon's help. Our Bulgarian friends George and Juli, who arrived in Varna sailing on their boat, came to visit us.

We all went shooting when the sun showed mercy in the afternoon

Kati shot the bow Juri finished for her the same day.




Then we went to the nearby hill roving and had great time marking the targets, trying to hit, loosing arrows, finding some of them and even hitting some of the goals. At least some of us were really very good - Jon and Ken and Juri and Mark were the heroes!!!








Greeting to our PP friends!!!









Do you see the pond behind? Imagine an young archaeologist after many many years, who will find Ken's cane arrow with the judo point there... what conclusion will he make about the habits of his ancestors ... Another option may be that we will find it next year

Here is Ken, looking for the arrow in the dusk, with his camera always ready to catch something beautiful




The sun sank over the place again....




Thursday evening was the last one with our friends Mark and Marjan... They had to leave at the next day - Friday and we were some upset...
I enjoyed your company soooooooo much, dear friends!!!! I take very serious your promises to welcome you here next year too


This makes me think - for the next time, we have to try and use our time there better, I mean we can enlarge our stay, having both weekends, it seemed to me (and not only to me, Juri said it already) that 5 days together are tooooooo short time for everything we wanted to do! If we arrive Friday evening and then depart Monday morning - wow, we could have 9 days there!!

Jorik did pretty well and put his ipe bow on the tillering tree early Frideay. He needed just some fine tuning and then he shot it in the evening. Can't wait to see the final touches, Yorik!




I want to thank here Kosio for the great work he did to build this tillering tree, following Ken's tutorial. It looks fantastic in this blue color! It served us very well and I hope this tillering tree will be worn out at our next gatherings


Maybe you will not recognize them, but I know - these are Eva and Philip, who were having fun too




Ken was progressing on his stave, I hope very much the wood will be good enough for his standards !





And this is the very promising floor tiller shape of the boo-ipe bow, which unfortunately broke later. The possible reason was a small damaged area on the back.




We had too much fun shooting on the glade in the previous days and when it got some colder we run there and continued playing like kids




Juri is not only one of the finest bowyers, but he shoots very accurately as well. His distance shots were amazing!




Jorik with his new ipe bow




Kathy, trying sort of out of position shooting




Matte testing the bow efficiency by extremes




Both Finish archers showed amazing synchrony, just the photographer couldn't catch it




And a wonderful stance of an archer, who I admire




Too short day again....




Friday evening in the restaurant was crowded and a test for our patience, waiting the dinner....




... but a good opportunity for me to play with the camera some Juri and Kati joined




Our Bulgarian friends George and Juli. Please don't think I did some mistake editing the colors here - they sailed several days in the open sea before joining us at the place.




Matte and Stefan

Then at the ariport again.... oh how I wish we were in the Arrivals waiting room ..... , rather then departure...






But you all will come again, dear friends, don't you??? We are dreaming already and picturing our next meeting here

Iliana