SLOVAKIA AND LUBOŠ

This past weekend I was a guest of the Slovak bonsai association at their annual national exhibition. The exhibition was organized by local club Trnava in the city of Hlohovec (Hawthorn city). Trees were put on exhibition in an old monastery. I was honored to work with members of SBA, together we styled a few nice trees which now have a bright future. As usually Gašper helped me a lot. He extremely improved his skills in a year and a half since he is apprentice in TORA school.  

Ta konec tedna sem bil gost Slovaške bonsajske zveze na njihovi letni nacionalni razstavi. Razstavo je v Hlohovcu (da, mesto ima ime po glogu), v starem samostanu, organiziral klub iz Trnave. Bilo mi je v veselje in čast delati s člani njihove zveze, skupaj smo oblikovali nekaj lepih dreves, ki jih čaka lepa prihodnost. Kot običajno mi je bil v veliko pomoč Gašper, ki je v zadnjem dobrem letu in pol v šoli TORA izjemno napredoval.

Hlohovec is a historical Slovak town

Bohunice Nuclear Power plant in the distance 

The inner courtyard of Franciscan Monastery. Here all workshops were held

One of the exhibiting rooms was in the basement of the Monastery

I was especially impressed by the atmosphere at the exhibition - relaxed, without competitive approach 'who is the best, who is right' ... Just enjoying the work on trees or simply by watching them. By this approach also results will come: there is still enough place for improvement, as usually especially with better material. Bottom line: Juraj Szabo, as president of the SBA and organizers from local club did a great job and I am glad that I was your guest. Thank you guys!

Posebej se me je dotaknilo ozračje na razstavi - sproščeno, brez nenehnega dokazovanja, kdo je boljši, kdo ima prav, zgolj uživanje ob delu z drevesi ali samo ob opazovanju. Ob takšnem pristopu bodo prišli tudi rezultati; prostora za napredovanje je še veliko, tako kot običajno predvsem pri izboru materijala. A pod črto: Juraj Szabo, kot predsednik SBA in organizatorji iz lokalnega kluba so opravili odlično delo in vesel sem, da sem bil lahko vaš gost. Hvala za vse!

Trees on exhibition

The best tree on the exhibition by my opinion. Larix, by Milan Roskoš

Fagus crenata

There was also nice suiseki exhibition

New talent contest also take place at the event. Here are the candidates before contest, Juraj Szabo, president of SBA giving them some instructions

Talents (some of them) in action

Also at workshop we had a pleasure to work on one of the materials from NTC. Karol Klema wired this Pinus mugo (Photo courtesy: Karol Klema)

And the result. Not bad for first styling on ordinary nursery plant

 Gašper did a great job with helping me at workshop

This Oleander was a styling challenge...

And the result. Good job by Rasto Moravčik

Rasto inspecting the results of his work

This mugo pine was the best material on the workshop

After exhibition our journey was not over - from Hlohovec we headed to north of Czech republic, to Dvor Kralovy, home of Luboš Škoda, great bonsai-potter. Last autumn we started to discuss about production of special pot for my half-cascade juniper. Even though I prefer to pot my trees into the classical pots, I get the feeling that the juniper will shine in Luna-shape pot. So we exchanged some views, measurement and the plan was set. But the work took more time as planned. Complex manufacturing process, many layers of clay, drying and final firing at a high temperature took all winter, but the product is exactly as I imagined it!

Po koncu razstave se je potovanje za nas šele začelo - iz Hlohovca smo se odpravili na sever Češke, v Dvor Kralovy, k priznanemu izdelovalcu bonsajskih posod - Lubošu Škodi. Že lani jeseni sva se začela dogovarjati o izdelavi posebne posode za moj polkaskadni brin. Čeprav načeloma drevesa sadim v bolj ali manj klasične posode, pa se mi zdi, da bo to drevo zaživelo šele v lunasti posodi. Nekaj izmenjav mnenj, meritev in načrt je bil pripravljen. Le delo je zahtevalo več časa, kot sva sprva načrtovala. Zapleten postopek izdelave iz mnogih plasti gline, sušenja in končno peke pri visoki temperaturi, je vzel vso zimo, ampak izdelek je točno tak, kot sem si ga zamislil!

Juniper is now growing in this pot

One of the ideas we discussed with Luboš

This was the final idea, Luna-shaped ceramic pot

At the end of January Luboš send me the fisrt photos of finished pot, still drying. We agreed to go with firing!

When we arrived, Luboš take me to the workshop almost immediately and expected my reaction with interest. The pot was even better than I expect and it will complement the tree perfectly! I can't wait to re-pot the juniper next spring!

Ob prihodu me je Luboš takoj povabil v svojo delavnico in z zanimanjem pričakoval mojo reakcijo - posoda je boljša, kot sem pričakoval in bo perfektno dopolnjevala drevo! Komaj čakam, da brin naslednjo pomlad presadim vanjo! 

Dvor Kralovy, main square

Luboš showing me on of his amazing pots. I can imagine one of my Prunus mahaleb in it, oh yea!

Gašper and Luboš in Luboš's workshop

Here it is: perfect pot for my juniper!

Luboš show us some more of his amazing pots, as he said: "One can succeed only with high quality and different style." And he succeeds in both: his pots are really quality and something special for sure. Luboš, thanks again!

Luboš nam je z veseljem pokazal še nekaj svojih izjemnih izdelkov; kot je povedal sam: "Prepričaš lahko le z visoko kakovostjo in svojim slogom." In oboje je Lubošu uspelo - njegove posode so visoko kvalitetne in gotovo nekaj posebnega. Luboš, še enkrat hvala za trud!