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Saturday April 21
Mark ventured to Perth and while there managed to catch up with Vanessa from Steel Blue Boots, who was modelling purple boots, on the lovely Scarborough Beach.
The containers have been loaded and are now officially on their way to the UK. To mark the occasion we have managed to arrange some realistic English weather!
Want to see how they get the containers onto the semi?
Click on the play button in the video controller on the left to see a short clip of the loading process.
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Here are some shots of the random bluestone that's ready to send off to Chelsea.
We've had the random guru's on board and they've done a fabulous job! - Tim
"The random bluestone came from Bam Stone in really large slabs which had to be broken up by hitting in with a hammer. Finer touches to the pieces are then done with a 9” grinder. It’s a really dusty job! It’s good to do if you are patient and can be artistic with it and there are a few different styles of cutting. You have to walk away from it every couple of hours to clear you head. It is one of Kiama’s trademarks – really tight perp’s with artistic shaping." - Percy
"The random bluestone work was fun and an interesting way to give the guys not going to London some involvement in the project. It was a dusty but good job and one that I would love to do again. It was artistic and it was great to a part of something so big!" - Scott Townley
"Random bluestone looks great and will a great aspect to our design for Chelsea. It took about 1½ days to complete the three sections. Having great bluestone to work with made the job easier. It was good fun to start the ball rolling for the garden in Chelsea and has made me even more keen to get over there and stuck into it.” - Timmy
These are a hand full of images of work in progress of the roof, wall, posts and pergola for our Chelsea garden. I know the images are probably not that exciting to the average Joe, but for me, they are great and represent a fabulous stage in the development of the garden.
The idea of building the carcass before loading into containers was Dean and David's. We are about half way there now and by the end of the weekend will have the roof and pergola on as well as the ceiling lined and iron roof in place. Dean and David are the keys to this element of the garden and their expertise has proved invaluable to date, not only are they volunteering their time, tools and experience, but have provided a huge unoccupied factory space for the temporary erection.
John Pontifex's and his cad guru Catran have designed the structures for optimal weight and transport efficiency and his guys on the welders have done an amazing job of putting together the structures.
I was enlisted by Mark Browning to fabricate the ‘Chelsea Coffee Table’ and have been designing and manufacturing furniture for 15 years. I’m currently working for a Perth based company that designs and manufactures corporate Furniture.
10 years ago whilst on contract for a Melbourne Boutique Home Builder, Mark and I meet and discovered a mutual appreciation for Beer, Red Wine, The Leyland Brothers, Bushwalking and Nick Cave. I have since expanded my music selection outside of Nick Cave whilst Mark continues to expand his Nick Cave selection outside of music to include movies, lyrics and novels.
The ‘Chelsea Coffee Table’ is fabricated from Stainless Steel, Bluestone and Corian which is ideal for sculpturing seamless hard-edged geometric shapes. I know Mark’s objective with the garden at Chelsea is to tempt the English public out from their cosy homes into a wondrous outdoor space. I believe the strong geometric angles and shapes of Mark’s table will provide the garden a sanctuary type environment befitting that vision. Or to put in another way: The Table will add compliment to the overall exhibition by thrusting its pointed head towards the hairy fronds of the pandas and splitting the lips of the onlooker as they stand a gasp with wonder.
Magic Fingers Mark has an uncanny appreciation for mixing hard and soft objects – like the time he leaped onto a deflated bouncing castle, which visually looked soft but upon closing inspection with his flying outstretched body flung onto the concrete surface below was found to be quite hard.
For Lump Sculpture Studio the hard work is all happening now, so that the finished sculpture pieces can be carefully packed into shipping containers for the journey to London.
Chris is putting the finishing touches to the feature pendant light, while Timo completes the light boxes.
The entire Chelsea team had their first gathering.
It was a chance for everyone to swap notes and explain what their role would be.
As the designer, Mark talked about the design and how much he has enjoyed the experience so far.
Jack explained how privileged he feels to be selected to represent Fleming's at the worlds most prestigious horticultural event
Daniel and the entire Kiama crew felt that the experience of going to Chelsea was an experience that very few Australian tradespeople will ever have the opportunity to be involved in.
Wes explained that our participation at Chelsea is one if the few positive horticultural stories that make it to main stream media. Excited by the prospect of some media attention some of the team practiced their best smiles. Some with slightly more success than others!
I really liked the way the English keep their directions simple – we asked the guy at the car hire place where was the nearest pub for lunch and his reply was “well Governor you turn left, right, left, left, right, left and right”, and amazingly enough his directions were spot on and we landed right at the front door of the pub! The dinner with London designer Andy Sturgeon was a highlight and it was great to see that the camaraderie within the Horticulture/Landscaping industry is just a strong in the UK as it is here in Melbourne."
Tim.
Mark and Tim standing on our site
Are they really holding hands skipping??
Wes, Phyllis (RHS) and Mark at the RHS office
Wes providing scale for some of the plants (no they're not dead it's winter in London)
Mark is so tired from all of the late nights working that he even falls asleep standing up!!
What can I say, London in January has met all my expectations: hovering around 3 degrees, persistent cloud and entertaining cabbies. We’ve been here for a couple of days and all our meetings to date have met with success. The RHS meeting with Alex, Caroline, and Emma was a highlight; it really is apparent to me how much we fit into the Chelsea picture. The effort Wes has made in relationship building has resulted in utter respect from the powers that be and I feel very much in debt for those efforts. Trailfinders, Tourism Australia, and Tourism Victoria have reflected the sentiment. On a lighter note, Tim, Wes and I teamed up last night and showed those Brits a thing or two about Australian trivia knowledge; just another example at how we can beat them at their own game although we finished third from the bottom!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loving the experience,
Mark
This is now the fourth journey that has been undertaken by Australians at the Chelsea Show and each time it seems to get more amazing!
One of the most unbelievable things that has hit me this trip is that Mark is sensational at trivia!! He knew which city the Pied Piper rid of rats… Hamelin. Tim is great at writing and cheesy disco hits!!! The Female Eunuch was the first novel Germaine Greer wrote! WOW how the hell did we know that?
It is becoming more obvious every year just how the Australian team has become an integral part of the Chelsea Show, our dynamics are appreciated and the fact that we seem to ‘push the envelope’ is valued by the organisers.
Chelsea 2007 will be massive for our industry; the ‘branding’ of the Horticulture industry will be of benefit to our urban environment on many levels.
We arrived on 21st Sunday approx 12.30.Being my first trip to the UK and building an exhibit at Chelsea on the world stage I couldn’t wait to see the site. We got down to have a look about 4.00pm. I don’t think my feet have touched the ground since. The support from our meetings here has been overwhelming everyone can’t wait for the Australian garden this year and what we are going to do. May can’t come quick enough.
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